
GIMP 2.9.6 Released - alxmdev
https://www.gimp.org/news/2017/08/24/gimp-2-9-6-released/
======
pmoriarty
If you're a developer and want to help out, there's a list of GIMP bugs for
newcomers here: [1]

More info on how to participate (including not only development of GIMP itself
but also filing bug reports or creating web content): [2]

[1] -
[https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRME...](https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&keywords=newcomers&product=GIMP)

[2] - [https://www.gimp.org/develop/](https://www.gimp.org/develop/)

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odelomez
The maintainer and lead developer of GIMPs, Øyvind Kolås, is on Patreon :
[https://www.patreon.com/pippin](https://www.patreon.com/pippin)

If you use GIMP, even a little, don't hesitate to make a donation :)

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eponeponepon
I've been very impressed with Gimp lately - there was a time that it was
clunky and crashy, Windows builds were difficult to find, and usually out of
date, and I often felt like I was only persevering with it on principle. In
recent years though, it's been wholly solid. Was there a change in project
leadership, or something - maybe just a new development workflow? I've known
plenty of seemingly-moribund projects spring to life just from someone
spending a few days knocking up better build scripts...

~~~
prathiks
I have always advocated for Gimp but people esp designers want to stick to
photoshop. Hope they understand the power of this open source

~~~
disconnected
Can GIMP load psd files correctly? I seem to remember that there was some
trouble loading psd files, but I don't remember exactly what.

Edit to add: I ask because if GIMP cannot handle the de facto standard image
file type without too much fiddling, people won't touch it. It is the same
problem LibreOffice has, actually.

~~~
kazinator
Never heard of PSD until your comment. Not so standard.

Wikipedia: "A .PSD file is a layered image file used in Adobe PhotoShop."

Oh, that's what you mean by "standard".

Not "standard" as in, I can put onto a server, point a web page's IMG at it,
and be confident it displays on everyone's browser.

Or "standard" as in, documented in some RFC or other standard document.

How well does Photoshop open the "standard" GIMP .xcf files?

~~~
yborg
Anybody in graphics design for more than 5 minutes any time in the last 25
years knows what a PSD file is. Because you are not familiar with a (defacto)
industry standard doesn't make it non-standard.

The Adobe PSD file format is documented in painful detail here
[https://www.adobe.com/devnet-
apps/photoshop/fileformatashtml...](https://www.adobe.com/devnet-
apps/photoshop/fileformatashtml/)

The format is binary and extremely convoluted, in part because it attempts to
maintain compatibility with 20 years of versions of Photoshop. Because of this
complexity, I am unaware of any program that can read or write a PSD file that
supports all features of Photoshop. I am in fact aware of no non-Adobe program
that will read and write a Photoshop file with editable text layers (including
Gimp).

~~~
kazinator
> _Anybody in graphics design for more than 5 minutes any time in the last 25
> years knows what a PSD file is. Because you are not familiar with a
> (defacto) industry standard doesn 't make it non-standard._

True. I haven't used any program for image editing other than GIMP since 1996
(which I first installed on a GNU/Linux system running on a Sun Sparcstation
20!)

> _I am in fact aware of no non-Adobe program that will read and write a
> Photoshop file with editable text layers (including Gimp)._

That's just a consequence of being so incredibly standard.

~~~
na85
PSD is an industry standard.

~~~
kazinator
Sure; if you can say "industry" in reference to a bunch of people whose
employability is hinged to a single PC/Mac application.

~~~
krapp
Not merely a single application, the entire network of Adobe applications, and
the interoperability between them, which doesn't just mean still images, but
audio and visual effects in commercials, film, video games, physical print,
professional photography. Almost any visual media outside of the browser at
some point interacts with Adobe and PSD files.

And someone whose employability is probably tied to a specific OS, toolchain
or software stack really shouldn't throw stones.

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kozhevnikov
Still no official macOS 2.9 build

[https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/v2.9/](https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/v2.9/)

~~~
Kjeldahl
So I'll just add this:

[https://artplusmarketing.com/gimp-and-inkscape-on-retina-
mac...](https://artplusmarketing.com/gimp-and-inkscape-on-retina-macs-do-not-
work-9601c3052e86)

Long story short; if you're on retina screens (which most Macs have) there are
bigger issues than just missing macOS builds.

It's really not usable on Macs at all.

~~~
izzard
Probably sounds silly, but I absolutely love Gimp and Inkscape, and use them
both everyday. Their poor support on Mac was one of the reason I switched back
to Windows.

It's odd, because I've read all the arguments about how OSX is a unix, etc.,
but in the real world I've found better success running user facing open
source application on Windows.

~~~
Kjeldahl
It's true for anything with a GUI using GTK or similar. For cmdline, macOS is
generally a lot better. WSL is getting really good as well, so cmdline on
Windows (well, it's actually Linux, but running on Windows) is getting really
good. Other open source things (like Emacs) has macOS and Windows native GUI
support built in and mostly works great on all platforms.

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120photo
I curious as to who is using GIMP for serious work. I have tried it numerous
time in the past but always end up going back to PS. As of late I been making
a switch to Affinity Photo but have always been pulling for GIMP.

~~~
michrassena
This is the first I've heard of Affinity Photo. The feature list looks very
complete, for what I use on a regular basis. Are you a long-time Photoshop
user? How does it compare?

~~~
fractallyte
Affinity Photo is excellent. It's a way yet from parity with Photoshop, but is
certainly competitive. And it's subscription free!

If you're into vector illustration, Affinity Designer is a straight
replacement for Adobe Illustrator.

Also consider awesome software such as Studio Artist
([https://synthetik.com/](https://synthetik.com/)), and Escape Motions
offerings ([https://www.escapemotions.com/](https://www.escapemotions.com/)).

Any conscientious artist should evaluate and consider these alternatives, if
only to break up the industry's idiotic enslavement to Adobe.

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cygned
Occasionally using it on a Mac. Most of the time I force quit it, though,
because it loads fonts forever. It's not a "quickly open and edit a file" tool
for me.

~~~
pcunite
Not sure where this is stored on Mac, but on Windows, clear the _fontconfig_
directory in the AppData folder.

~~~
evilDagmar
That's not really likely to help. The main issue appears to be that since
fontconfig (a lib used by GIMP) is only "native" to Linux, for it to know
about the TTF files, it has to scan them all and build it's cache at startup.
For people with hundreds of fonts installed it can be a real PITA.

I avoid it by being careful to not exit GIMP entirely (simply closing all the
editing windows) until I am sure I won't need it again for awhile.

~~~
pcunite
It fixed the font loading forever for me on Windows.

~~~
schumaml
Yeah, you most likely got rid of an existing cache, which couldn't be updated
due to file locking. That issue is fixed in recent versions of the fontconfig
library.

A fairly current one is shipped with the 2.9.6 installer, so many of the
infamous issues should be gone.

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Vinnl
Good to know is that odd minor releases by GIMP are, like GNOME's, considered
unstable. In other words, 2.9.x could be seen as beta releases for 2.10 (which
is why things like the parallel stuff might explode in your face).

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kiddico
Ooooh! I'll have to give this a go when I get home. HiDPI changes became my
favorite kind of application update after I got a 4k screen :P

I'll have to start reading the source at some point, I'd love to see how the
code changes in canvas interaction look internally.

Keep doing what you do gimp devs! I'm ever grateful.

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jordache
GIMP doesn't support Smart Objects. This alone makes it not usable for
professional work, when compared to Photoshop. The cost of the latter is
nothing if you are getting paid for your work.

[https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/10-things-you-need-
to-...](https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/10-things-you-need-to-know-
about-smart-objects-in-photoshop--cms-20268)

~~~
fancy_pantser
Non-destructive is where GIMP is heading as a whole. The GEGL port needs to be
completed first for many of the sub-features to be reasonably implemented.

GIMP Roadmap with "smart objects" listed:
[https://wiki.gimp.org/index.php/Roadmap](https://wiki.gimp.org/index.php/Roadmap)

------
samcheng
As a casual user on a Mac, I've long since abandoned GIMP for Pixelmator +
Imagemagick.

Has GIMP improved in usability in the past few years?

~~~
dkersten
I recently installed a fresh version of GIMP (for the purpose of running the
exporter script so I can import the layers from photoshop files into the Spine
animation tool). I'm only using it as an elaborate runtime for that script,
but my impressions are that the UI is basically the same as I remember it from
15 years ago. So, while it's features may have improved, the UI does not seem
like it's improved at all.

~~~
Drdrdrq
> So, while it's features may have improved, the UI does not seem like it's
> improved at all.

That's actually a bonus point in my book. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I
like that when I start Gimp anywhere I can just start using it. I am not a
designer though.

~~~
dkersten
Many people would argue that it is broken and needs fixing ;-)

I used to love GIMP and didn't have any huge problems with it (although, at
the time, I liked the multi window layout because I was using a tiling window
manager), but then I tried photoshop and the photoshop UI was simply much
easier for me to navigate. Now I use GIMP only because its free.

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trzeci
If GIMP is pushing to multi-threading I wounder what's the motivation to stick
to C as a main language.

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gergdgdfg
wasn't able to find the download link

~~~
schumaml
... and now
[https://www.gimp.org/downloads/devel/](https://www.gimp.org/downloads/devel/)

