GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) version 3.0 is finally out now

Great news for all game texture modders out there.

GIMP 3.0 is finally out! With many great improvements, including non-destructive editing.

And all I've read online is:

* They should change the name already! (which is a fair point)
* Can you draw circles yet? (it's coming; it's slated for 3.2 and is likely the next big thing - they just need to get vectors working)
* The interface sucks and the developers refuse to admit it! (they're working on improving the UI now that the 3.0 release is finally out of the way)
* Why not just use Krita?
* Can I copy and paste things without dealing with a floating selection yet? GIMP is so dumb! (yes, floating selections are gone now)
* Great, now port it to GTK4. That'll probably be another 12 years, lol! (the GTK 3 port involved getting rid of all the custom GTK2 extensions, planning for a GTK4 port, and not relying on GTK3 features removed in GTK4, so this will be a lot easier)
* Wow, all that time just to port it to GTK3. And they originally created the toolkit, how ironic, haha! (read the changelog; it contains so much more than just that. For a start, it also involved migrating from Python 2 to Python 3! There were a huge number of feature changes too.)
* So I wonder if anything is happening with that 1 million dollars worth of donations in BTC. (fair point)

People really hate GIMP! I don't think I've ever seen this many people so desperate to tear apart a free software program's newest release that wasn't about a license change. And GIMP's still as free as it ever was.

Many of the people developing GIMP today aren't even the same people who were around 20 years ago! Jehan, the current maintainer, started contributing in 2013, if I remember rightly. The original developers abandoned it long ago, and now work on CockroachDB, an offering that was originally free software but was rug-pulled and became anti-commercial.

I think the contributors today have done a great job improving GIMP. It's a lot more usable now. And it really looks like a thankless job at times.

So, thank you, Jehan, Alx Sa, and everyone else working on GIMP. It's nice to be able to use it to get my simple image manipulation tasks done on Linux. Hope the Wilbur Foundation is up and running soon.

I never got the hate, gimp is awesome!

I think the contributors today have done a great job improving GIMP. It's a lot more usable now. And it really looks like a thankless job at times.

So, thank you, Jehan, Alx Sa, and everyone else working on GIMP. It's nice to be able to use it to get my simple image manipulation tasks done on Linux. Hope the Wilbur Foundation is up and running soon.

Well said :)

Updated graphical toolkit (GTK3) for modern desktop usage.

Shame. It was a great app.

Guess I should look for qt-based alternatives.

Big congrats to the dev team! I barely know how to use MS Paint-level programs, so GIMP is way beyond me, but I hope it proves useful to those who need it. :)

I only do occasional image editing and don't hate Gimp, but I have to admit that some smaller projects or even web-based editors have become much quicker and easier alternatives for basic functions. If I want to remove the background from an image, an AI-powered app on my phone can literally do it in seconds while Gimp, last I checked, required several complicated steps.

Maybe it's still great for serious, advanced users, but for a filthy casual like me, I find myself using it less and less.

I love GIMP -- every version they've released. I even installed the Windows version on my PC at work.

When Mint stopped installing it by default, I added it to my list of apps that need to be manually installed (and removed/ignored Mint's substitute).

I don't get the dislike either. GIMP is a very powerful tool and it's open source!

@melkemind

I admit that the online tools are convenient and cool, but I just can't bring myself to trust an outside source with my IP. Would love to see the GIMP devs make some of those basic functions just as easy and convenient!

Well, for simple stuff there are a bunch of little graphical programs on Linux, aren't there? GIMP is the big serious thing, if you just want to fiddle with a photo there's stuff like Cheese and so on.

It's good to see GIMP continue to move forward. Even on Windows I suspect there must be a lot of people really wanting to get out from under Adobe's horrible annoying subscription model thing for Photoshop and, well, all their other stuff. If only there was an open source Linux program to do what Acrobat does . . .


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 18 Mar 2025 at 5:01 pm UTC

* They should change the name already! (which is a fair point)

I did find the Glimpse name (used by a now-defunct fork) a quite pleasing nod to the original name and it is visuals-related term with moderate searchability.

Before I moved to Linux I used to use Paint.net, adapting to GIMP took a while. Eventually I feel more comfortable with GIMP nowadays and even taught my dad how to use it.

I don't understand why some people don't like it. There aren't that many great open source image tools that can match it. Most probably there are more desktop environments than image tools.


Last edited by Avehicle7887 on 18 Mar 2025 at 9:20 pm UTC

Honestly I don't care about GTK4, it's an ugly API and it breaks a lot of menu/taskbar related stuff that GTK3 gets right, and GTK3 is fully compatible with Wayland so GTK4 is really for the GNOME fans.

GIMP-3.0 is an awesome milestone, now hopefully the race to 3.2 can happen quickly. The new shape tools are desperately needed. It's the number 1 gripe I have with using GIMP as a drawing/art tool. There really isn't a great tool for this in Open Source currently. GIMP-3.2 could be the turning point for GIMP as an art tool. The new plugin system will hopefully be adopted quickly and GIMP can be much more powerful with a full plugin set than it has been for the last 10 years due to dependence on Python 2 vs 3.


Last edited by DMJC on 19 Mar 2025 at 6:01 am UTC

Could never really get on with it for even some basic work, most the time I used Pinta because it was most like paint.net (Was a windows user) and also used Krita for some slightly more difficult stuff but I will try the new version of Gimp as like any new version, it is always worth checking out again.

I wonder if I can finally just crop down an image with one move like a normal person in the 21st century or if I still need to read an entire guide on how to do anything simple and still be confused.

Upon closer look, it seems it's still just as convoluted. - Oh well...

I wonder if I can finally just crop down an image with one move like a normal person in the 21st century or if I still need to read an entire guide on how to do anything simple and still be confused.

Upon closer look, it seems it's still just as convoluted. - Oh well...

Use the crop tool (C), select a region, hit Enter.

What's complicated?