GIMP - GIMP 3.0 RC2 Released 🎁 (2025)

After the first round of community feedback, we’re happy to share the second release candidate for GIMP 3.0!People gave us really helpful feedback from the first release candidate and we were able to fix a lot ofbugs.

It is our little under-the-tree 🎄 present for youall!

GIMP - GIMP 3.0 RC2 Released🎁 (1)
  • Important Bug Fixes
    • 2.10 SettingsMigration
    • WindowsConsole
    • Missing GUI Font issues onmacOS
    • darktableIntegration
  • Enhancements
    • GEGL Filter API
    • Layer blend spaces and compositing inXCFs
    • Packages
      • AppImage
      • Flatpak
    • BMP Plug-inImprovements
    • AssortedUpdates
  • Overview of Changes since2.10
  • GEGL
  • ReleaseStats
  • Around GIMP
    • Download Mirrors
      • How to be an official mirror (procedureupdate)
      • Mirrorchanges
    • Sponsoring GitLabRunner
  • Downloading GIMP 3.0 RC2
  • What’sNext

There have been a number of fixes since RC1. We want to highlight the most impactfulbugs so that users are aware and can provide additional testing. For details on otherbug fixes, please check ourNEWSpage inGitLab.

2.10 Settings Migration

During community testing, we discovered that user’s 2.10 settings were not being migrated toGIMP 3.0 due to some incorrect assumptions in the import code. Since most of the developershave been using GIMP 3.0 exclusively for some time, we did not notice this issue. The bugshould now be fixed, so we ask for bug reports if any 2.10 preferences are not being importedcorrectly in RC2. Note that if you already used 3.0 RC1, you’ll need to delete those configurationsfirst, as otherwise RC2 won’t try to import the 2.10 preferences (make sure you back up your settingsofcourse!)

Windows Console

In the 2.99 development releases, the Windows versions automatically launched a console displayin addition to GIMP itself. This is very useful for Windows developers to see debug messages, butthe console was not intended to be shown during stable releases. Since we changed our build processto use Meson instead of Autotools, we learned we needed to make additional changes to stop theconsole from being displayed. This should be fixed now thanks to Jehan - if you still see the console on Windows, please file a new bugreport!

Missing GUI Font issues on macOS

There has been a long-standing issue where some macOS users only saw “missing Unicode” symbols insteadof menu text in GIMP (both in 2.10 and in 3.0). This was due to a bug in Pango,the library we use for text layouts. This was fixed with the recent Pango 1.55.0 release, so we encourageall third-party macOS packagers to update to this version as they build GIMP fordistribution.

GIMP - GIMP 3.0 RC2 Released🎁 (2)

darktable Integration

After the 3.0 RC1 release, we received reports from some users that they still could not import and exportimages between GIMP and darktable. We worked with the darktable developers to iron out the remaining bugs,so integration between darktable 5.0.0 and GIMP 3.0 RC2 should be workingfor everyone now. However, please file a new bug report if you continue to have trouble connecting thetwo!

While the main focus of 3.0 RC2’s development was bugfixes and polish, some new features were alsoimplemented.

GEGL Filter API

Many of the older API wrappers for GEGL operations were removed in RC1. While this reduced technical debt,it also caused issues for many third-party plug-in and script developers who wanted to port their plug-insto 3.0. While our initial plan was to implement the new public filter API after the 3.0 release, the feedbackfrom the community convinced us to add it in for 3.0 RC2.

Jehan‘s work allows developers to apply filter effects either immediately or as a non-destructive effect.You can see examples of how to do this in C, Python, and Script-Fu in the merge request, or by lookingup gimp-drawable-filterin the Procedure Browser inside GIMP. We’ve also begun using the filterAPI in our Python scripts to automatically create blurred backgroundeffectsfor the Windows installer, and with this same API in C, Alx Sa added supportfor importingPhotoshop’s legacy Color Overlay layerstyle.

We ask for feedback and bug reports from plug-in and script authors who utilize the new filter API in their work! We havemore updates planned for it in GIMP 3.0 aswell.

Layer blend spaces and compositing in XCFs

Discussions between color science experts Elle Stone and Øyvind Kolås revealed another area that neededimprovement as part of our Color Space Invasion project. Specifically, images with color profiles that have non-perceptual TRCs might not be rendered correctly when set to certain layermodes.

Øyvind has implemented a correction for this problem by adding properperceptual space as default to specific layer modes. While we believethis enhancement should not impact older XCF files, we of course want tohear from you if there are any backwards compatibility issues with 3.0RC2!

Packages

AppImage

Thanks to the continued efforts of Bruno Lopes and with assistance from Samueru and the AppImage community, our experimentalAppImage now works on most Linux distros. We want to encourage more testing of it, in hopes that we can offer it asanother Linux release in addition to our Flatpak. You can see instructions to install experimental AppImage packages from ourdevelopment download page.

Flatpak

Our nightly flatpak has now a dedicated App-ID org.gimp.GIMP.Nightly.This mostly means that it can be installed side by side with the stableflatpak while both are visible in your menus (no need to select whichversion is to be shownwith flatpak make-current anymore).

Yet it also means that anyone who had the nightly flatpak until nowwon’t see any update coming anytime soon. In order to continue using thenightly flatpak, uninstall the existing one and install the new one withthesecommands:

flatpak uninstall org.gimp.GIMP//masterflatpak install https://nightly.gnome.org/repo/appstream/org.gimp.GIMP.Nightly.flatpakref

⚠️ Reminder: the nightly flatpak is current development code as ithappens in source repository. At times, it may even be very broken orrender your project files invalid. We do not recommend it forproduction! Use this version to help us debugging by reporting issues orif you really like risks to test latestfeatures.

BMP Plug-in Improvements

New contributor Rupert Weber has been busy since the last updatewith more updates to our BMP plug-in. A few highlights of theirwork:

  • BMPs are now imported losslessly in their original precision, rather than being convertedto 8 bit integerprecision.
  • The plug-in now supports loading BMPs with RLE24 and Huffmancompression.
  • We now load BMPs in chunks rather than trying to load the entire image at once. Related workalso allows us to load much largerBMPs.
  • Rupert has also done a lot of code clean-up and maintenance, to make the plug-in easier towork on in thefuture.

Assorted Updates

  • Jehan made some quality of life improvements to the Python console. You can now useCtrl+R and Ctrl+S shortcuts to search through yourcommand history, and Page Up and Page Down now letyou scroll history in addition to the Up and Down arrowkeys.
  • Alx Sa implemented loading CMYK PAM files in the PNMplug-in.

  • On Windows, we’ve also added the ability to open images through Windows Shortcuts(.lnk files) directly from the file chooser dialog. This is also work by Alx Sa.

  • More tweaks and improvements have been made to the theme. In particular, the slider styling hasbeen substantially improved after feedback and work from Denis Rangelov. Denis also made newicons for the Navigation Dockable Dialogue, replacing duplicates with distinct symbols.Anders Jonsson has also been reviewing the theme and removing some workarounds which were requiredin GIMP 2.10, but no longer needed with our new 3.0themes.

  • Idriss Fekir has made improvements to our XCF font loading code, to improve compatibilitywhen importing older XCFfiles.

For those who haven’t followed GIMP’s development as closely, these news posts only coverincremental changes since the last release. They do not list every change or improvementsmade for GIMP 3.0 - that would be a very long articleindeed!

While we’ll have full release notes for the final 3.0, we thought it’d be helpfulto summarize a few of the major changes made during the 2.99 developmentprocess:

  • The initial work to port GIMP to GTK3 occurred in 2.99.2.This release also introduced multi-layer selections, along with initial API changes andcolor space managementimprovements.
  • More API updates were made in 2.99.4, including the ability to auto-generate plug-in UIsbased on user input. Various usability improvements were also made, along with the introduction of the experimental Paint Selecttool.
  • 2.99.6 brought more API updates and internal work.More user-facing features included the ability to place guides outside the canvas, better touchpad support, and more support fordifferent PNG colormetadata.
  • The development pipeline was improved significantly in 2.99.8,allowing for faster build times and automation. Support for new file formats like PSB and JPEGXL were added in this release,along with Windows Ink tabletsupport.
  • 2.99.10 introduced “layer sets”, replacing the older conceptof linked layers. Painting dynamics were streamlined in this release, along with the first version of the Welcomedialog.
  • Early-binding CMYK support was implemented in 2.99.12.The CSS GUI themes also received a major overhaul in this release, along with more file format supports and majorimprovements toScript-Fu.
  • 2.99.14 saw the introduction of non-destructive outlinesfor the text tool. The alignment tool was also revised, theme and icon scaling were improved, and floating selections were largely replaced in theworkflow.
  • The GTK3 port was finally completed in 2.99.16.The / searchpop-up was updated to show the menu path for all entries, as well as making individual filterssearchable.
  • Non-destructive filters were first introduced in 2.99.18. Major color management improvements were also made, and new auto-expanding layer boundary and snapping options were alsoimplemented.

Similar to GIMP, there’s a number of bugfixes for the GEGL 0.4.52 release. Øyvind Kolås has fixed some generic “Aux input”labels to be more meaningful - this will be visible in GIMP’s filters as well. He also improved the accuracy of some filter’scolor processing. Longtime contributor Thomas Manni also fixed crashes when some filters were run on very smalllayers.

Since GIMP 3.0 RC1, in the main GIMPrepository:

  • 73 reports were closed as FIXED.
  • 71 merge requests weremerged.
  • 277 commits werepushed.
  • 18 translations were updated: Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Danish, Finnish, Georgian, Icelandic, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian Nynorsk, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Swedish,Ukrainian.

35 people contributed changes or fixes to GIMP 3.0.0 RC2 codebase (orderis determined by number of commits; some people are in severalgroups):

  • 12 developers to core code: Jehan, Alx Sa, Michael Schumacher, Anders Jonsson, Lloyd Konneker, Øyvind Kolås, Idriss Fekir, Andre Klapper, Jacob Boerema, Michael Natterer, Rupert Weber, ThomasManni.
  • 11 developers to plug-ins or modules: Jehan, Lloyd Konneker, Alx Sa, Rupert Weber, Daniel Novomeský, Jacob Boerema, Aki, Bruno, Ryan Sims, SimonMunton.
  • 19 translators: Alan Mortensen, Cheng-Chia Tseng, Kolbjørn Stuestøl, Rūdolfs Mazurs, Jiri Grönroos, Sveinn í Felli, Alexander Shopov, Aurimas Černius, Marco Ciampa, Danial Behzadi, Hugo Carvalho, Jordi Mas, Anders Jonsson, Ekaterine Papava, Julia Dronova, Luming Zh, Martin, Michael Schumacher, YuriChornoivan.
  • 2 Theme designers: Alx Sa, AndersJonnson.
  • 2 documentation contributors: Jehan,Bruno.
  • 5 build, packaging or CI contributors: Bruno, Jehan, lloyd konneker, Alx Sa, Jacob Boerema, RupertWeber.

Contributions on other repositories in the GIMPverse (order is determined bynumber ofcommits):

  • GEGL 0.4.52 is made of 31 commits by 16 contributors: Øyvind Kolås, Sam L, Thomas Manni, lillolollo, Alan Mortensen, Anders Jonsson, Ekaterine Papava, Hugo Carvalho, Jordi Mas, Juliano de Souza Camargo, Kolbjørn Stuestøl, Lukas Oberhuber, Luming Zh, Marco Ciampa, Martin, YuriChornoivan.
  • ctx had 48 commits since RC1 release by 1 contributor: ØyvindKolås.
  • gimp-data had 6 commits by 5 contributors: Anders Jonsson, Jehan, Sevenix, Alx Sa and DenisRangelov.
  • gimp-test-images (new repository for image support testing) had 2 commits by 1 contributor:Rupert.
  • The gimp-macos-build (macOS packaging scripts) release had 5 commits by 1 contributor: LukasOberhuber.
  • The flatpak release had 4 commits by 2 contributors: Bruno Lopes,Jehan.
  • Our main website (what you are reading right now) had 29 commits by 3 contributors: Jehan, Alx Sa, AndreaVeri.
  • Our developer website had 16 commits by 2 contributors: Jehan, BrunoLopes.
  • Our 3.0 documentation had 157 commits by 10 contributors: Andre Klapper, Kolbjørn Stuestøl, Jacob Boerema, Alan Mortensen, Anders Jonsson, Marco Ciampa, Jordi Mas, Yuri Chornoivan, Alx Sa, JiriGrönroos.

Let’s not forget to thank all the people who help us triaging in Gitlab, reportbugs and discuss possible improvements with us.Our community is deeply thankful as well to the internet warriors who manage ourvarious discussion channels or socialnetwork accounts such as Ville Pätsi, Liam Quin, Michael Schumacher andSevenix!

Note: considering the number of parts in GIMP and around, and how weget statisticsthrough git scripting, errors may slip inside thesestats. Feel free to tell us if we missed or mis-categorized somecontributors orcontributions.

Download Mirrors

GNOME has moved away from using mirrorsduring their latest infrastructure update. As our download mirrors are hosted by them, we were asked ifwe wanted to move as well. As a community project, we value everyone who contributes a mirror to make GIMPmore accessible in their area. Therefore, we have decided to stay with using mirrors to distribute GIMP.

If you are interested in contributing a mirror for your region, here is the newprocedure:

How to be an official mirror (procedure update)

  1. Create a mirror request on the gimp-webtracker
  2. Tell us about why you want to mirror GIMP, which other Free Software you already mirror, what is your setup, the server’slocation…
  3. Tell us about you: are you an organization or an individual? Give us the specific name and URL to be shown in the mirror sponsor list.
  4. Once we are done verifying your organization, rsync credentials will be exchanged securely, allowing you to sync your mirror with the sourceserver
  5. There is nothing to do in particular to appear on the Sponsors page which will be updated regularly through scripts. Yet it may take a few days or even weeks at times. So don’t worry if your organization name does not appearimmediately!

🛈 We programmatically check at random intervals that mirrors are updatedquickly enough and that the data match for obvious securityreasons.

Mirror changes

Also, since the 3.0RC1 news post,a new mirror has beencontributed:

  • Sahil Dhiman, Mumbai,India

Mirrors are important as they help the project by sharing the load for dozens of thousands of daily downloads.Moreover by having mirrors spread across the globe, we ensure that everyone can have fast download access to GIMP.

GIMP’s code repository is also hosted on GNOME’s GitLab platform. Andrea Veri asked if we would be able to sponsor a runner on the platform, which allows any projecton the platform to test building their software before, during, and after code changes are made.After a vote by GIMP’s committee, weagreed and are now the sponsors of an x86 CI/CDrunner!

You will find all our official builds on GIMP official website (gimp.org):

  • Linux flatpaks for x86 and ARM(64-bit)
  • Universal Windows installer for x86 (32 and 64-bit) and for ARM(64-bit)
  • MSIX package (GIMP Preview) for x86 and ARM(64-bit)
  • macOS DMG packages for Intelhardware
  • macOS DMG packages for Apple Siliconhardware

Other packages made by third-parties are obviously expected to follow (Linux or *BSD distributions’ packages,etc).

🛈 Notes:

  • The 2 macOS DMG packages will likely be late as we are waiting for Apple update’s validation by the GNOME Foundation before being able to sign ourpackages.
  • The MSIX package takes usually a few business days of validation by Microsoft.

Thanks to the huge amount of reports we got for our first releasecandidate, we are able to present you this second version which is allthe more robust. As you saw, a few additional surprises 🎁 came togetherwith bugfixes, in particular the new filter API, which triggered supportof PSD legacy Color Overlay import, improved blend modes and compositing,and more. We thought that it was worth breaking the feature freeze forthese changes and that this will make all thedifference!

With this second release candidate, we are closer than ever to actualGIMP 3.0.0. As usual, we are looking forward to any new community issuereports allowing us tofinalize the 3.0.0 release!🤗

Don’t forget you can donate and personally fund GIMPdevelopers, as a way to give back andaccelerate the development of GIMP.Community commitment helps the project to grow stronger!💪🥳

🎅🎄🎉 Oh and of course, the whole team wishes you all a happy holiday season!🥳🥂🎆

GIMP - GIMP 3.0 RC2 Released 🎁 (2025)

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