GIMP 3.0 Enters String Freeze, Inching Closer To Release

[Anux]

Support for higher-precision pixel formats and colour management.

Yes HDR is my most wished for feature in GIMP, but does it need GTK support for that? You need a server (X or wayland) and a compositor that supports the color spaces and handles blending of different color spaces and then a simple vulkan instance to display the image. In my current understanding, GTK could be totally unaware that something outside of srgb 8 bit is even happening.

[You-]

It is surprising how much from the first days of the release of gtk4 has still stuck around on these forums (and elsewhere). All of it was FUD and not based on technical merits.

Gimp WILL benefit when it moves to gtk4. Including improved cross platform support - the MacOS developers involved wanted this to happen faster as they wanted to use the updated support, but they will have to wait.

With the next releases of gtk4 there will also be a credible HDR story that photo editors like the GIMP will benefit from.

Finally, the jump to gtk will be easier than the gimp 3 releases - the initial port to gtk3 was ready around 7-8 years ago, but that was not enough. They then also ported to "modern gtk3" API and then also had to redo all the extension work to get rid of python 2 and other deprecated dependencies. Gimp 3 didnt port to just gtk3 but cleaned up 2 decades of cruft and added features like space invasion and even an initial implementation of non destructive editing. It is a HUGE release.

[billyswong]

You- The 3 in GIMP3 is indeed part about porting to GTK3 and part about porting to Python3. Also a lot of new features and old cleanups.

The problem of "GTK4" is *not* FUD, at least not "all of it". For if/when GIMP port to GTK4, there will be a loss of subpixel AA in UI text for people who prefer subpixel AA.

Libadwaita, while prevalent in GNOME4+ ecosystem, is not 100% necessary for GTK4. We may label the problem as "GTK4-era software" instead as most other issues are caused by Libadwaita.

[L_A_G]

Really god? You've got GIMP 3.0 entering feature freeze and Half-Life 3 rumors going around at the same time? If you're going to start throwing hints that the rapture is coming you could be at least a little subtle. Stuff like it raining blood and not something as in-your-face as this...

[ZenoArrow]

To those that doubted that GIMP isn't looking for ways to fund full-time developers, all it would have taken to disprove this would be to look on the crowdfunding campaigns listed on the GIMP website:

https://www.gimp.org/donating/

Neither of those crowdfunders has reached the level that would support a full time developer, but it's clearly not something that the GIMP team is discouraging.

There's also this blog post on the GIMP website:

https://www.gimp.org/news/2021/07/27/support-gimp-developers-sustainable-development/

This blog post has the following statement:

What these donations through GNOME still cannot do is funding paid development, so if that’s what you want, please fund the developers directly as explained above. GIMP project obviously welcomes the 2 types of donation, for community needs through GNOME and for paid development through the 2 crowdfundings listed.

All this took to discover was a couple of minutes of searching online, much more efficient than arguing about it for multiple comments.

[alfcyber]

Hi there,
Is it actually clear whether many of the existing addons would continue to work with gimp3? In my opinion, the only really important innovation is the support or scalability of the UI with higher resolution screens (but a better color scheme is also useful) and wouldn't it have been possible to integrate that into gimp 2.10.x?
By the way, the dependency tree of gimp 2.99x shows me a total of 74 packages, depending on what is being compiled in

[DMJC]

GTK4 is a pain in the ass to port menu code over to. I've been developing my applications for GTK3 and GTK4 and a bunch of my apps I haven't figured out howto handle menus so the UI style is consistent with MATE. I'm not interested in hamburger menus and GNOME 4 at all.

I'm looking forward to GIMP 3.0, especially the upgrade of the plugin engine to Python 3.x. It's been painful not being able to run a lot of plugins because of Python 2 being removed from distros.

[You-]

GTK4 is a pain in the ass to port menu code over to. I've been developing my applications for GTK3 and GTK4 and a bunch of my apps I haven't figured out howto handle menus so the UI style is consistent with MATE. I'm not interested in hamburger menus and GNOME 4 at all.

What exactly have you run into? Have you updated to modern gtk3 menu code so there are no remaining deprecations?

[ElectricPrism]

It is surprising how much from the first days of the release of gtk4 has still stuck around on these forums (and elsewhere). All of it was FUD and not based on technical merits.

Gimp WILL benefit when it moves to gtk4. Including improved cross platform support - the MacOS developers involved wanted this to happen faster as they wanted to use the updated support, but they will have to wait.

With the next releases of gtk4 there will also be a credible HDR story that photo editors like the GIMP will benefit from.

Finally, the jump to gtk will be easier than the gimp 3 releases - the initial port to gtk3 was ready around 7-8 years ago, but that was not enough. They then also ported to "modern gtk3" API and then also had to redo all the extension work to get rid of python 2 and other deprecated dependencies. Gimp 3 didnt port to just gtk3 but cleaned up 2 decades of cruft and added features like space invasion and even an initial implementation of non destructive editing. It is a HUGE release.

Yup. Technical debt is real and AFAIK I'm sure there were bits left over from the invention of GTK 1.0 back when it was "The Gimp Toolkit 1.0".

The distillation of image functions into GEGL. The emergence of GMIC.

I use the non-destructive editing in 2.99 nearly every day and it's a great QOL addition. As others have said in the thread too, the pace has quickened when you watch the Git Activity and synergy.

[ElectricPrism]

Really god? You've got GIMP 3.0 entering feature freeze and Half-Life 3 rumors going around at the same time? If you're going to start throwing hints that the rapture is coming you could be at least a little subtle. Stuff like it raining blood and not something as in-your-face as this...

Just remember if you see it raining green peppers like matrix code when you're outdoors that the simulation may be breaking down. That's the price we pay for cypher bittorrenting hotties and a lot of movies.