GIMP 2.10 Coming, GIMP May Re-Target To GTK4 Rather Than GTK3

The GEGL/GIMP team have decided some details concerning GIMP 2.10 as well as the future GIMP updates with GTK3, which may now be GTK4 instead.

Currently blocking the GIMP 2.10 release is needing to introduce the linear workflow, rework the layer modes, icon and UI themes, improve color management, improvements to the warp transform tool, and there are around 60 bugs needing to be addressed.

Regarding the long-awaited GIMP 3.0 with the switch from the GTK2 to GTK3, that's taking longer than anticipated. The main developers really haven't touched the GIMP GTK3 code since 2012. They have no estimates on when the GTK3 GIMP port could be completed and released, but depending upon how long that takes, they may end up switching directly to GTK+4. In particular, GIMP developers do like the GTK+ Scene Graph Kit (GSK) being brought with GTK4.

If the GTK+3 (or GTK+4) porting continues taking long, the GIMP developers are looking at adding new features to GIMP 2.10 or introducing a new GIMP 2.11/2.12 series. More details on the thinking of the core GIMP developers can be found via this GIMP.org blog post.

As well this week, GIMP 2.8.20 was released for those sticking to stable GIMP releases.