GIMP 2.10.36 Released As GIMP 3.0 Might Finally Be Close

GIMP 2.10.36 was released on Tuesday for this long-running stable series of this open-source Adobe Photoshop alternative while GIMP 3.0 has been very slow to materialize.

Besides the changes with GIMP 2.10.36, the good news right away is that this might be the second to last release in the GIMP 2.10 series... As a sign that GIMP 3.0 might finally be near. Well, don't get your hopes too high though as previously GIMP 3.0 hoped to release in 2023. We are now in November and another GIMP 3.0 development release is expected soon, so more than likely we are looking at least H1'2024 before GIMP 3.0 will make its stable debut.

In terms of the GIMP 3.0 state, the GIMP 2.10.36 announcement noted:

"I believe it might be the next to last release in the 2.10 branch, though of course, this is still to be confirmed. What may happen in real life does not always align with plans.

In the meantime, we are working harder than ever to release GIMP 3.0. You will hear shortly about this in our next development release."

As for what is in GIMP 2.10.36, there is now support for loading palettes from Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) and Adobe Color Book (ACB). There is also a new "FG to Transparent (hardedge)" gradient, non-square ratio support for GIFs, and other minor enhancements. Plus there are a few security fixes for the GIMP file format handling.

More details on the GIMP 2.10.36 stable release can be found via GIMP.org. Now here's to hoping it's not too much longer before being able to share some good news about the elusive GIMP 3.0 that is ported to GTK3, refines the user-interface, and brings a plethora of other changes.