GIMPis one of the most popular photo editors around, as it provides a free alternative to paid applications like Adobe Photoshop. GIMP 2.99.16 is now available with a bunch of new features and improvements.
GIMP 2.99.16 introduces a new interface option called “Merge menu and title bar,” which places the menu bar in the area normally occupied by the title bar. It gives you a little bit of extra vertical space, and Photoshop has been designed the same way by default for a long time. However, it’s not enabled by default, and it’s not available on Mac because the menu bar isn’t part of the window on macOS.
The developers explained in a blog post, “We know that client-side decoration is quite a controversial feature. You find people who love this with all their might as much as the opposite (in particular because you lose window styling consistency since decorations are not handled by the window manager anymore). Moreover we are being told that in some specific cases, the system refuses to drop its own window decoration and you may end up with 2 title bars (one drawn by the system and one by GIMP). For these reasons, this option is disabled by default.”
There are also a few improvements for image editing. The dialog window for choosing a stoke selection and stroke path have been updated to be less confusing, a new “Middle Gray (CIELAB)” option is available when filling a new image or layer (alongside white, black, transparency, and so on).
This release marks the official end of GIMP’s migration from the GTK 2.0 framework (which is used to render the interface) to GTK 3.0, which started in earnestall the way back in 2017. The change allows GIMP to use a more modern interface, complete with support for high pixel density (Hi-DPI) screens and other quality-of-life changes. The new interface was first rolled out in 2020, withthe release of GIMP 2.99.2, and the developers have been fixing the remaining problems since then. The announcement said, “We still have a few minor deprecation warnings here and there, but nothing like the hundreds we used to have.”
Finally, GIMP 2.99.2 includes support for new file formats and improves some existing third-party formats. FITS, an image format commonly used in astronomy, now works much better thanks toNASA’s cfitsio library. Photoshop PSD files will now retain clipping paths when opened or saved in GIMP, and CMYK(A) is now supported in JPEG-XL exports. Finally, the PAM, QOI, DCX, and Amigs IFF/ILBM file formats are supported for the first time ever.
You candownload the latest releasefrom GIMP’s website, and it should also appear in package repositories soon. The Mac version is not yet available, but that should be fixed soon.
