GIMP 3's New Features Make the Best Free Image Editor Even Better

GIMP, the free and open source image editing application long seen as the best free Photoshop alternative, just released a major update: Version 3. The update brings long-awaited improvements to working with filters, layers, and text. There's also a sleeker user interface with improved UI scaling.

Among the biggest changes is nondestructive filters. Previously applying filters, such as blurs, was final—you could use the undo function to get back to a pre-filtered state but you couldn't simply edit or remove the filter. You can now tweak the settings of filters, or even remove filters entirely from the layer panel.

Credit: Justin Pot

Working with text is also streamlined with the addition of non-destructive text outlines. This allows you to change the widget, style, and color/pattern of text outlines from the text panel in the left sidebar.

Credit: Justin Pot

There are various useful tweaks to the way layers work. You can can now select multiple layers at once, without the need to link those layers, making it easier to apply changes. Copy and pasting is a lot less confusing: Pasting creates a new layer, instead of a confusing floating layer. This alone makes GIMP a lot easier to use, in my opinion.

The paintbrush tool can now automatically expand the size of the selected layer if you paint over the edge. Just select the paintbrush tool and make sure the new "Expand Layers" tool is selected—you'll never again be confused about why the paintbrush isn't working.

There are many more changes that make life simpler. Importing PSD files from Photoshop should be more accurate, for one thing, and there's support for RGB color spaces "beyond sRBG," meaning you should see fewer warnings about conversion while importing images.

And the user interface has been updated to GTK3, , meaning the user interface looks more modern. There are other visual tweaks, including a welcome screen when you open the application and much better UI scaling: Icons that used to look blown up and blurry on high resolution screens now look great.

Basically, if you tried GIMP years ago and weren't convinced, it's worth giving the application another chance. For more details, you can read the blog post announcing the update or the full release notes with more details.

View the full article