Few hours ago the launch of the new version was announced from the popular editor dand graphics GIMP 2.10.18, version in which the refinement of the functionality and the stability of the current stable 2.10 branch continues. GIMP 2.10.16 release skipped due to critical bug detection in the post-branching phase of this release, por what this new version 2.10.18 contains all the changes of both versions.
In GIMP 2.10.18 a grouped design mode of the toolbar is proposed, in which user can create their own groups and move tools. For example, various tools for transform, selection, fill, and drawing can be hidden behind the general buttons of a group, without displaying each button individually.
By default, a compact representation of the sliders is included, which are generally used to set parameters for filters and tools.
The compact style, in which the upper and lower indentations are reduced, significantly saves vertical screen space and allows you to place more items in the visible area. To change the value of the parameters, movement can be used after clicking the left mouse button, while holding down the Shift key additionally leads to a decrease in the shift step and Ctrl to an increase.
Also it is mentioned that the process of docking panels and dialogs has been improved in a single window interface.
When trying to move embedded dialog boxes in drag and drop mode, an interfering message is no longer displayed with information about the ability to leave the dialog box in its current position.
Another change important in GIMP 2.10.18 it's a new way to preview the results of the application of transformation tools, named "Composite Preview". When this mode is activated, the rendering of the preview during transformation is performed taking into account the position of the variable layer and the correct blending mode.
The new mode also offers two additional options: "Preview linked items" to preview changes to all related items such as layers, not just the selected item and "Synchronous preview" to preview drawings while moving the mouse / stylus. Also, an automatic preview of the clipped parts of transformable layers is implemented (for example, during rotation).
In addition, we can find in GIMP 2.10.18 the new tool added for the three-dimensional transformation, which allows you to arbitrarily change the perspective in a three-dimensional plane with the rotation of the layer along the X, Y and Z axes. It is possible to limit the panorama and the perspectives in relation to one of the coordinate axes.
Of the other changes mentioned:
- Greater smoothness when moving the brush pointer by increasing the information refresh rate on the screen from 20 to 120 FPS.
- Added option to disable snap fit. The airbrush frequency increased from 15 to 60 impressions per second. The Transform Warp tool now respects the pointer settings.
- In symmetric drawing mode, the "kaleidoscope" option has appeared, which allows you to combine rotation and reflection (strokes are reflected along the edges of symmetrical parts).
- The panel for working with layers has been improved, which combines the interface to merge layers and join selected areas.
- Faster loading of brushes in ABR (Photoshop) format, significantly reducing startup time with a large number of brushes in this format
- Support for files in PSD format is improved and their loading accelerated due to the exclusion of the resource-intensive conversion stage to internal project rendering.
- A set of high contrast symbolic icons has been added, which can be selected in settings (by default, the above icons are left).
Finally, to get this new version just have support for Flatpak packages.
The installation is done with the command:
flatpak install flathub org.gimp.GIMP