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Post #1
That's right, GIMP 2.8 has finally been released as stable!
GIMP is a powerful image editor available on Windows, OS X, and Linux that closely resembles Adobe Photoshop in its features and functionality. For years now, it has stood as the go-to image editing application for users seeking a free alternative to the expensive flagship product from Adobe.
This week, a stable version of GIMP 2.8 has been made available for Linux users, with release candidates featuring the latest updates available for Windows and OS X. This latest version features a number of new UI and tool options that extend customization and answer some of the more common complaints about the application.
Perhaps the most obvious change is the ability for the user to operate within a single-window mode rather than having multiple windows open to edit a single image. This has always been my one big complaint about the application as a critical toolbar can easily become lost should you have other applications open within the same space. Where this may be a welcome feature for some, it always made the application seem a bit more scattered to me.
Additional changes in GIMP 2.8 (stable) include:
Multi-column Dock Windows
More Screen Real Estate For Dockable Dialogs
Save And Export
Layer Groups
Tools Drawn With Cairo
On-Canvas Text Editing
Simple Math In Size Entries
Keyboard shortcuts have also been adjusted a bit. These changes include:
Ctrl+J – Shrink Wrap
Ctrl+Shift+J – Fit in Window
Ctrl+E – Export to
Ctrl+Shift+E – Export…
Layer Groups may be the most welcome feature among Photoshop users seeking a cheaper alternative. Like Photoshop, layers can finally be grouped together and changed as such.
Text editing, which was a kluge of pop-up windows before can now be done directly on the canvas. To me, this is one of the more important changes as text editing was often confusing, especially when switching between GIMP and other image editors. I never understood why GIMP chose to go the route they had, but I’m grateful the project has finally adopted this approach.
Switching between open images is also somewhat improved, allowing you to do so without having to go through the menu.
Exporting your images is the new save, while saving an image allows you to save it in a native GIMP format. In order to save a file as a PNG, JPG, or otherwise, you’ll need to export it. I found this neither better nor worse, but it does fall in line with other professional media editors. Perhaps this will help ease the learning curve from Photoshop?
Brush management is also refined to be a little easier when switching between brush types. This is especially useful for a user with many added third-party brushes.
Speaking of brushes, you can actually rotate a brush now. Huzzah!
Where Can I Get it?
DOWNLOAD GIMP 2.8 HERE
GIMP 2.8, as running on my system:
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Finally!
Took them long enough to add a single window mode.
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Having separate toolbars can be quite handy if you have 2 monitors, since you can have whatever picture you're working on on one monitor, and the tools on another.
But otherwise it's just a royal pain in the ass.
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I've been suffering with the unstable 2.7.3 and 2.7.4 snapshots, just so I could use the single-window mode until this release. The floating tools annoyed the crap out of me, and single-window mode should have been implemented back in early alpha of v1.0.
However, the RC1 release of 2.8 proved stable. So I made the jump, and two days after I updated, here's the stable 2.8 release. :)
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It's always been there in the 2.7 development builds.
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Well gee sorry for sticking with stable builds.
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Awesome, I always keep a portable version on my flash drive.
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Layer Groups will be a godsend. That was one of the few things that annoyed me when using GIMP, my layers got a bit unruly for a small screen
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I got the windows port of 2.8 from http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html and now pressure sensitivity with my tablet doesn't seem to be working anymore
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Give it some time.
There'll probably be a version released soon that fixes those problems.
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They did a lot more than that in 2.8
Edited:
http://www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.8.html
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I am on 2.6 and I use it quite a bit at times.
I guess it's time to update!
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The development builds have been pretty stable over the time that I've been using them.
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And what's the damn point between classifying a build as stable then?
That means it's pretty much guaranteed to be bug free, compared to dev builds where they often tinker with things to try out new things or solutions to known problems that might make things worse.
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No no no. Stable does not imply bug free. Stable implies that the software isn't going to suddenly change, that it's a platform that can be used with reliable behaviour.
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Missed the pretty much ??
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Regardless of "pretty much", it's still wrong.
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My statement still stands whether or not you have the pretty much in there.
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To follow up on this, I was able to fix it by going to Edit -> Preferences -> Input Devices
Apparently tablet input is disabled by default
Winner x 4
Agree x 5
Disagree x 1
Dumb x 1
Useful x 1
Funny x 1
Late x 1
