GIMP 2.4 preview
by Nicu Buculei
Fedora 8 test releases have a surprise for all users interested in graphics: a release candidate for the new GIMP 2.4, meaning the final version will get the stable GIMP 2.41. This is exciting news, as the previous major release, GIMP 2.2, is several years old, and a lot of new features were added in the meantime.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most visible new features, but beyond them, there are tons of less visible things: speedups, a decrease in memory consumption, better importing and exporting, a better print plugin, better EXIF support, changed scripting language for plugins, zoomable preview for plugins, many bug fixes, and more.
If you’d like to see a more practical application of these tools, take a look at my article on improving portraits with GIMP.
Note: You can click on any image in this article to see a larger version.
Interface
The improved graphic interface is one of the first new things you’ll notice. There’s a new icon set (based on Tango), the menu is reorganized with a better structure (the cryptic Script-Fu and Python-Fu have disappeared, with the functions moved to a more logical place), and the dialogs now better follow the GNOME HIG.
Color management
Color management was introduced in this version. You can use ICC color profiles, load and adjust them, get your image on screen looking exactly as it was produced by your camera or scanner, and have the final results printed just as they look on screen. GIMP will even make use of the color profiles embedded in images.
Selector Tool
The Selector Tool has been improved. With both Rectangle and Ellipse selections, you can easily modify the size and position of your selection. With one click inside the selection, you can switch between edit and move modes. As usual, watch the status bar for additional modifiers to perform special tasks. For example, press Alt+Ctrl to move the content of the selection and Alt+Shitft to move a copy of the selection).
A nice touch is the possibility to round the corners of a rectangular selection, so you don’t have to use the old workaround of shrinking and growing it back.
Crop tool
The Crop Tool no longer shows an annoying dialog over your image. It works similar to the Selector Tool, allowing you to modify its size and position.
My favorite function is the option to show guides, which help you make a useful artistic crop (like using the rule of thirds). It’s also available in the above-mentioned Selector Tool. These two tools have a lot of options in common.
Healing tool
The new Healing Tool is awesome for photo touch-ups and surgery, like removing imperfections on someone’s skin. It works somewhat like the well-known Clone Tool, but it will average the values from the source and destination, and the cloning is softer and non-obvious.
Perspective clone tool
The new Perspective Clone Tool is a variation on the classic Clone Tool, but it lets you work on perspective images by defining and cloning a perspective plane from the original image. The cloned image will follow the correct perspective.
Red eye removal
For a long time, the GIMP developers resisted adding a red eye removal tool, explaining why such an automatic tool is far from perfect and pointing to tutorials about how to do it manually (and how to avoid the red eye effect in the first place), but now it has been added. For better results, don’t run the tool for the entire photo. Make a selection around the eyes, and then use the tool.
Foreground extraction
The new Foreground Extractor, based on the SIOX algorithm, is an easy way to cut the subject from an image and remove the background. Select the zone of interest with a lasso-like tool, then mark parts of the sure foreground with a brush. Press the Enter key, and your selection is done. You will still have to make small adjustments using the classic selection tools for a perfect result.
Lens distortion
Among the new filters introduced is Lens Distortion, which allows you to correct the barrel distortion or vignetting caused by bad lenses or filters on your camera. I am sure this filter has a lot of potential to be abused for weird effects.
Also note the zoomable preview in the image below. This feature is also available now in many plugins.
Text
The Text Tool has its share of enhancements. It is possible to preview the font in the edit area for immediate feedback, to put your text on a path, or to transform it in an editable path on which you can edit nodes, edit fill or stroke, and transform it to a selection.
Brushes
Brushes are also improved. You can change their scale (for both parametric and bitmap brushes) with a slider or keyboard shortcut, without opening the brush editor. You can add jitter for a more natural and realistic look in drawing and import Adobe Photoshop V2 brushes (.abr).
Alignment
With the Alignment Tool, it’s easy to align (top, bottom, middle, left, right, center) layers and other objects relative to the image, other layers, selections, or to precisely position them with coordinates.
Color Picker
The Color Picker can now take a color sample not only from a GIMP image window, but also from any element on your desktop: background, window of another open application, anything, so you don’t have to take a screenshot of the desktop or a window and import it into GIMP just to sample a color.
I hope you’re excited about the upcoming Fedora 8 and its included GIMP 2.4. I, for one, can’t look back at the old versions. If you like using graphics applications and like Fedora, join the Fedora Art Team and create graphics for your favorite distro in a collaborative way using free tools and an open community.
1At this time, GIMP has gone to a third release candidate. It is likely that this will be the version packaged with Fedora 8 and that the official release will come in an update.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Thanks for the article Nicu, you explained some aspects of 2.4 that I wasn’t understanding yet.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Wow, RedHat discovered the “new” Version of Gimp. Hello? Gimp users know and use the 2.4 version for more than a year now. Ok, it was beta-status, but quite stable, wasn’t it? A shame, it took THAT long for you guys to integrate the development version for everyone.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Nice article, thanks.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Seargant, can you tell me of other distro that includes Gimp 2.4 by default?? May be there is, I just simply don’t know and I don’t care.
For your information we all know that Red Hat didn’t invent The Gimp, they are not claiming such thing. They just make packages of it for the rest of us to use it.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:52 pm
William: it appears to be Ubuntu 7.10.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Joseph, and that came out, 5 days ago? William was asking for distros released more in line with the year that users have been using release candidates.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:00 pm
What about that seam cropping tool that made a splash a few weeks ago? I heard it was availible for the gimp, but is it included in official versions? or does it turn out it’s just not that useful?
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Michael: Yes, gutsy was released only a short few days ago. William asked “can you tell me of other distro that includes Gimp 2.4 by default??” I supplied an answer. I’m not dissing Fedora or anybody; I’m just stating that Ubuntu seems to have Gimp 2.4 by default, in answer to the question that was asked.
I find your attempt to limit it to “distros released more line with the year that users have been using release candidates” extremely disingenuous. Doubly so given the fact that Gutsy *has* been relased within “the year that users have been using release candidates”. *Triply* so given that your post is within an article on Fedora 8, which hasn’t been _released_ yet.
Maybe I should’ve also chastised Sergeant for being a jerk, which he/she clearly was. Fedora deserves praise for including Gimp 2.4 release candidate. I just limited the scope of my post to William’s question, be that for better or for worse.
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Gentoo’s had 2.3 series available since June 2006.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:44 pm
They still use separate menus for each opened image? And each image has its own top-level window, making us Alt+Tab to everything what’s open?
I do not feel comfortable criticizing something I have not paid for, but come on Gimp guys!
October 24th, 2007 at 12:13 am
To settle the dispute: no distro includes 2.4 by default, likely not even Fedora 8 for the simple reason it was not released yet.
Very likely F8 will have by default RC3 and it will be pushed as an update to the stable version as soon as that will be released.
Of course the hard core GIMP users were aware about (at least some of) those features, but the normal users do not use “development” releases, stay stay with stables and those users are the target of my article.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Eugene, what kind of menu do you propose? Like OS X a global menu for the entire application? I do not think GTK+ support that or such thing would be consistent with other Linux or GTK+ applications.
A MDI interface? That would be worse and out of fashion.
However, you can subscribe to the GIMP mailing list, I am sure this issue is discusses there.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:32 am
I was very sceptical… I still cant stand the usual change-some-dialog-because-we-think-its-better-this-way
also i hate the keyboard changes… I would like keyboard paths to options, so that i have to use the mouse for on-image editing and not for traversing the menu. And I frankly do not like the gnome HIG.
But
I am in TOTAL love with several of the features!
- Crop tool no longer being annoying rocks
- the new select at rectangle etc.. ROCKS
- the brushes options are also coool coooool cool
These make this new gimp really nice and outweight my hate about the other smaller changes … i especially love that selector thing, it was cool to see it and play with it ;)
What I would love next would be a shift away from script-fu to python-fu, or even better ruby-fu
I am an avid ruby user, but I am fine using a bit of python too, but there is NO way that i will ever touch anything that resembles lisp!
October 24th, 2007 at 1:44 am
I talked in the article about the Fedora Art Team and invited people to join it, here is our web address - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/
October 24th, 2007 at 2:41 am
Thanks that this page shows something like “Your tokens expired” my post lost, and I have to type again everything… :( :( :(
So I just wrote that this Gimp version is bad. I have Kubuntu Gutsy and it crashed me a lot, even when I chosen “new image” (I found it had problems with the small theme). My hard written plugins also don’t work. Ant it always wants to create 420×300px images, even if I copied something to the clipboard to make a new image from it. I worked an hour to fix things and 5 minutes to work.
I think I’ll downgrade to the stable version, but before that I’ll check these great new features written in this article.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:09 am
here are instructions for updating the plugins - http://next.gimp.org/docs/script-fu-update.html
October 24th, 2007 at 3:09 am
Crashing may happen more often with pre-releases compared with stable releases )see the discussion above with people bragging about how their favorite distro include earlier releases), be sure to submit a bug report for those crashes and update to the latest version (I personally use GIMP pre-releases with Fedora and had no unusual crashes, but this is anecdotal evidence).
October 24th, 2007 at 3:44 am
I hope the new GIMP will remember which brush was used the last time GIMP was run. I always use a customizable brush, and I’m getting tired of selecting it over and over again when I run GIMP.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:03 am
Yes, it remember the brush selection.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Amazing!
I’m waiting Gimp 2.4 here.
October 24th, 2007 at 9:07 am
I hope to read nice Tutorials on Nicu’s site with the Gimp 2.4.x with any distro (and also windows !) ;-)
Very great presentation (probably the best i’ve read today).
October 24th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Thanks Quidam!
I believe you noticed, I wrote a few tutorials already using 2.4 and made also a few screencast. Sure I will do more, publish them on my site and if RHM will still be interested by the subject, here.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:38 am
The Healing Tool and Perspective Clone features look really awesome, among others. Thanks for the great write-up and tutorials, Nicu! :)
October 24th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
GIMP 2.4 RELEASED!!! WHOHOO!!!
October 24th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Fantastic fit! This preview was just in time.
October 25th, 2007 at 1:17 am
thanks!!!! :D
October 26th, 2007 at 11:53 am
What about adjustment layers? I’m a PS Elements user and was hoping GIMP had introduced adjustment layers by now. Image editing without adjustment layers means very little flexibility in the editing process.
October 29th, 2007 at 1:38 am
AFAIK, adjustment layers are on the roadmap for the next major version, 2.6.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:44 am
Great new features. A lot of improvements.
October 29th, 2007 at 5:17 am
What about svg files? Can the new gimp manage vectorial files or do we have to further use inkscape?
October 29th, 2007 at 5:31 am
It can do *limited* editing of SVG: you can rasterize the imported SVG and/or import the paths and further edit them (modify nodes, stroke and fill). It is not GIMP’s goal to become a full-fledged SVG editor.
But you make using Inkscape sound like a chore, which I don’t agree at all. By the contrary, I tend to like Inkscape better.
You know, the workflow of a graphic producer is often a combination of both vector and raster activities, be it a combination of GIMP and Inkscape or Photoshop and Illustrator.
October 29th, 2007 at 6:20 am
yes, I agree. I was just curious. On the other hand it’s the unix philosophy, right? Don’t duplicate what another application can already do.
As for photoshop and Illustrator, no idea. I only use unix.
October 29th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Thanks for your work to create this overview of new things. It does save me some time :-)
November 1st, 2007 at 8:53 pm
I’m looking forward to using GIMP 2.4 AND Fedora 8.
I sure hope there will be a Dreamweaver-like Editor
for Fedora 9 & beyond, that would also be very good!
In the meantime, I and others look forward to review
GIMP 2.4 and F 8…
November 1st, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Ouch, token timeout killed my masterpiece! To paraphrase, I think the GIMP dev’s have done a great job with the new interface. I’m a casual user of the GIMP, and far from being an expert, but it’s good to see the interface being more “workflow” oriented rather than tools oriented (what the heck were script-fu and python-fu? As a user I couldn’t care less about how the tools were made!) I’ve found it much easier to achieve the desired output and find the tools I’ve needed.
Well done to the developers!
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:10 am
Mark, don’t hold your breath for a Dreamweaver-like editor. The best option so far in KompoZer, the openly-maintained version of what sometime was Nvu (and is available for Fedora).
Its original author, Daniel Glazman, is working for a much better replacement, an almost complete rewrite, but it does this in his spare time (his contract for Nvu with Linspire ended a long time ago), so don’t expect concrete results soon.
Read more here: http://www.glazman.org/weblog/dotclear/index.php?post/2007/10/17/Nvu-Kompozer-Composer
November 27th, 2007 at 3:06 am
PCLINUXOS 2007 comes with GIMP 2.3. I’m a GIMP noobie (and a linux noob too!), but what I’ve noticed with 2.3 is that the crop tool works in the same way as the one in 2.4.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:50 am
GIMP uses an odd/even numbering system, 2.3.x was the development branch leading to the stable 2.4.x, so indeed, all the features present in 2.4 were introduced gradually in 2.3.x releases.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Nicu - I didn’t know that. Thanks for enlightening me.
I normally tend to shy away from apps that are undergoing development but GIMP 2.3 hasn’t crashed on me so far. I might wait and see if 2.4 finds its way into the repos.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:15 am
great to see more gimp stumbles around! thumbs up
May 15th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Well ummm I want it so badly but i cant et it.Please reply the link to my mail address
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:21 pm
good post! thanks :)