{"id":4452,"date":"2017-01-15T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-14T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/evolve.rabatmalta.com\/?guid=733b9007eef57b0b70b6767fa95c72db"},"modified":"2017-01-15T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T23:00:00","slug":"2016-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evolve.rabatmalta.com\/?p=4452","title":{"rendered":"2016 in\u00a0review"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we released GIMP<\/span> 2.9.2 in late 2015 and stepped over into 2016, we already knew that we’d be doing mostly polishing. This turned out to be true to a larger extent, and most of the work we did was under-the-hood changes.<\/p>\n

But quite a few new features slipped in. So, what are the big user-visible changes for GIMP<\/span> in 2016?<\/p>\n

Better Handling of Layers, Channels, Masks, and Paths¶<\/a><\/h3>\n

Michael Natterer eliminated one of the big issues with the clipboard: not having an easy way to copy\/paste layers and layer groups from one project to another. Now you can just select a layer or a layer group in the ”Layers” dialog, press ”’Ctrl+C”’, switch to a different project and press ”’Ctrl+V”’.<\/p>\n

The ”Layer Attributes” dialog, which hasn’t been very useful, now provides the single UI<\/span> for setting layer’s name, changing blending mode and opacity setting offset in X\/Y, toggling visibility, link status, various locks.<\/p>\n

Newly added color tags improve layers management and can be set via ”Layers” menu, ”Layer Attributes” dialog. They are also accessible via shortcuts and available for channels and paths (we don’t expect people to use it a lot, but it was too easy to implement).<\/p>\n

The color tags feature is currently not very useful without multiple layers selection. This is something we’ve been meaning to do for quite a while. Last year we did a basic research<\/a> on that, but we don’t expect to accomplish this task in time for GIMP<\/span> 2.10, unless someone contributes a very good patch. If you are interested in helping out, please talk to us.<\/p>\n

Moreover, for people who use a lot of masks, the workflow has been streamlined. Now GIMP<\/span> remembers the last type of mask initialization, and you can use key modifiers + mouse click on layer previews to create, apply, or remove masks. Additionally, there’s a new button for that as well.<\/p>\n

Remembering Defaults Across Sessions, Improved Configurability¶<\/a><\/h3>\n

We had to figure out a sane way for GIMP<\/span> to remember last mask initialization settings, so we devised a whole new infrastructure to remember settings of various dialogs. The user interface to adjust those settings is now live on the new ”Interface -> Dialog Defaults” page in the ”Preferences” dialog. See the Making settings persistent in GIMP<\/span><\/a> post for more details.<\/p>\n

We also made various GIMP<\/span> settings resettable in the ”Preferences” dialog. And since GIMP<\/span> is a huge app, where settings tend to accumulate over the years, we added a vertical scrollbar to keep the height of the dialog sensible. Additionally, we reorganized some of the settings, e.g. on the ”Color Management” page.<\/p>\n

Color Management¶<\/a><\/h3>\n

We already introduced a handful of changes to the color management implementation in 2015, when the code was rewritten by Michael Natterer pretty much from scratch become a core feature rather than a plug-in. But there was more to follow.<\/p>\n

Now everything is color-managed in GIMP<\/span>: all sorts of previews, the Color Picker tool, the painting tools etc. The only missing bit is the on-canvas preview for GEGL<\/span>-based filters. Color transforms are extremely slow with LittleCMS, so we shall need more time to figure this out.<\/p>\n

On a related matter, the Color Management section of the Preferences dialog now features new options to toggle color transforms optimization, so that you could choose between performance and color fidelity.<\/p>\n

Additionally, toggling soft-proofing is just a few clicks away in the ‘View -> Color Management’ submenu now, along with rendering intent settings.<\/p>\n

Better Tools¶<\/a><\/h3>\n

While we didn’t intend to work on tools a lot, there have been several interesting updates:<\/p>\n