From our front-page news:
It's been less than six months since we've seen the launch of GIMP 2.5, but 2.6 is here and becomes one of the biggest upgrades the software has seen in quite some time. The most-common complaint about GIMP (besides the name) is that it's not a competent Photoshop-replacement. That argument might not hold much salt soon though, as 2.6 paves the way to achieve that goal.
The most noticeable change in the latest version is a more streamlined GUI. No longer will there be multiple items in the taskbar open for each image or related window (finally!), and the main application window will be shown at all times, with the images and toolboxes settled within, similar to how Photoshop currently works.
Other new features include an ability for 32-bit floating-point RGBA color, although the legacy 8-bit code paths are enabled by default and will remain so until the GEGL framework is considered completely stable. There are far too many more new features to talk about here, but I'd recommend checking out the release notes page that explains everything, in addition to the Ars article below.
There are a number of important functionality improvements that will be welcomed by users, too. The freehand selection tool now has support for polygonal selections and editing selection segments, the GIMP text tool has been enhanced to support automatic wrapping and reflow when text areas are resized, and a new brush dynamics feature has added some additional capabilities to the ink and paint tools.
Source: Ars Technica
The most noticeable change in the latest version is a more streamlined GUI. No longer will there be multiple items in the taskbar open for each image or related window (finally!), and the main application window will be shown at all times, with the images and toolboxes settled within, similar to how Photoshop currently works.
Other new features include an ability for 32-bit floating-point RGBA color, although the legacy 8-bit code paths are enabled by default and will remain so until the GEGL framework is considered completely stable. There are far too many more new features to talk about here, but I'd recommend checking out the release notes page that explains everything, in addition to the Ars article below.
There are a number of important functionality improvements that will be welcomed by users, too. The freehand selection tool now has support for polygonal selections and editing selection segments, the GIMP text tool has been enhanced to support automatic wrapping and reflow when text areas are resized, and a new brush dynamics feature has added some additional capabilities to the ink and paint tools.
Source: Ars Technica