Finally … Gimp 3.0 is out

Four and a half years after the release of the first development version and seven years after the 2.10 release, version 3.0 of the open-source graphics program Gimp was published on March 16, 2025.

Among the new features, the non-destructive editing stands out, which is available for most filters. Instead of pressing the “Undo” key multiple times and thereby also undoing other changes, filter operations can now be re-edited directly. However, through the menu option “Merge Filters,” the old destructive filter workflow can also be reactivated.

There have also been significant improvements in color management. Gimp can now handle RGB color spaces beyond sRGB. Unfortunately, due to a lack of support for the CMYK color space, GIMP is still not suitable for prepress printing workflows.

Further improvements, for example in the text tool or in the simultaneous selection of multiple layers, are presented in the release notes.

Under the hood, Gimp has been upgraded from Gtk 2 to Gtk 3, so the program scales better on large HiDPI screens and also runs natively on the new Wayland graphics server.

However, after porting, porting is already waiting again because Gtk 4 has long since been released.

Meanwhile, the Gimp project has promised that it will not take so long until the next minor release. Such releases are planned to appear every year, so Gimp 3.2 is expected in 2026.