gimp/NEWS

                   ------------------------------
                   GNU Image Manipulation Program
                         Development Branch
                   ------------------------------

This is the development branch of GIMP.


Overview of Changes from GIMP 3.1.4 to GIMP 3.2-RC1
===================================================

Core:

  - macOS: "Quit" from the dock's right-click menu will now follow our
    standard Quit procedure, by intercepting the
    applicationShouldTerminate signal, instead of forcing the
    application to close (hence losing unsaved changes).
  - "Add Layer Mask" will now have an "Edit mask immediately" checkbox
    allowing to decide whether to go into Edit Mask state or not. This
    setting is saved across repetitive actions, as all other settings in
    this dialog.

Graphical User Interface:

  - "Monitor Linked Image" and "Discard Link Information" menu items
    added to Layer menu when the selected layer is a link layer.
  - The GimpColorHexEntry will now update the chosen color as you type.
  - Use a standard, yet extended, AppMenu on macOS.

Plug-Ins:

  - file-compressor: add zip decompression support. This allows support
    for .hgt.zip files, as well as other formats compressed with zip.

API:

  - The following libgimpbase API are now deprecated:
    * gimp_pixpipe_params_init
    * gimp_pixpipe_params_parse
    * gimp_pixpipe_params_build
    * gimp_pixpipe_params_free
  - New libgimp functions:
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_enable_fill
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_enable_stroke
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_fill_color
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_path
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_stroke_cap_style
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_stroke_color
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_stroke_dash_offset
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_stroke_dash_pattern
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_stroke_join_style
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_stroke_miter_limit
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_stroke_width
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_stroke_width_unit
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_enable_fill
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_enable_stroke
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_fill_color
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_stroke_cap_style
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_stroke_color
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_stroke_dash_offset
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_stroke_dash_pattern
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_stroke_join_style
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_stroke_miter_limit
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_stroke_width
    * gimp_vector_layer_set_stroke_width_unit
    * gimp_item_is_vector_layer
    * gimp_item_id_is_link_layer
    * gimp_item_is_link_layer
    * gimp_link_layer_discard
    * gimp_link_layer_get_by_id
    * gimp_link_layer_get_file
    * gimp_link_layer_get_type
    * gimp_link_layer_monitor
    * gimp_link_layer_new
    * gimp_link_layer_set_file
    * gimp_param_link_layer_get_type
    * gimp_param_spec_link_layer
    * gimp_procedure_add_link_layer_argument
    * gimp_procedure_add_link_layer_aux_argument
    * gimp_procedure_add_link_layer_return_value
    * gimp_link_layer_get_mime_type
  - New libgimp class: GimpLinkLayer


Overview of Changes from GIMP 3.1.2 to GIMP 3.1.4
=================================================

Core:

  - About dialog now shows "Up to date as of <date>" text for more
    clarity.
  - Fixed config migration when updating to GIMP 3.1/2.
  - Reorganizing layer search code into generic item tree view search
    code for further reusing into other use cases.
  - Internal classes, config items and actions renamed from "vectors" to
    "path".
  - Some cleanup of outdated disabled unit tests and other warnings.
  - Restructuration of internal GimpControllerManager and
    GimpContainerView API.
  - GimpContainerListView now uses a GtkListBox. A Playground switch was
    added to use the new widgets in all views that can be switched
    between list and grid view (brushes, patterns etc.). This won't
    likely get out of Playground before GIMP 4 because it is far too
    slow right now (and apparently we'll need GTK4 for making it fast as
    our current lists).
  - Various code have been moving away from GtkTreeView and some new
    internal classes were added as a preparation for GTK4 port.
  - GEX format updated to use standard <custom/> instead of <metadata/>
    per update in the AppStream specs in the last few years. This
    doesn't make any compatibility issue since this format is purely
    internal only for now, not public.
  - New setting "Update metadata automatically" in Preferences > Image
    Import & Export > Export Policies. When enabled, add and update
    metadata automatically. When disabled, only the minimum necessary
    metadata changes are made, without changing modification date,
    synchronizing tags, or updating the software and change history
    metadata. This new setting is enabled by default.
  - Fix palette import to properly import colors with alpha values from
    palettes.
  - New layer types:
    * vector layers
    * link layers
  - Fill/Stroke editor are now live-previewing color changes for vector
    layer fill/stroke and text layer outlines.

Tools:

  - MyPaint brush tool was ported to the newer MyPaintSurface2 API. A
    consequence is that we now depend on mypaint-brushes-2.0 instead of
    mypaint-brushes-1.0.
  - Seamless Clone (Playground): made to work again, but is still too
    slow to move out of Playground.
  - The Paths tool has updated UI to create vector layers.
  - Text tool: bold, italic and underline can now be applied with
    commonly used shortcuts (Ctrl+b, i and u respectively).
  - Vector and Link layers cannot be painted on, and filters cannot be
    merged on them. They now need to be explicitly downgraded to raster
    layers.

Graphical User Interface:

  - More consistent capitalization across text in UI.
  - Use system colors on Windows title bar when System colors theme is
    set.
  - Make the comment text area sensitive in Export procedure dialogs
    depending on whether "Save Comment" checkbox is checked or not.
  - In various GUI using a GtkStack (Input Controller dialogue,
    Preferences dialogue, and Welcome dialogue), we now turn off
    animations when it is set OFF system-wide.
  - "System" color scheme now also works on macOS.
  - GimpSpinScale cursors now changed to "pointer" when hovering the
    slider area and "col-resize" when actually grabbing the cursor.
  - The Welcome dialog will now recognize your standard shortcuts to
    create a new file, open a file or open one of the 10 most recent
    files.

Plug-Ins:

  - TIFF - Add support for the following features, based on unofficial
    documentation and user-provided sample files:
    * Sets the selected layer based on the image-level metadata.
    * Sets the visibility of the background layer based on the image
      level metadata.
    * Sets the blend mode and color tag of each layer, based on extended
      layer-level metadata. Legacy blend modes are used, based on
      user feedback and comparison with Sketchbook.
    * Creates group layers and stores layers in them. Layers are read from
      top to bottom, and layer groups are added and filled based on layer
      level metadata.
  - Animation Playback was redesigned to more closely resemble standard
    playback UIs. The redesign also changes the progress bar to a
    GtkScale, so users can more easily move to different frames on the
    timeline.
  - New GEGL Filter Browser plug-in to list and inspect all available
    filters for development purpose.
  - New import support:
    * PAA textures: initial import support (includes RGBA 4444, 5551,
      8888, and Grayscale with Alpha channel. It does not yet cover DXT1
      - 5 texture import support).
    * Seattle Filmworks photos (earliest format SFW93A, and the most
      common format SFW94A). Both formats are essentially mangled JPEGs,
      though mangled in different ways.
    * HRZ Slow Scan Television Images (restored, as it used to be
      implemented and removed in 2004).
  - Raw Image data plug-in dialog redesigned to be on a two-column
    layout to avoid over-high dialog.
  - Print: in sandboxed environments (Flatpak, Snap), the print Settings
    are now displayed as a second dialog after the portal print dialog.
    This 2-step workflow is a work-around to the inability to tweak the
    print dialog when the print portal is in use.

API:

  - GimpTRCType enum type made available in libgimp and PDB.
  - gimp-file-save properly sets associated save or exported files.
  - New PDB/libgimp functions:
    * gimp_drawable_filter_operation_get_available()
    * gimp_drawable_filter_operation_get_details()
    * gimp_drawable_filter_operation_get_pspecs()
    * gimp_context_get_paint_fade_length()
    * gimp_context_get_paint_fade_repeat()
    * gimp_context_set_paint_fade_length()
    * gimp_context_set_paint_fade_repeat()
    * gimp_item_id_is_vector_layer()
    * gimp_param_spec_vector_layer()
    * gimp_procedure_add_vector_layer_argument()
    * gimp_procedure_add_vector_layer_aux_argument()
    * gimp_procedure_add_vector_layer_return_value()
    * gimp_vector_layer_discard()
    * gimp_vector_layer_get_by_id()
    * gimp_vector_layer_new()
    * gimp_vector_layer_refresh()
  - GimpSizeEntry (libgimpwidget) can now parse mathematical expressions
    in their reference value spin buttons too.
  - GimpColorScales (libgimpwidget) will now set its decimals to 0 when
    creating u8 RGB color selectors. This change will help further
    distinguish between the 0...00 and 0..255 views in the Color
    Selectors. It will also better convey to users that u8 is an integer
    value rather than a floating point.
  - Favor existing image comment instead of always loading comment from
    metadata.
  - Improve handling of comment metadata with
    "charset=[ascii|InvalidCharsetId]" prefixes.
  - New GIMP_METADATA_SAVE_UPDATE value in enum type
    GimpMetadataSaveFlags (libgimpbase).
  - Modernize setting "Exif.Image.DateTime" metadata by setting the
    timezone additionally.

Build:

  - Add nightly Snap package.
  - Add nightly Aarch64 flatpak.
  - appstream-glib dependency replaced with libappstream
  - Installer uses latest InnoSetup now.
  - New configure option -Dwin-debugging allowing to choose DWARF debug
    symbols on Windows instead of the native (CodeView) symbols. This
    will be useful for people wishing to debug with GDB in particular.


Overview of Changes from GIMP 3.0.4 to GIMP 3.1.2
=================================================

Core:

  - Layer mask created from layer's alpha when there is no alpha
    channel is now a fully opaque mask.
  - Major non-destructive filter code refactoring.
  - Lock Content now generates undo steps.
  - NDE filters are now allowed on channels.
  - Merging filter will now add an alpha channel to a layer if required.
  - Refactoring Photoshop stream loading functions.
  - Loading Photoshop RGB and grayscale patterns (.pat, unfortunately
    the same extension as our own pattern format) now supported.
  - The histogram editor now shows a "Compute unique colors:" checkbox
    which will display the unique color count in the image.
  - Deleting current palette entry now selects the next entry in the
    palette.
  - New paint mode: Overwrite. Note that this mode is only available for
    paint tools right now (in particular not for layers, neither in
    filters).

Graphical User Interface:

  - Brushes and Fonts dockables: new "Use theme colors for preview"
    toggle button.
  - The Palettes and Palette Editor dockables, and the Palette tab in
    FB/BG Color dockable, also follow theme colors for grid display.
  - New "System" color scheme which will follow the system's color
    scheme setting (on Unix-like systems when XDG Settings portal is
    installed and on Windows).

Tools:

  - Curves tool: Photoshop curves file format (.acv) can now be loaded.
  - Levels tool: Photoshop levels file format (.alv) can now be loaded.
  - Text tool: new "Outline Direction" settings.

Plug-Ins:

  - Jigsaw: the plug-in now draws on transparent layers too.
  - Playstation TIM images now supported (import/export).
  - Palettes can now be exported as Krita .kpl palette.
  - Over The Air Bitmap (Nokia mobile image format) now supported for
    import.
  - PSD:
    * legacy Drop Shadow layer style is now imported on loading.
    * legacy Inner Shadow layer style is now imported on loading.
  - file-raw: new support for ART (Another RawTherapee, fork of the
    latter) as a RAW loader.
  - OpenEXR: support for importing multi-layer OpenEXR images.
  - JPEG 2000: export support added.
  - APNG: initial import support.
  - JIF: new import support for Jeff's Image Format.
  - ORA: support the extensions storing layer's "pixel locked" and
    "selected" status on import and export.
  - Script-Fu: new function (script-fu-register-i18n) for setting up
    localization of Script-Fu plug-ins.
  - HEIF:
    * new AVCI import support (requires libheif 1.19.6 with OpenH264
      decoder enabled);
    * new HEJ2 export support (requires libheif 1.19.8 with OpenJPEG
      support).
  - New export support for PSB.

Modules:

  - CMYK selector: Total Ink Coverage (total percentage of ink that
    would be needed to print a particular color) information is now
    shown.

API:

  - Changes in libgimpwidgets:
    * New functions:
      + gimp_prop_toggle_new()
  - Changes in libgimpui:
    * New functions:
      + gimp_procedure_dialog_get_coordinates()
    * gimp_procedure_dialog_get_widget() will now generate a radio frame
      widget for GimpChoice arguments of 2 choices only (and will still
      default to a combo box for larger choices list).

PDB:

  - none_ok tag now allowed on sample_point and guide PDB types.

Build:

  - File format associations list now generated by the build system for
    Windows and OSes using the Desktop file.
  - Flatpak: verify nightly flatpak dependencies with the
    flatpak-external-data-checker (like we do for stable and beta
    flatpaks).
  - Various non-portable scripts were ported to be properly
    POSIX-compliant and to allow native builds on all OS (e.g. Windows).
  - Some soft checks were also added to the build system to prevent
    re-introduction of non-portable code.


Overview of Changes from GIMP 3.0.2 to GIMP 3.0.4
=================================================

Core:

  - Make maximum radius for generated brushes consistent across
    codebase.
  - Use NDE filter name for undo history.
  - Module loading improved to be better cross-platform (in particular
    on macOS both .so and .dylib modules are supported).
  - Code compliant with GCC 15 (C23).
  - Filter size updated when its drawable is rotated.
  - Font loading (at startup) optimized.
  - Set the proper program name for KDE/Wayland to map the process to
    the correct desktop file.
  - "windows-display-*" are hidden from the Shortcuts dialog (they are
    not meant to be remapped).
  - Editing non-destructive effects now triggers undo steps.
  - When migrating from GIMP 2.x to GIMP 3, shortcuts for actions
    "edit-paste-as-new-layer*" are now converted to "edit-paste-merged*"
    (and not "edit-paste*" anymore which was confusing and
    counter-productive).

Graphical User Interface:

  - Highlight selected device in GimpDeviceStatus.
  - Various theme leak fixes.
  - UX improvement: GimpViewableDialog (e.g. Fill/Stroke path and more)
    now has "OK" as default response.
  - Icon size settings now also applying to Move and Transform icon
    boxes.
  - Commit hash is now shown in About dialog in all non-release builds
    (i.e. even in stable series, when we are in-between releases).
  - Hide Force slider for Pencil Tool (rather than just making it
    insensitive).
  - Define merged titlebar icon colors.
  - Keep menubar color consistent when out of focus.
  - We don't show Fx icon for tool-based filters.
  - Updated splash without micro version in it.
  - Removed size restrictions on Display Filters.
  - Don't show hidden tools on toolbox tooltips.
  - Fix "Keep above" Window Manager hint.
  - Multi-Window mode on Windows: dock windows' title bars now adapt to
    the Windows system theme colors too.
  - Show palette name in Palette Color Selector.

Tools:

  - MyPaint Brush: have consistent options layout compared to other
    paint tools.
  - Scissors Select Tool: close the curve on Enter, similar to the Path
    tool.
  - Path Tool: connect path on click in design mode.

Plug-ins:

  - Restore GUI to Difference Clouds script. This had been lost since
    GIMP 2.8!
  - Fixes in various file format support, such as: DDS, SVG, TIFF, PSD,
    BMP, ICO…
  - Screenshot dropdowns replaced by radio buttons, as part of a new UX
    decision that choice settings with 2 or 3 choices should be dropdown
    (faster 1-click access), unless there are a lot more settings making
    the dialog too crowded already.

PDB:

  - Make "gimp-plug-ins-query" public again (yet still not available in
    libgimp).

Build:

  - Windows Installer:
    * Make the installer aware of Install, Reinstall and Update modes.
    * Add Repair mode to Windows installer: in particular we can now fix
      installations when the previous install directory cannot be
      accessed anymore.
    * The feature to delete the config folder on Windows uninstall will
      now make a backup on the Desktop first (allowing people to delete
      it themselves, move it, or even restore it later if needed).
    * Uninstalling while GIMP is running is made impossible (among other
      issues, it was causing partial uninstallation).
    * Downgrading is only possible by uninstalling first.
    * Development warning is shown in dev build of stable series too.
    * Add fractional scaling support to Installer welcome image.
    * Restore points now have a timeout to prevent stuckness.
  - Our AppImage won't ship debug symbols anymore. Better debugging can
    be set with: export DEBUGINFOD_URLS="https://debuginfod.debian.net"
  - Windows builds:
    * Ship babl/GEGL and libgimp headers, static libs and pkg-config
      files for plug-in developers.
    * Dedicated file icon for XCF files.
    * Generate native .pdb CodeView symbols on Windows (smaller debug
      data files, usable by MSIX and better debugging ability), except
      on x86 (32-bit).
  - Crossbuilds are dropped from CI.
  - Shell scripts used in the meson build are ported to Python (more
    portable and much faster on some platforms, in particular Windows).
  - Some build scripts were moved around for reorganization.
  - Depency requirement bumped:
    * babl 0.1.114
    * GEGL 0.4.62
  - New "Inputs" feature for simpler Gitlab pipelines running.
  - Some in-repository documentation was cleaned up.


Overview of Changes from GIMP 3.0.0 to GIMP 3.0.2
=================================================

This is a bug-fix only release.

Core:

  - Mark some strings translatable.
  - Fix crash when choosing a brush in grid view.
  - Windows: temporary revert of some Input Device handling code which
    was breaking pressure sensitivity for some graphics tablets (though
    this revert may make issues with the eraser tip).
  - Fix crash when choosing a non-existing font in text tool options.

Tools:

  - Reorder Line Art Detection options per design decision.

Graphical User Interface:

  - Keep headerbar color consistent when out of focus.
  - Histogram uses the luminance value of the foreground color as a
    threshold to lighten or darken the border color for contrast with
    the histogram itself.
  - Improve separation between panels in dark theme.
  - Add default response for GimpQueryBox dialogues.
  - Spacing between toolbox widgets improved.
  - GimpSpinScale slider colors inverted.
  - New icons: "gimp-toggle-on" and "gimp-toggle-off" and using them in
    the Search Action's list as icons for toggle actions.

Plug-ins:

  - Python Console uses the luminance of the background color for error
    text.
  - Metadata Editor: fix buffer overflow.
  - Gradient Flare: fix crash when setting the size to 0.
  - Screenshot: X11 implementation is bypassed (in favor of portals)
    when running on XWayland.

Build:

  - Various packaging fixes and cleanup.
  - The Windows installer now prompts (only in user installation) about
    deleting GIMP config files when uninstalling.
  - GEGL 0.4.58 is now our minimum requirement.
  - Windows installer: create Restore Point on system-wide install.