GIMP 2.99.16 Launched: enhanced UI, new features, and improved file format support

GIMP 2.99.16, the latest version of the popular photo editor, has been launched with several new features and improvements. A notable update is the "Merge menu and title bar" interface option, providing extra vertical space by moving the menu bar to the title bar area. This feature is not automatically enabled and isn't applicable to Mac due to macOS's unique menu bar placement. The developers have also simplified the dialog windows for stroke selection and stroke path, improving the image editing process.

The new version also introduces a "Middle Gray (CIELAB)" option for filling new images or layers, supplementing existing options like white, black, and transparency. GIMP 2.99.16 has transitioned from the GTK 2.0 framework to GTK 3.0, offering a modernized interface and support for high pixel density screens (Hi-DPI). The transition began in 2017 and was first implemented in 2020 with GIMP 2.99.2, and has been progressively enhanced since then.

The photo editor also supports new file formats and improves some existing ones, such as the FITS image format, commonly used in astronomy, which has been improved through integration with NASA's cfitsio library. GIMP now maintains clipping paths in Adobe Photoshop PSD files and supports CMYK(A) in JPEG-XL exports. The software now also supports the PAM, QOI, DCX, and Amiga IFF/ILBM file formats. The update brings hundreds of improvements that can be seen in the official release statement, and it can also be downloaded from the official website and will soon be available in package repositories. By now, GIMP is widely known as one of the best open-source alternatives to commercial software like Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo, but if you want to take a look at other alternatives, you might be interested in Krita or darktable (for photography).