GIMP 2.10.38: Elevating the Windows Tablet Experience to New Heights
GIMP is a versatile open-source bitmap image editor that supports a wide range of tasks, from photo retouching and editing to drawing, resizing, cropping, montage effects, and image format conversion. It is available for multiple platforms, including GNU/Linux, Windows, and Mac.
Today, GIMP version 2.10.38 has been released, with a key focus on optimizing the experience for Windows 10/11 tablet users. This update addresses several issues, including unresponsive buttons, incorrect pressure sensitivity, and brush lag, which were limitations of the GTK2 framework. Thanks to the efforts of long-time contributor Luca Bacci, support for the more efficient Windows Ink driver has been backported from GTK3 to GTK2.
With this update, users can now switch to the Windows Ink driver in the GIMP settings under "Input Devices > Extended Input Devices > Pointer Input API." This change promises a significantly improved experience for those using GIMP on Windows tablets.
Additionally, Bacci has backported other features and improvements from GTK3 to GTK2, including a resized printer dialog box to prevent button truncation, fixes for pop-up dialog covering issues, and keyboard input problems.
GIMP New Features and Improvements:
Enhanced support for Windows 10/11 tablets: In previous versions of GIMP, tablet connectivity was limited to the WinTab driver, which had several issues. Now, with the Windows Ink driver, users can expect better performance and accuracy.
When using the WinTab driver, users may have experienced problems such as unresponsive buttons, incorrect pressure sensitivity, brush lag, and jitter during strokes. These issues were inherent limitations of the GTK2 framework.
The option to switch to the Windows Ink driver can be found in the GIMP settings: "Input Devices > Extended Input Devices > Pointer Input API." By selecting this option, users will enjoy a much-improved tablet experience with GIMP on Windows 10 and 11.
Other backported features from GTK3 to GTK2 include a resized printer dialog box to ensure buttons are not cut off, fixes for pop-up dialog covering issues, and improvements for keyboard input problems.
Error Fixes:
This update addresses two critical crashes: one related to closing GIMP, which was caused by a change in GLib 2.80, and another occurring during very small area selections. Both issues have been resolved thanks to the contributions of Luca Bacci, who designed the fixes for both the current 2.10.38 version and the upcoming 3.0 release candidate.
Additionally, an issue with abnormal crashes when exiting GIMP has been resolved, along with a problem where PNG images with transparency indexes were not exporting colors correctly.
Other Error Fixes:
- Fixed improper color export for PNG images with transparency indexes.
- Fixed input range for various filters, including Waves and Distort.
- Custom titles now support UTF-8 characters, allowing for a wider range of text options.
- Existing image comments will no longer "leak" into newly created images.