A GIMP 2.8 preview [LWN.net]

The gimpusers.com site has a preview of new features in the upcoming GIMP 2.8 release. "It's now possible to group layers into folders in a tree-like way. You can move and show/hide all layers of a group at once so it will finally be possible to create complex layouts without getting lost. The layer sets don't work perfectly, since layer masks don't work yet for example. Nevertheless the basic behaviour works quite well already!" 16-bit image depth is not on the list, unfortunately.

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A GIMP 2.8 preview

Posted Sep 8, 2009 16:41 UTC (Tue) by leoc (guest, #39773) [Link] (6 responses)

16-bit image depth is not on the list

Sort of mentioned it in item 17: "most important GEGL functions are integrated to GIMP now and the course for GIMP 2.10 / 3.0 is set. This will allow great new features for future versions, but not before 2010" The "great new features" apparently includes 16 bit support.

A GIMP 2.8 preview

Posted Sep 8, 2009 18:49 UTC (Tue) by jzbiciak (guest, #5246) [Link] (3 responses)

I was wondering the same thing. Are there other aspects to 16-bit support that GEGL doesn't address, such as file I/O on 16-bit data? Will the GIMP 2.8's XCF format support it? Or will GEGL just give the plumbing and the internal precision on operations, with the inputs and outputs to GEGL constrained to 8-bit until the rest of GIMP catches up?

A GIMP 2.8 preview

Posted Sep 8, 2009 19:13 UTC (Tue) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link] (2 responses)

I thik that Gimp developers have been working on making sure that Gimp was ready to accept Gegl for a while now. I think that that, along with theme-ing improvements, were a significant driving force behind the development of the last couple Gimp versions. They have put a lot of effort in refactoring Gimp to be ready for Gegl when time comes for full integration.

What your seeing with 2.6 and 2.8 is that Gegl is being introduced gradually. It is currently in a transition process.

A GIMP 2.8 preview

Posted Sep 9, 2009 3:42 UTC (Wed) by jzbiciak (guest, #5246) [Link] (1 responses)

Well, I certainly hope that translates to such niceties as 16-bit / floating point color depth and non-destructive edits in the long run. I'm not holding my breath that everything GEGL supports works in 2.8.0.

A GIMP 2.8 preview

Posted Sep 9, 2009 14:30 UTC (Wed) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

Well ya. The developers stated that they still have not transitioned fully to gegl. I think in 2.6 they are using it as some filters and plugins, with this release they are using it in the layers. This is how they are able to do the "layer group" features.

They probably won't start replacing the legacy 8-bit-only rendering engine until after 2.8 is out.

GEGL integration

Posted Sep 9, 2009 6:23 UTC (Wed) by Felix.Braun (guest, #3032) [Link] (1 responses)

Does GEGL integration mean stackable filters, so that you can undo the changes of any filtering operation without losing the ones that came afterwards?

GEGL integration

Posted Sep 9, 2009 14:35 UTC (Wed) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

It will eventually, When fully impemented it should allow several forms of non-destructive editing. Filtering layers will be one of them. Another should be the ability to selectly undo abritrary steps without having to go through the undo-undo-undo song and dance... that is if you don't like a edit you made 12 steps ago you don't have to undo 12 steps.. you can go and undo that portion of history without losing the work you've done since then.

That sort of thing should improve the workflow massively and increase the speed at which it makes it possible to get things done. But that sort of thing is not going to make it into 2.8