GIMP, the popular image editing software, announced the first release candidate for the next major 3.2 version yesterday.

This is the third development release for GIMP 3.2. It introduced some new keyboard shortcuts, new and improved image formats support, API changes and UI/UX improvements.

The on-canvas editor for the Text Tool now is movable. It now includes a move cursor icon in left side, allowing to drag on it to move the on-canvas editor. While, a circle arrow icon is also available to reset its position.

Besides that, this RC release added new Shift + Ctrl + V keyboard shortcut to paste unformatted text in the on-canvas editor, and new Shift+X shortcut to switch between current and last used tools, while, user has choice to change the shortcut by Edit -> Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.

The release also added support exporting SVG as actual vectors. While, the export dialog offers options to optionally embed raster layers as either PNGs or JPEG.

The PDF plug-in now exports vector layers as actual vectors, meaning that those layers can be further edited in other vector graphics software.

As well, it supports importing PowerVR (PVR) texture files, which is most commonly used for SEGA Dreamcast games and mods, and supports loading any supported image that’s compressed by GIMP standard compression algorithms.

GIMP 3.2 RC1 also improved its UI/UX experience by allowing to drag and drop image files on-to tab bar to open multiple images, drag and drop color swatches from the Color History, and hide GIMP from macOS App Menu.

It as well updated the API with new GimpImage and GimpItem widgets added to GimpProcedureDialog, and many additional public API commands for text, vector, and link layers.

Other changes include:

• Simulate adjustment layers with layer groups.
• Document History dockable is now multi-selection aware.
• Update Windows Installer with automatic Dark Mode support.
• Update color immediately after typing hex colors without hitting Enter.
• Fixes and improvements to the link layer and vector layer features introduced in last 3.1.4.
• various security fixes.

For more about this RC release, see the official announcement.

How to Install GIMP 3.2 RC1

GIMP provides official installer packages for Linux, Windows, and macOS, which are available to download via the link below:

For Linux, they include Snap package which can be directly installed from Ubuntu Software or App Center.

While, user may also choose non-install AppImage that can be launched directly after adding executable permission.

Or install the Flatpak package in sandbox environment for most Linux by running command after enabled flatpak support:

flatpak install --user https://flathub.org/beta-repo/appstream/org.gimp.GIMP.flatpakref

And, launch the Flatpak package via the command below in case you also has the stable version installed as Flatpak.

flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP//beta

Uninstall GIMP 3.2 Devel version

For the AppImage and Snap package, either delete the file or uninstall via App Center (or Ubuntu Software).

For the Flatpak package, use the command below to uninstall:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.gimp.GIMP//beta

You may then even delete the flathub-beta repository afterward by running command:

flatpak remote-delete flathub-beta

NOTE: the command will list and uninstall all apps and runtimes installed from the Beta repository. Answer NO if you want to keep any of them.