GIMP 2.7.3 arrives with single-window mode

In a post on the project's homepage, the GIMP development team has announced the arrival of the third point update to the 2.7.x branch of GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). According to the developers, GIMP 2.7.3 introduces a number of important features and graphical user interface (GUI) improvements, such as a fully functional single-window mode.

In the single-window mode, elements such as the tools or layers menus are lined up alongside the image in the same window instead of being displayed in separate windows next to the image. The new single-window mode is not enabled by default; users can switch to the single-window mode via Windows -> Single Window Mode. Other changes include working session management and a new hybrid spinbutton/scale widget that takes up less space. New tooltips have also been added to tool options.

The 2.7.x series is the project's unstable development branch which is building towards the next stable release, version 2.8. As with all development releases, use in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to provide feedback and report any bugs that they find.

More details about this development release, including a full list of changes, can be found in a post on the GIMP developer mailing list, in the release notes and in the NEWS file. Sources for GIMP 2.7.2 are available to download from the project's FTP servers (FTP link), as well as from the various mirrors.

While an official release date for GIMP 2.8 has yet to be confirmed, the project is currently targeting late November of this year. The latest stable release is GIMP 2.6.11 from October 2010. GIMP is released under version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GPLv2).

See also:

• Linux photo tools, a feature from The H.

(crve)