GIMP 2.8 Will Sport a Redesigned UI

ceswiedler writes "Ars Technica's Ryan Paul previews the upcoming release of the GIMP. It will include a single-window mode where the user can dock toolbar windows and switch between images via tabs. There are other improvements as well, including docking support in multi-window mode and improvements to the text tool." To get this early preview, Paul compiled version 2.7.1 from the active development branch, along with its dependencies.

Comments

"... Two Steps Back"

[onetruedabe]

Are they still committed to breaking one of Gimp's best features: "Intelligent Save" ? (Inferring file type based on extension)

Splitting "File > Export" and "File > Save" is counter-intuitive; it's not DWIMish, and I guarantee more people will be frustrated that the Save dialog box is "broken" when they try to save a JPG and end up with an XCF file instead. "File > Export" reeks of being Designed By Developers, rather than actually taking user behavior into account.

(And stealing the keystroke for "Fit In Window" is just adding insult to injury...)

Re:Smartest workflow move ....ever!

[SpooForBrains]

That's all very well and good, but a window manager that's broken covers:

KDE
GNOME (I believe - I've never used it in anger myself)
Windows
and probably MANY more, if not most. So, a significant proportion of the potential user-base.

Yes, some of these can be configured to work the way the developers require for sensible functioning of their app.

Also, this does not address the problem of having to use GIMP with multiple workspaces/desktops, whereby "Send to desktop n" will send the image you're working on, but none of the toolbars or dialogs associated with working on that image. This was my second biggest bugbear of using GIMP (the first, obviously, being the absurdly steep learning curve).