n 21st November, Jehan Pages, the lead developer of the GNU Image O Manipulation Program (GIMP), announced on Patreon that the muchanticipated GIMP 3.0 is tentatively scheduled for release at the Libre Graphics Conference in May 2024.
In broad terms, the plan involves releasing a development version in December 2023. Naturally, this will require a GUI feature freeze, which is set for mid-December, allowing coders to halt new feature development and focus on bug fixes. However, this means that long-awaited features, such as full support for non-destructive filters attached to layers, may have to be included in a patch release instead of being part of GIMP 3.0 itself.
GIMP’s new API allows it to make much better use of colour spaces and models. However, rewriting the API will allow little time for bug fixes. This may be why the feature freeze will not include API changes. Pages has stated this is because “an additional month for the last little tweaks may be worth it”.