Hello and welcome to yet another tutorial by Davies Media Design, my name is Michael
Davies, and in today's tutorial I'll be showing you what's new in the latest version - GIMP
2.10.8.
So this version was released on November 9th for Linux and MAC users - that was a Friday
- and then Saturday, November 10th for Windows users.
There's a decent amount of new features in here.
Mostly bug fixes that happen on the back-end, and so we're going to get into detail about
what the fixes are for the latest version.
But, of course, before we get into all that, I want to direct you guys over to my website
at DaviesMediaDesign.com.
As always, we have tons of GIMP video and how-to articles on here, so definitely check
that out.
You can also enroll in our best-selling GIMP Photo Editing Course: From Beginner to Pro
Photo Retoucher on Udemy.
And I'll include a discount link for you guys in the description.
You can also support our channel and help us grow by becoming a Patron on Patreon, and
you'll get some awesome GIMP extras in return.
And I'll include a link to this as well as all the relevant links from this tutorial
in the description of the video.
The main image we'll be using for this tutorial is this one here from Pixabay.
And you can download this for free right here via the Free Download button.
So here we are in GIMP 2.10.8 there's not really any noticeable changes when you first
open this up, but as you dive into what the new changes are, the new updates for this
latest version, there's actually a decent amount going on, and some of it is pretty
exciting, even if it isn't a feature that we're really going to get the full benefits
of in this version - maybe it's setting it up for better future versions of GIMP.
Anyway, without further adieu, I'm going to dive in here.
And, the main thing that GIMP mentions - the GIMP team - about this latest version of GIMP,
is that it has some performance improvements.
And this is especially true when it comes to less powerful machines.
So my computer is actually somewhat powerful, and I think that I maybe don't see or benefit
from these latest performance updates because I didn't really notice anything new.
So I guess I'm kind of giving the GIMP team the benefit of the doubt here.
But I didn't notice any real improvements in the performance here for my GIMP.
But sticking with performance - they also updated the performance dashboard which is
something they added in GIMP 2.10.
And you can get to that by going to Windows>Dockable Dialogues>and then come down here to Dashboard.
So this is telling you how your computer and how GIMP are performing as you are performing
actions here inside of GIMP.
And so the new feature they added to this is the ability to record your performance
log.
I think this is a feature that's probably more so for developers within GIMP because
when you record this, it is going to record it as a .log file.
So once I choose my location where I want to store this I'll hit record.
And I did this before so I'm just going to hit replace on it.
So right now you can see it's recording my performance.
So as I work on this image - you know, maybe I'm, painting on here or maybe I scale this
- perform a transformation, whatever - my computer's going to perform differently depending
on what actions I'm doing within GIMP.
And all of these are being recorded - you know, the CPU fluctuations, maybe the memory
usage - that's all being recorded here in the Performance Logs.
So, I'm going to hit stop recording on that, and that's going to record everything to,
like I said, a .log file, and this is just pure code.
And right now this has actually been opened early - before.
I just re-recorded this.
So let me just hit yes -it's going to update it based on that newest recording I just made.
So this is what you see within this performance log.
It's all code.
So, if you're not a developer - you don't know anything about coding - this is just
going to be a bunch of gibberish to you.
So anyway I think the aim of that feature is to allow GIMP developers to just sort of
test the performance of certain features, filters, whatever, while they're within GIMP,
and just go back later and look at those performance numbers and see where those can be improved.
So there's also been some bug fixes for various features found in GIMP.
The first is Wavelet Decompose.
If you're not familiar with that, Wavelet Decompose is a filter.
So, go to Filters>Enhance>Wavelet Decompose.
And what this does is it basically separates your image into various high and low frequency
layers.
And I'm going to click OK on this.
So this is going to separate this into 5 different layers.
So here are the 5 different frequency layers.
And this is most commonly used, or most useful, in a situation where you're trying to improve
somebody's complexion - you know, improve somebody's skin on a model or a subject.
But apparently there were some bugs with this feature.
This is now a built-in filter, but it wasn't always.
It used to be an external plugin that you had to download.
So that being said, I think when they added it into GIMP 2.10 as a built-in feature it
had some bugs with it.
So they went ahead and fixed those bugs.
Let me just come over here and delete this cause we're not going to need this for the
rest of the tutorial.
So the next bug fix has to do with the vertical text tool, which is a feature that was added
in GIMP 2.10.6.
So I'll grab my text tool here, and I'm just going to type "Guitar" for this - since we've
got a guy playing guitar.
And I'm just going to increase the size of the font a little bit here.
So I'll right click on here and I'm going to change this to my Vertical - and lets go
"left to right" text.
Here we've got vertical text now.
So I guess there was an issue with adding vertical text to a path, and the way you do
that is you create a path using the "Ken Brewer" Paths Tool.
And I'm just going to draw a path around our guy playing the guitar here.
So now we've drawn our path, and I'm going to come back over to my text tool, and I'm
just going to click to select all my text in here.
If I right click on here you'll see I have two options - I have "Path from Text" and
"Text Along Path."So Text Along Path is going to take my text and it's going to draw it
along this path here.
So I'll click that option.
And now you'll see - I mean it looks kind of wonky cause the path I drew has a lot of
curves and everything - but, there were some issues with this in the previous version.
So now those issues have been resolved with some bug fixes within GIMP 2.10.8.
So let me just come over here to our paths tool and delete that path cause its kind of
ugly.
And I'll come back over here to my layers panel.
Alright, so sticking with the text tool.
There are also some bug fixes made to the general text tool.
So let me right click on here and just change this back to from "left to right."
So we've got our normal text.
The first bug fix was that there was a framing issue with the text after you performed a
move.
So let's say I grabbed my move tool and then moved this text over, and then I undid that
move.
Apparently there was a problem where after you undo moving the text, the framing around
the text would be off.
They went ahead and fixed that issue.
The second issue they fixed with the general text tool is - let's say I have my text here
and I want to move this.
Well I can move the text box with the text tool still selected - I don't have to grab
my move tool.
I can do this by using the "alt" key.
And you'll see now there's a little move tool - and now I can move this text anywhere on
the image like I could do with the move tool.
This is actually no a feature that I was aware of.
So this was a cool thing to learn about.
But apparently there was a bug with this where after you moved this with the text tool, it
would convert the text box here from a dynamic text box to a fixed text box.
And basically what that means is that the size of the text box is fixed.
So, if you try to add new text it's not going to fit inside of here.
That is unless, of course, you increase the size of the text box manually - like that.
Whereas dynamic is just going to move the text box size based on the width of the current
text within that text box.
So as you type it'll expand this box.
Let me actually change this back to dynamic.
So you'll see there the text box expands dynamically and automatically.
So the GIMP team has fixed that bug which means the text box is no longer going to automatically
switch to a fixed text box after you have moved the text box around using the alt click
and drag feature within the text tool itself.
Alright, so the next bug fix, which I don't really consider a bug fix, but the GIMP team
calls it one, is some new features that have been added to the GIMP selection tools.
So if I come over here to our rectangle select tool, you'll see we have four modes here - that's
always been the case within GIMP, for the most part - and, so we've got replace the
current selection, add to the current selection, subtract from the current selection, and intersect
with the current selection.
So these last two here require that a selection has already been drawn on your canvas.
So I just drew this using the Replace the Current Selection setting.
Now, if I come over here and grab the Subtract from Current Selection, and I draw a shape
that intersects here, you'll see that this part of my new shape that I drew has been
cut out of our existing one.
So that's what that layer mode does.
And then you've got intersect with the current selection, and that's just going to keep whatever
is intersecting with our latest shape.
So you'll see that only this part has been kept.
Well, let me go ahead and deselect everything there.
Now you'll see that when we don't already have a selection area drawn on our canvas,
you're going to get this icon here on your mouse pointer that shows like a little crossed
out symbol.
And that denotes that this tool cannot be used without a selection area already drawn
on here cause its got nothing to intersect with.
Also, if you click on here and try to draw something, you're going to get a little error
message that says "cannot intersect with an empty selection."
So, that's just telling you that this tool cannot be used right now.
And then same thing if I come over here to Subtract from the Current Selection and I
click.
You'll see: "cannot subtract from an empty selection."
So, again, I don't really consider that a bug fix - it's more of a new feature added
- but, the GIMP team did call it a bug fix.
And then one last bug fix to mention here is that RAWTherapee 5.5 detection has been
improved.
And basically what that should do is improve RAWTherapee's ability to interact with GIMP
moving forward.
Alright, the next new feature found in GIMP 2.10.8 is a new gradient tool feature.
And, so I'm going to come over here to our gradient tool.
This new feature is multi-color hard-edge gradient fills.
So to demonstrate this, I'm going to create a new layer, and I've already got my layer
name set to "gradient."
And I'm going to fill this with Transparency and click OK.
And now I'm going to move this gradient layer below our guitar player text layer.
And with my gradient tool select I'm going to come over here, and I actually created
a custom gradient before this tutorial.
So I'm going to select that.
This just has multiple colors on here that are colors I grabbed from the image.
So now I'm just going to draw this gradient.
And by the way I have this shape set to radial over here.
But you'll notice that the normal way for gradients to work is that they just fade into
one another, and you can see the colors are sort of like fuzzy as they fade into each
other.
So, it's a gradual fading.
Well, this new multi-color hard-edge gradient fill feature gets rid of the slow fading from
one color to the next.
So it basically gets rid of the blending going on.
And it creates a hard edge between each color.
This is only going to work at the midpoints between the colors.
So, we've got a color here, and a color here.
And then if I hover over this line you'll see we've got a midpoint.
If I click on that midpoint it then gives me some options including the blending option.
If I click on that you can come down here to step, the last option, and if I click on
that - it's going to create that hard edge here.
And so the cool thing is I can do this down the line on all of our midpoints.
So I'll change that to step.
Click on this midpoint - change this to step.
And now each of the colors that we have in our gradient - so all four colors - are now
separated by a hard line.
So again this feature only works with the midpoints, it does not work at the start or
end endpoints.
It also does not work at the stops.
And by "does not work" I mean the settings are not located here.
So you can only adjust the settings from the midpoints.
So now I'll hit the enter key to apply that gradient.
And we can do cool things with this now like change the layer mode of this.
So I'll change this to Soft Light.
And by the way I have an entire tutorial that goes over all 38 layer modes found in GIMP,
so definitely check that out.
I'll link that in the description.
But as you can see now we have some pretty cool effects going on here as a result of
these new hard-edge gradient fills.
So our next feature has to do with transformations.
And transformations like the one I just performed with this gradient tool - even though this
isn't technically a transformation tool - usually they need to be applied to the image before
they're actually permanently added to the image.
So, for example, if I want to scale just the image layer - so let me click on that layer
and then grab my scale tool, and then click and drag this down.
So the scale is not applied until I hit the enter key, or I switch to another tool and
then it says "scaling" here.
So now this scaling transformation has been applied.
But let me hit ctrl+z.
Let's say that I perform the scale, but I have not applied the scale yet, and I go to
save this thinking that this has already been scaled and applied.
Well now, instead of just cancelling the scale when you save it, it's going to apply the
transformation and then save it for you.
So I'll go to File>Save as, and we'll save this as "Guitar Composition," and hit save.
You'll see that transformation has now been applied instead of just reverting that back
to the original image before the transformation as it used to in older versions.
So I'll hit ctrl+z. Alright, so the next new feature found in GIMP 2.10.8 is that GIMP
now supports color readouts in the CIE xYy color space.
This is a fairly technical aspect of GIMP, but basically CIE in its native language stand
for "International Commission on Illumination."
Obviously that acronym is different in English.
But, in essence, this color space is meant to emulate the color space the human eyes
see, which is called the Gamut of Human Vision.
So when breaking down CIE xYy, just know that the x and y values represent chromaticity
information, and chromaticity is just two variables or two parameters including Hue
and Colorfulness, or other terms for colorfulness can include saturation, chroma, or intensity.
And then the capital Y part of CIE xyY represents the luminance information separated from the
chromaticity information.
So all of this is a pretty technical way of saying this is the color space the human eyes
see based on a specific lighting condition.
You can see this new color space by coming over to the Color Picker tool, and under the
tool options you can check "Use info window," and when I click on my composition here, you'll
see the color I chose will now come up in a color picker window, and I can change the
color space that I'm viewing this in.
So right now this is just set to "pixel value" on the left and then RGB as a percentage on
the right.
I can come over here and change this to the CIE xyY color space.
And now we can see the representation of this color in terms of the xyY space.
So remember these two are variables of chromaticity, and then this one is a variable of luminance
removed from chromaticity.
And before all your heads explode I'm going to move on to the next new feature found in
GIMP 2.10.8, and that is that the save dialogue now displays what features are preventing
backwards compatibility.
So this means when you're saving your current composition here in a newer version of GIMP
- in this case the latest version 2.10.8 - and then you want to send that file over to somebody
who's using an older version of GIMP - so let's say they're using GIMP 2.8 - this new
dialogue is telling you what new features are not going to open up in GIMP 2.8.
So let's demonstrate this by going to File>Save As.
And we've got our Guitar composition here - it's saved as an .XCF file.
Let me come over here to our select file type by extension.
So I'm click on here on XCF.
If I come down here to the very bottom, you'll see a message here that says "the image uses
features from GIMP 2.10 and won't be readable by older GIMP version.
Meta data won't be visible in GIMP older than version 2.10."
And then if I click on that it has some other details about what exactly is not going to
translate over to older versions of GIMP.
So you'll see here "Layer Mode 'Normal' was added in GIMP 2.10." as well as "Layer Mode
'Soft Light."
So these features may not transfer when opening this file up in GIMP 2.8.
So this feature just allows GIMP to be a little bit more transparent with what is not going
to be backwards compatible in your current file.
So I'll just hit "save" as I usually would.
And I'll replace this since I saved this earlier.
So a little bit of news that came with this latest release was that GIMP has been getting
support from a new MAC operating system or MACOS developer, and thus has made improvements
to the MACOS GIMP experience.
So this includes several bug fixes that have been made throughout the back end of GIMP
for MAC, and I think this is just improving how GIMP operates on a MAC overall in general.
So GIMP 2.10 has actually not been around that long for MAC users.
It was released with GIMP 2.10.6.
So hopefully you MAC users have noticed a performance improvement.
And lastly there have been some updates made to translations within GIMP for various languages
including Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish.
Alright, so that's it for this tutorial, hopefully you guys liked it.
If you did, please subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/daviesmediadesign.
Don't forget to also click the bell to be notified of new videos added to our channel.
You can also visit our website at DaviesMediaDesign.com.
You can enroll in our GIMP Photo Editing Course: From Beginner to Pro Photo Retoucher on Udemy,
and you can support our channel and help us grow by becoming a Patron on Patreon, and
get some awesome GIMP extras in return, and I'll include a link to that as well as all
the relevant links from this tutorial in the description of the video.
So thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.