GIMP 3.2 RC3 is now available for testing, giving users an opportunity to try the image editor’s upcoming features ahead of the stable release.
As this is the third (and likely final) release candidate before GIMP 3.2 launches, the focus is on refinement. The developers say RC3 delivers “a number of bug fixes and final polishes”, improving on the new features added in earlier dev and beta builds.
The changes mentioned below are from between RC2 to RC3, not from GIMP 3.0 to GIMP 3.2. If you’ve not tracked development, don’t think that what follows is an overview of what’s new in GIMP 3.2 as a whole – I’ll recap the big stuff again when the stable release is out.
GIMP 3.2 RC3 Brings Fixes
GIMP’s new Link Layers (Smart Objects, if you’re familiar with Adobe Photoshop) are now protected against colour and pattern swatch drops, while dropping a colour or pattern on to a vector layer applies it – as was already done to text layers.
Levels, Curves, Equalize and White Balance filters now default to Linear precision. Developers say this resolves “several inconsistencies” between GUI use and scripting.
The Welcome Dialog that shows when you open GIMP? That no longer appears if you open the app via an intentional action, e.g., with a right-click on an image and choosing “open with…”. In such instances, you know what you want to do, and the Welcome Dialog is in the way.
When the Flip tool is active you can flip an image horizontally by pressing your left and right arrow keys, or flip an image vertically using the up and down keys. Similarly, GIMP’s Shear tool responds to arrow keys, and you can hold Shift to shear with a larger value.
GIMP 3.2 sees the Crop tool automatically add transparency to a layer when you crop an image beyond its current layer borders and the fill is set to transparency.
Another tick in the consistency box improves the Hue Saturation GUI. The Lightness slider has been moved beneath the Saturation slider to match the way HSL settings appear elsewhere – it’s Hue Saturation Lightness, in that order.
- Flatpak build shows native config directory paths (where relevant)
- Initial support for Global Menu on Flatpak (opt-in; read more)
- XCF files now only loaded once all fonts have loaded
- Procreate swatches (
.swatches) can be imported as palettes - Flipping a link layer no longer rasterises them
- Sample Point modes are copied over when duplicating an image
- DDS plugin now supports exporting in BC7 format
- Only layer mask is deleted if selected via layer dock delete button
- ‘Refined’ logic for colour selection
- Updated man page for CLI
- Cornish translation
- Adjusted logo for macOS builds to fit macOS 26 design
Rounding out the more notable fixes, is an updated AppImage package. GIMP’s developers say this should now work again on ARM64 Linux platforms as well as with third-party plugins.
Trying GIMP 3.2 RC3 on Ubuntu
Want to try GIMP 3.2 early? Keep in mind that while this is a release candidate build, and thus closer to the final stable release than a beta, it’s not considered stable.
Download GIMP 3.2 RC3 from the official website for Linux in a choice of AppImage or Flatpak. The GIMP Snap is officially maintained by the project itself, so if you want to try the RC3 build out via Snap, run this command in your terminal:
sudo snap install gimp --channel=preview/stable
If you take this RC for a test-drive, loop back to let me know what the ride is like!