GIMP Version History Timeline
Every major GIMP release from version 0.54 in January 1996 to GIMP 3.x in 2025. Nearly three decades of open-source image editing history, key features introduced in each release, and the milestones that shaped modern GIMP.
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About GIMP's Development
GIMP is developed entirely by volunteers - a distributed, international community of programmers, designers, and translators who contribute code, documentation, and artwork in their own time. There is no company behind GIMP and no paid development team. The project uses GNOME infrastructure for hosting, mailing lists, and bug tracking, and the GIMP maintainers operate independently of any corporate sponsor.
Release cadence for GIMP has historically been slow compared to commercial software - the gap between GIMP 2.8 (2012) and GIMP 2.10 (2018) was six years, largely because the entire image processing pipeline was being rewritten around GEGL. The jump from GIMP 2.10 to GIMP 3.0 (March 2025) took another seven years, this time driven by the enormous effort of migrating from GTK+2 to GTK3 and finalising the non-destructive editing architecture.
Minor releases (2.10.x) are more frequent and typically focus on bug fixes, performance improvements, and format compatibility. After GIMP 3.0, the team adopted a faster minor-release cadence: GIMP 3.2 followed just two months later in May 2025 with the first real non-destructive filter workflow.
The project is hosted at gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp and accepts contributions via merge requests. Anyone can report bugs, submit patches, or contribute to translations through the GNOME Damned Lies translation platform.
What Changed Most: Key Inflection Points
Single-Window Mode (2012)
Before GIMP 2.8, every dockable panel, toolbox, and image window was a separate floating OS window. On most operating systems this created a chaotic workspace that was a major barrier to adoption. Single-window mode brought everything into one container - transforming the daily experience of working in GIMP. It remains the default in GIMP 3.x.
Full GEGL Pipeline & High Bit-Depth (2018)
GIMP 2.10 completed the decade-long GEGL integration. For the first time GIMP could work natively in 16-bit and 32-bit float per channel - unlocking HDR editing, proper linear light compositing, and access to over 100 GEGL-based operations. This single release brought GIMP into legitimate professional territory for colour-critical work.
GTK3, Python 3, and Non-Destructive Foundations (2025)
GIMP 3.0 completed the GTK3 migration, ending years of technical debt and bringing native HiDPI support, proper Wayland compatibility on Linux, and a modern widget toolkit. Simultaneously, Python 2 plugins were dropped in favour of Python 3, and the architectural groundwork for non-destructive editing was laid - a promise fulfilled immediately in GIMP 3.2 with non-destructive filters.
Get the Latest Version of GIMP
GIMP 3.2 is the current stable release, available free for Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), and Linux (AppImage and Flatpak).