The GIMP team has rolled out version 3.0.6, the third micro-release of the 3.0 series. While GIMP 3.2 is still in development, this update backports a large collection of bug fixes and usability improvements so users don’t have to wait for the next major milestone.
The release addresses long-standing issues with sliders, text outlines, transparency handling, and platform-specific crashes. For example, Windows users with system languages like Turkish or Norwegian Bokmål had been facing unexplained crashes when opening or exporting files. Developers tracked this down to a mess of bugs in Exiv2, LLVM’s libc++, and Microsoft’s UCRT. While official fixes are still in the pipeline, GIMP now includes a workaround to keep users running smoothly.
Another notable fix resolves frequent crashes when changing the color of text outlines with the Text tool. The update also restores smarter transparency handling for filters and transforms, ensuring that tasks like applying Color to Alpha or rotating layers won’t produce strange results if a layer lacks transparency.
On the feature side, GIMP 3.0.6 introduces theme colors for brush, font, and palette dockables, backported from the 3.1 development branch. Improvements to the non-destructive filter code bring better stability and performance, while palette import has been refined to handle Adobe Color Book palettes and add filtering options for supported formats.
Flatpak and macOS users see important fixes too. Printing in sandboxed environments works properly again, while macOS builds resolve issues ranging from color fill crashes to duplicate icons in the dock. Security also got a boost thanks to hardening across multiple file import plug-ins flagged by the Zero Day Initiative.
Beyond fixes, GIMP’s build process has been streamlined, improving AppImage reliability and restoring support for formats like PostScript and EPS. Flatpak packages now use the latest GNOME runtime, and assorted smaller issues (from canvas centering to plug-in behavior) have been addressed.
The update also includes new releases of GEGL and babl, the core color and image processing libraries. These bring GPU acceleration support for more filters, improved robustness in filter testing, and cleaner build processes across platforms.
According to release statistics, GIMP 3.0.6 saw hundreds of commits, dozens of bug reports closed, and updated translations in more than a dozen languages. The project continues to evolve with broad community input, keeping the open-source editor stable and ready as development marches toward version 3.2.
GIMP 3.0.6 is available now for Linux, Windows, and macOS. Downloads can be found on the project’s official site.
Support independent tech journalism
NERDS.xyz is independently owned and operated. If you enjoy my coverage of Linux, AI, hardware, cybersecurity, and tech culture, consider supporting the site on Ko-fi.
Support NERDS.xyz