[gimp-web/testing] 2.10: initial version of release notes, lots of FIXMEs

[Alexandre Prokoudine <aprokoudine src gnome org>]

commit f563f94551057fcd9648d9972520fd1da1713f14
Author: Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre prokoudine gmail com>
Date:   Thu Apr 26 03:25:56 2018 +0300

    2.10: initial version of release notes, lots of FIXMEs

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+Title: GIMP 2.10 Release Notes
+Date: 2018-04-26
+Authors: Wilber
+Status: hidden
+
+## Introduction
+
+GIMP 2.10 is the result of six years of work that originally focused on porting
+the program to a new image processing engine, GEGL. However the new version
+ships with more far new features, including new and improved tools, better file
+formats support, various usability improvements, revamped color management
+support, a plethora of improvements targeted at digital painters and
+photographers, metadata editing, and much, much more.
+
+## Updated user interface and initial HiDPI support
+
+One thing immediately noticeable about GIMP 2.10 is the new dark theme and 
+symbolic icons enabled by default. This is meant to somewhat dim the environment
+and shift the focus towards content.
+
+FIXME screenshot
+
+There are now 4 user interface themes available in GIMP: dark (default), grey,
+light, and system. Icons are separate from themes now, and we maintain both
+color and symbolic icons, so you can configure GIMP to have system theme with
+color icons if you prefer the old look.
+
+Moreover, icons are available in four sizes now, so that GIMP would look better
+on HiDPI displays. GIMP will do its best to detect which size to use, but you
+can manually override that selection in _Edit > Preferences > Interface > 
+Icon Themes_.
+
+**Contributors:** Benoit Turkotte, Ville Pätsi, Aryeom Khan, Jehan Pagès,
+Alexandre Prokoudine
+
+## GEGL port, high bit depth support, multi-threading, and more
+
+The ultimate goal for v2.10 was completing the port to GEGL image processing
+library, started with v2.6 when we introduced optional use of GEGL for color
+tools and an experimental GEGL tool, and continued with v2.8 where we added
+GEGL-based projection of layers.
+
+Now GIMP uses GEGL for all tile management and builds an acyclic graph for
+every project. This is a prerequisite for adding non-destructive editing planned
+for v3.2.
+
+There are many benefits from using GEGL, and some of them you can already enjoy
+in GIMP 2.10.
+
+**High bit depth support** allows processing images with up to 32-bit per color
+channel precision and open/export PSD, TIFF, PNG, EXR, and RGBE files in their
+native fidelity. Additionally, FITS images can be opened with up to 64-bit per
+channel precision.
+
+**Multi-threading** allows making use of multiple cores for processing. Not all 
+features in GIMP make use of that, it's something we intend to work on further.
+
+**GPU-side processing** is still optional, but available for systems with stable
+OpenCL drivers.
+
+You can find configuration options for multi-threading and hardware acceleration
+in _Edit > Preferences > System Resources_.
+
+**Contributors:** Michael Natterer, Øyvind Kolås, Ell, Jehan Pagès, FIXME
+
+## Linear color space workflow
+
+Another benefit of using GEGL is being able to work on images in a linear RGB
+color space as opposed to gamma-corrected (perceptual) RGB color space.
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="https://www.gimp.org/news/2018/03/26/gimp-2-10-0-rc1-released/gimp-2-10-rc1-curves-linear.jpg"; 
alt="Curves in linear mode" width='965' height='642' />
+</figure>
+
+Here is what it boils down to:
+
+* You now have both linear and perceptual versions of most blending modes.
+* There is now a linear version of the _Color Invert_ command.
+* You can freely switch between the two at any time via _Image > Precision_
+submenu.
+* You can choose which mode id displayed in the _Histogram_ docker.
+* You can apply _Levels_ and _Curves_ filters in either perceptual or linear
+mode
+* When higher than 8-bit per channel precision is used, all channels data is
+linear.
+* You can choose whether the gradient tool should work in perceptual RGB, linear
+RGB, or CIE LAB color space
+
+**Contributors:** Michael Natterer, Øyvind Kolås, Ell
+
+## Color management revamped
+
+Color management is now a core feature of GIMP rather than a plug-in. This
+made it possible, in particular, to introduce color management to all custom
+widgets we could think of: imahge previews, color and pattern previews etc.
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="https://www.gimp.org/news/2016-07-13%20GIMP%202.9.4%20Released/gimp-2-9-4-preferences-cms.png"; 
alt="Color Management Preferences" width='975' height='920' />
+</figure>
+
+GIMP now uses LittleCMS v2, which allows it to use ICC v4 color profiles.
+But GIMP now also partially relies on the babl library for handling color
+transforms, because babl is simply up to 10 times faster than LCMS2 for the
+cases we tested both of them on.
+
+**Contributors:** Michael Natterer, Øyvind Kolås
+
+## Layers and masks
+
+GIMP now ships with two groups of blending modes: legacy (perceptual) and
+default (linear). 
+
+New blend modes are:
+
+* LCH layer modes: Hue, Chroma, Color, and Lightness
+* Pass-Through mode for layer groups
+* Linear Burn, Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, Hard Mix, Exclusion, Merge,
+and Split
+
+Layers, paths, and channels can also be tagged with color labels to improve
+project organization. This will be even more useful once we add multi-layer
+selection later on.
+
+Compositing options for layers are exposed to users now, and all layer-related
+settings are finally available in the _Layer Attributes_ dialog.
+
+<figure>
+    <img 
src="https://www.gimp.org/news/2017-08-24%20GIMP%202.9.6%20Released/gimp-2-9-6-layer-attributes-dialog.png"; 
alt="Updated Layer Attributes dialog" width='608' height='579' />
+</figure>
+
+Moreover, if you always need alpha in your layers, you can enable automatic 
+generation of the alpha channel in imported images upon opening them. See 
+_Edit > Preferences > Image Import & Export_ page for this and more policies.
+
+Layer groups can finally have masks on:
+
+<figure>
+    <img 
src="https://www.gimp.org/news/2018/03/26/gimp-2-10-0-rc1-released/gimp-2-10-rc1-mask-on-layer-group.jpg"; 
alt="Mask on a layer group" width='950' height='685' />
+</figure>
+
+## More use for CIE LAB and CIE LCH
+
+With GIMP 2.10, we introduced a number of features that make use of CIE LAB and
+CIE LCH color spaces:
+
+* Color dialogs now have an LCH color selector you can use instead of HSV. The LCH
+selector also displays out-of-gamut warning.
+* A new _Hue-Chroma_ filter in the _Colors_ menu works much like _Hue-Saturation_,
+but operates in CIE LCH color space.
+* The _Fuzzy Select_ and the _Bucket Fill_ tools now can select colors by their
+values in CIE _L_, _C_, and _H_ channels.
+* Both the _Color Picker_ and the _Sample Points_ dialog now display pixel
+values in CIE LAB and CIE LCH at your preference.
+
+**Contributors:** Michael Natterer, Elle Stone, Ell
+
+## Tools
+
+### Unified Transform
+
+New _Unified Transform_ tool simplifies making multiple transforms, such as
+scaling, rotating, and correcting perspective in one go. The design is based
+on a functional spec written by our former UX expert Peter Sikking.
+
+FIXME: screenshot
+
+**Contributors:** Mikael Magnusson
+
+### Warp Transform
+
+The new _Warp Transform_ tool allows doing localized transforms like growing or
+shifting pixels with a soft brush and undo support. Such tools are commonly used
+in fashion photography for retouching.
+
+As such, the new tool retires the old _iWarp_ filter that was innovative at the
+time of its inception (and pre-dated Photoshop's Liquify filter), but was
+ultimately cumbersome to use. The _Warp Transform_ tools also features an
+_Eraser_ mode to selectively remove changes, previously unavailable in the
+_iWarp_ filter.
+
+FIXME screenshot
+
+**Contributors:** Michael Muré, Michael Natterer, Jonathan Tait
+
+### Handle Transform
+
+The new _Handle Transform_ tools provides an interesting approach at applying
+scaling, rotating, and perspective correction using handles placed on the
+canvas. People who are used to editing on touch surfaces might find this tool
+strangely easy to grasp.
+
+**Contributors:** Johannes Matschke, Michael Natterer, Ell
+
+### Blend tool becomes Gradient tool, gets on-canvas editing
+
+We renamed the _Blend_ tool to _Gradient_ tool and changed its default shortcut
+to **G**. But this pales in comparison to what the tool can actually do now, and
+it's a lot.
+
+The new tool pretty much obsoletes the old _Gradient Editor_ dialog. Now you can
+create and delete color stops, select and shift them, assign colors to color
+stops, change blending and coloring for segments between color stops, create new
+color stops from midpoints _right on the canvas_.
+
+<p>
+<video width="830" height="467" controls>
+  <source src="https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/video/v2.9/gimp-2-9-8-gradient-edit.webm"; 
type="video/webm">
+  <source src="https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/video/v2.9/gimp-2-9-8-gradient-edit.mp4"; 
type="video/mp4">
+Your browser does not support the video tag.
+</video>
+</p>
+
+All gradients available by default are also "editable" now. What it means is
+that when you try to change an existing gradient from a system folder, GIMP will
+create a copy of it, call it a _Custom Gradient_ and preserve it across
+sessions. Unless, of course, you edit another 'system' gradient, in which case
+it will become the new custom gradient.
+
+We intend to use the generic implementation of this later for brushes and other
+types of resources.
+
+**Contributors:** Michael Henning, Michael Natterer, Ell, Øyvind Kolås
+
+## Better selection tools
+
+The _Foreground Select_ tool can finally make subpixel selections in complex
+cases such as strays of hair on textured background. Two new masking methods are
+now available for that.
+
+The _Select by Color_ and _Fuzzy Select_ tools now both feature a _Draw mask_
+option to display future selection area with a magenta fill, and the latter tool
+also got a _Diagonal neighbors_ option to select diagonally neighboring pixels.
+
+For the _Free Select_ tool, closing a polygonal/free selection now doesn't
+confirm the selection automatically. Instead you still can tweak positions of
+nodes (where applicable), then press **Enter**, double-click inside the
+selection, or switch to another tool to confirm the selection.
+
+The _Intelligent Scissors_ tool finally allows to remove the last added segment
+with **Backspace** key, and GIMP now checks, whether the first and the last
+segments are distinct before closing the curve.
+
+**Contributors:** Michael Natterer, Jan Rüegg, Daniel Sabo, Ell
+
+### Color tools
+
+All color tools have been refactored to become GEGL-based filters, so they could
+be properly used later on when we introduce non-destructive editing. Hence,
+the _Color_ submenu in the _Tools_ menu has been retired, and these filters
+are now mostly unavaliable in the toolbox.
+
+**Contributors:** Michael Natterer
+
+## Text tool supports CJK and more writing systems
+
+The _Text_ tool now fully supports advanced input methods for CJK and other
+non-western languages. The pre-edit text is now displayed just as expected,
+depending on your platform and Input Method Engine. Several input method-related
+bugs and crashes have also been fixed.
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="https://www.gimp.org/news/2016-07-13%20GIMP%202.9.4%20Released/gimp-2-9-4-ime.png"; alt="Input 
Method Engine support in text tool" width='417' height='240' />
+</figure>
+
+**Contributors:** Jehan Pagès
+
+### Experimental tools
+
+Two new tools were incomplete for inclusion to GIMP 2.10 by default, but still
+can be enabled. Please note that they are highly experimental and likely to be
+broken for you. We only mention them, because we need contributors to get them
+into the releasable state.
+
+_N-Point Deformation_ tool introduces the kind of smooth, as little rigid as
+possible warping you would expect physical objects to have. FIXME
+
+_Seamless Clone_ tool is aimed to simplify making layered compositions.
+Typically when you paste one image into another, there are all sorts of
+mismatches: color temperature, brightness etc. This new experimental tool tries
+to adapt various properties of a pasted image with regards to its backdrop.
+
+To enable these tools, you need to first enable the _Playground_ page of the
+_Preferences_ dialog. Do it by running GIMP with a '--show-playground.' switch
+(for Windows, you might want tweaking the path to GIMP in the shorcut properties
+accordingly). Then you need to go to _Edit -> Preferences -> Playground_ and
+enable the respective options, so that the tools would show up in the toolbox.
+
+We need to stress again that you should only do so either if you are very
+curious, or (which we hope for) intend to help us fix them.
+
+**Contributors:** Marek Dvoroznak, Barak Itkin, Jehan Pagès, Michael Natterer
+
+## Digital painting improvements
+
+GIMP 2.10 ships with a number of improvements requested by digital painters. One
+of the most interesting new additions here is the _MyPaint Brush_ tool that
+first appeared in the GIMP-Painter fork.
+
+The _Smudge_ tool got updates specifically targeted in painting use case. The
+new _No erase effect_ option prevent the tools from changing alpha of pixels.
+And the foreground color can now be blended into smudged pixels, controlled by
+a new _Flow_ slider, where 0 means no blending.
+
+FIXME screenshot from https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Customized-smudge-tool-Smudge-with-painting  ???
+
+All painting tools now have explicit _Hardness_ and _Force_ sliders except for
+the _MyPaint Brush_ tool that only has the _Hardness_ slider.
+
+Most importantly, GIMP now supports canvas rotation and flipping to help
+illustrators checking proportions and perspective.
+
+FIXME video or screenshot?
+
+New _Symmetry Painting_ dockable dialog, enabled on per-image basis, allows to
+use all painting tools with various symmetries (mirror, mandala, tiling…).
+
+FIXME screenshot
+
+A new _Brush lock to view_ option gives you a choice whether you want a brush
+locked to a certain zoom level and rotation angle of the canvas. The option is
+available for all painting tools that use a brush except for the _MyPaint Brush_
+tool.
+
+FIXME screenshot
+
+The new version of GIMP also ships with more new brushes available by default. FIXME
+
+**Contributors:**: Michael Natterer, Alexia Death, Daniel Sabo, shark0r, Jehan
+Pagès, Ell, Jose Americo Gobbo, Aryeom Khan
+
+## Digital photography improvements
+
+Some of the new GEGL-based filters are specifically targeted at photographers:
+_Exposure_, _Shadows-Highlights_, _High-pass_, _Wavelet Decompose_, _Panorama
+Projection_ and others will be an important addition to your toolbox.
+
+<figure>
+    <img 
src="https://www.gimp.org/news/2018/03/26/gimp-2-10-0-rc1-released/gimp-2-10-rc1-shadows-highlights.jpg"; 
alt="Shadows-Highlights" width='950' height='685' />
+</figure>
+
+On top of that, the new _Extract Component_ filter simplifies extracting a
+channel of an arbitrary color model (LAB, LCH, CMYK etc.) from currently
+selected layer. If you were used to decomposing and recomposing images just for
+this, your work will be that easier now.
+
+Moreover, you can now use either darktable or RawTherapee as GIMP plug-ins for
+opening raw files. Any recent version of either application will do.
+
+A new _Clip Warning_ display filter will visualize underexposed and overexposed
+areas of a photo for you, with customizable colors. For now, it’s mostly geared
+towards images where colors are stored with floating point precision. You will
+mostly benefit from this, if you work on 16/32 bit per channel float images such
+as EXR and TIFF.
+
+<p>
+<video width="830" height="467" controls>
+  <source src="https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/video/v2.9/gimp-2-9-8-clipped-colors-warning.webm"; 
type="video/webm">
+  <source src="https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/video/v2.9/gimp-2-9-8-clipped-colors-warning.mp4"; 
type="video/mp4">
+Your browser does not support the video tag.
+</video>
+</p>
+
+**Contributors:**: Michael Natterer, Ell, Thomas Manni, Tobias Ellinghaus,
+Øyvind Kolås
+
+## Plug-ins
+
+GIMP now ships with over 60 GEGL-based filters.
+
+FIXME screenshot
+
+A lot of those are former GIMP effects. Here is why GEGL-based implementations
+are better:
+
+* You can apply them on images in 32-bit per color channel precision mode.
+* You can preview them right on the canvas, and if an image is larger than the
+viewport, GIMP will render the viewport first.
+* You can use split preview to compare original image with its processed version
+and swap before/after sides both horizontally and vertically.
+* In a future non-destructive GIMP, you will be able to adjust settings of those
+filters without undoing a ton of steps.
+
+Some of the GEGL-based filters have OpenCL version for hardware acceleration.
+This will come in handy, if OpenCL drivers work well for you.
+
+## Usability improvements
+
+While working with active users, we got rid of quite a few usability issues.
+Here are just some of these changes:
+
+* All transformation tools now automatically disable original layer
+view so that you could clearly see adjustments against the backdrop.
+* Masks can now easily be created with last values you used by just pressing
+**Shift** and clicking on respective layer's preview.
+* All dialogs except the ones like _Scale_ now remember last values you used
+across sessions.
+* All GEGL-based filters allow saving named presets and automatically make
+timestamped presets for the last time you used them.
+* You can now choose fill color or pattern for empty spaces after resizing the
+canvas.
+
+There is a lot to improve to make GIMP better suited for professional workflows.
+As usual, we welcome constructive discussion and recently create a
+[mailing list](https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gimp-gui-list)
+to discuss the topic of improving GIMP's usability.
+
+## File formats support
+
+GIMP is now capable of reading and writing TIFF, PNG, PSD, and FITS files with
+up to 32-bit per channel precision where applicable.
+
+The PSD plug-in additionally supports pass-through, hard mix, pin light, vivid
+light, and linear light blending modes.
+
+GIMP now also ships with native WebP support, including features like animation,
+ICC profiles, and metadata. Both importing and exporting are supported.
+
+The JPEG 2000 plug-in was rewritten to use OpenJPEG rather than somwhat obsolete
+Jasper library. 
+
+Finally, the PDF plug-in now supports importing password-protected files (you
+need to know the password) and exporting multipage PDF documents (each layer
+will be a page).
+
+**Contributors:** FIXME
+
+## Metadata viewing, editing, and preservation
+
+GIMP now ships with plug-ins for viewing and editing Exif, XMP, IPTC, GPS, and
+DICOM metadata. They are available via the _Image > Metadata_ submenu.
+
+<figure>
+<img src="{filename}images/2.8-single-window-mode.png" alt="Single-window mode screenshot" />
+</figure>
+
+GIMP will also preserve existing metadata in TIFF, PNG, JPEG, and WebP files.
+Each plug-in has respective options when exporting to enable or disable
+exporting the metadata.
+
+Additionally, users now can set defaults to preserving or not preserving
+metadata in all affected file format plug-ins at once depending on whether they
+want complete privacy or, instead, do a lot of microstock photography. The
+settings are available on the _Image Import & Export_ page in _Preferences_.
+
+**Contributors:** Benoit Touchette, Michael Natterer, Jehan Pagès
+
+## On-canvas interaction
+
+GIMP 2.10 ships with a new feature that allows some GEGL-based filters to render
+on-canvas controls. For now, this applies to just three filters: _Spiral_, 
+_Supernova_, and _Panorama Projection_. But there will be more in the future.
+
+<p>
+<video width="880" height="528" controls>
+  <source src="https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/video/v2.9/gimp-2-9-6-spiral-filter.webm"; 
type="video/webm">
+  <source src="https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/video/v2.9/gimp-2-9-6-spiral-filter.mp4"; 
type="video/mp4">
+Your browser does not support the video tag.
+</video>
+</p>
+
+**Contributors:** Michael Natterer, Ell
+
+### Simplified bug reporting and crash recovery
+
+We need good bug reports to make GIMP better for you, so we introduced a new
+feature to watch and intercept critical errors and crashes, then generate a
+useful error log that you can copy/paste to a bug report.
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="https://www.gimp.org/news/2018/03/26/gimp-2-10-0-rc1-released/gimp-2-10-rc1-bug-reporting.jpg"; 
alt="Debug dialog to simplify bug reporting" width='914' height='662' />
+</figure>
+
+On development versions, the dialog will be raised on all kind of errors (even
+minor ones). On stable releases, it will be raised only during crashes. The
+default behavior can be customized in _Edit > Preferences > Debugging_.
+
+Please note that we still need you to provide context, e.g. what you were doing
+when a crash occured. A step-by-step description how to reperoduce this bug will
+be most helpful.
+
+Additionally, in case of a crash, GIMP will now attempt to backup all images
+with unsaved changes, then suggest to reopen them the next time you start the
+application.
+
+<figure>
+    <img 
src="https://www.gimp.org/news/2018/03/26/gimp-2-10-0-rc1-released/gimp-2-10-rc1-crash-recovery.jpg"; 
alt="Crash recovery dialog" width='914' height='507' />
+</figure>
+
+We cannot guarantee 100% success, but it will succeed sometimes, and this might
+rescue your unsaved work!
+
+**Contributors**: Jehan Pagès
+
+## Known regressions
+
+FIXME
+
+## API changes
+
+Over the course of this development cycle, we deprecated a lot of API, providing
+a compatibility layer for 3rd party developers who write scripts and plug-ins.
+
+For the full list of changes in PDB, please [see the 
wiki](https://wiki.gimp.org/wiki/Release:2.10_changelog#API_Changes). This ChangeLog page also has a verbose 
list
+of all other changes in 2.10.
+
+https://wiki.gimp.org/wiki/Release:2.10_changelog
+
+### Roadmap and what's next
+
+We maintain a [roadmap for GIMP development](http://wiki.gimp.org/index.php/Roadmap)
+that outlines the order of features to be implemented based on priorities.
+
+The next big updated will be v3.0 that will feature GTK+3 port and a lot of
+internal changes. For users, this will mostly mean: updated user interface,
+better support for graphic tablets on Windows, better support for HiDPI
+displays, better support for Wayland on Linux.
+
+We are also opening the 2.10.x series for new features. This means you don't
+have to wait for exciting improvements for years anymore.
+
+All the new features from 2.10.x will be part of 3.0 as well.
+
+## Getting involved with contributing to GIMP
+
+FIXME
+
+## Download and install pre-made packages
+
+GIMP can be downloaded directly from our [Downloads](/downloads/) section.
+
+Please be very cautious when downloading from anywhere else — some sites use
+GIMP's popularity to lure unwary users into their traps by shipping modified
+installer packages.
+
+## Bugs
+
+If you think you found a bug in GIMP, please make sure that it hasn't been
+already reported. Search [Bugzilla](http://bugzilla.gnome.org/) before filing a
+new bug-report. Here are some interesting Bugzilla queries:
+
+* [Open bugs with milestone 
2.10](https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=GIMP&target_milestone=2.10&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED)
+* [Resolved bugs with milestone 
2.10](https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=GIMP&target_milestone=2.10&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=VERIFIED&bug_status=CLOSED)
+
+## Contributing
+
+We need your help to make GIMP 2.8 a success. If you want to join us hacking,
+show up in #gimp or introduce yourself on the gimp-developer mailing-list. We
+are also looking for people to look after the web-site and update the tutorials.
+Or you might want to join the [documentation team](http://docs.gimp.org/).
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