It's because each transform was "destructive" (like filters use to be by default). What link & vector layers do instead is store a transform matrix, so each transform just updates the matrix instead of actually re-rasterizing the layer each time.

We were hoping to expand that feature to all layer types for 3.2, but we ran out of time to properly test it for release. It'll like be finished for the next minor release.

> I always found it odd that scaling down an image now and then scaling it back to its original size 2 seconds later with the same tool resulted in a loss of quality

Maybe it's because I grew up with Paint Shop Pro 6 and such, but that seems completely normal and expected to me

Nice - all actions performed on a layer should retain a hidden "raw original" so we get non-destructive transforms.

> I always found it odd that scaling down an image now and then scaling it back to its original size 2 seconds later with the same tool resulted in a loss of quality

I'm honestly baffled at your surprise... say, if you crop an image, and 2 seconds later you enlarge it to its original size; do you expect to get the inital image back? Or a uniform color padding around your crop?

Scaling is just cropping in the frequency domain. Behaviour should be the same.

The current non-destructive UI is a bit of a compromise - we can't really mix layers with NDE filters in the layer dock until GTK4 (from what I understand), so the pop-up menu is what we had to work with.

You can check "Merge filter" at the bottom of the filter dialogue though, and it will automatically merge the filter like in 2.10 (and the setting is remembered going forward)

"When I was a kid, when we shrunk a 200x200 image down to 100x100 we lost information forever, and we liked it that way. It was a simple time. A predictable time."

This is one of those things I'd think geeks would geek out about, as nondestructive edits mean the steps to construct an image are stored, not just the final image—kinda like a monad in FP.

I assume you don’t do this manually and you’re doing some kind of scripting, can you describe your process?

It seems like you can assign this action to Ctrl + S, yes. See here:

    Edit → Keyboard Shortcuts → file → Overwrite […]

I think this would be awful default behaviour, but I guess it’s nice to have the option if you really want it, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to find after reading your comment.

Almost all programs treat the “Save” operation as something used with the native format, in this case XCF files. These preserve things like layers, etc. JPG and other formats are exports because after you close the file you can’t get all that stuff back when you reopen it.

File - Overwrite file, that's been there for a while. It can be turned into a hotkey, it's unmapped by default, and I don't think that'd change nor should it change, given how user hostile that'd be, the long history of how it works in editors like that, and with how they lean towards non-destructiveness of it all. Also, that just sounds like perhaps a simpler editor would be a better fit, like Paint.

Do you suggest using manual brushes instead of content-aware fill, or am I supposed to not want to retouch the images in the way that GenAI makes so quickly and easily? My argument is that applications probably should provide useful tools for solving practical problems, regardless of their implementation details.

Photoshops recent AI rotate tool looks useful compared to these features GIMP is adding.

Don't worry, GIMP's UI never made any sense to anyone (Graphic Designer or otherwise), save for hardcore GIMP fans.

Hi! What was the last version of GIMP that you used before 3.0?

We get an equal amount of "GIMP's UI never changes!" and "You changed too much of the UI in the latest version", so it's difficult sometimes to figure out the specific issues.

Select a rectangle. Stroke or fill the selection.

I agree it's a bit counter-intuitive, but afaik it's always worked like that.

If you want to draw squares, you're probably looking for a vector drawing program, like Inkscape.

If you mean the color icons, you can easily switch back to those in the Welcome Dialog that appears when you first open GIMP (look in the Personalize tab). It's the first thing I do when I install GIMP on a new machine. :)

Ah, PDF editting works?

Didnt know that! Thanks for telling!

Use the ellipse selection tool and hold Shift to make it a circle. Hold Ctrl to pull from origo. Then use Stroke Selection or Fill Selection.

Although, I miss being able to create a selection from a point on the ellipse/circle instead of just origin or bounding box corner.

I would also like to stroke on the inside or outside of the selection instead of just its middle. I have often had to first fill the circle and then select again from the same origin point to cut out the inside.

If you want to draw circles, you're probably looking for a vector drawing program, like Inkscape.

There's always the GFig filter, which has existed in GIMP for a long time. :)

GIMP 3.2 actually adds vector layers, which are the basis for a shape tool (it was my "big project" for this release). We have a GSoC project idea for doing the last bit of work to make a dedicated shape tool: https://developer.gimp.org/core/internship/ideas/#implement-...

You can draw a representation of a circle with extremely primitive tools and it isn't possible to actually draw a circle. Your question as rendered is hard to answer.