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Glimpse 0.1.0 Release Notes

Friday, November 22, 2019

This is the very first binary release for Glimpse Image Editor. The primary objective was to complete the re-brand, remove obvious distractions from the user interface, learn the various technologies involved and lay the groundwork for future development.

This project was started on Friday 5th July 2019 by a small group of fediverse users who had never even set eyes on the upstream code before. Over the last four months we have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from over 1000 social media followers across Twitter and Mastodon, dozens of financial backers across Patreon and Open Collective, and over 100 people who have joined our public Matrix channel to volunteer their expertise and ensure we make good decisions. We would like to thank everyone that helped us achieve our objectives, and we hope we can keep the momentum going as we start to plan what comes next in Glimpse 0.2.0.

We are also pleased to announce that in October 2019 we donated $50 to the GNU Image Manipulation Program as part of our commitment to share a portion of the donations we receive for each new release with them. We hope in future this amount will increase and be augmented with new bug fixes and features from our own contributors.

Installation

Linux users can install Glimpse 0.1.0 as a Flatpak from the Flathub repository. There are also a number of additional installation options for Linux detailed on our Downloads page.

Windows users can use an MSI file to install Glimpse 0.1.0 on 32-bit and 64-bit systems running Windows 7 or later. We chose that type of installer to assist businesses and schools using centralised software management systems. This can also be found on the Downloads page.

Known Issues

We do not support MacOS at this time

The current Windows installer triggers security warnings because it has not been signed. We intend to provide a signed installer very soon

There is no native 64-bit installer for Windows (use the 32-bit one instead)

Man pages in the terminal have not been updated

Compatibility with upstream offline help pages has not been tested

Some translations may still need updating

New Features

Glimpse 0.1.0 is based on GNU Image Manipulation Program 2.10.12. It also uses the following dependency package versions:

Graphical User Interface:

Translation files, code & build files updated so “Glimpse” is displayed throughout the UI, executables and packages

Changed the default UI behaviour for a cleaner/more professional look

Replaced application logo and window/taskbar icons

Replaced “wilber eek” logo with a new application logo

Replaced initial splash screen

Updated upstream icon themes to include our own iconography

Replaced some links in the “Help” menu

Removed links to upstream help pages and documentation

Updated the About window

Removed code for upstream “easter eggs”

Refactored version strings and compatibility notices in file save dialog

Refactored display text for plug-ins, extensions and procedures

Modified preferences panel to re-brand “Debugging” section and removed toolbar header checkbox

Code Improvements:

Refactored the automated “authors” system for the Glimpse project

Refactored the build system for the Glimpse project

Removed some scripts and tooling we do not use with this fork

Updated the Flatpak build process and removed webkit build step for dev builds

Provided support for Snapcrafters to package the code through their third party distribution channel

Added Travis CI support to sanity check and test builds in version control

Created a new 32-bit Windows installer with the WiX toolset

Developer Assistance:

Added BABL, GEGl and MyPaint dependencies as git submodules pre-set at the current tagged releases

Added Vagrant support so the code can be built & run without needing to install the prerequisites on the host system

Provided comprehensive build documentation for Windows and Linux in the HACKING file and at https://github.com/glimpse-editor/Glimpse/wiki

file and at https://github.com/glimpse-editor/Glimpse/wiki Improved integration with the GNOME Builder IDE

Provided new code level documentation of our own (such as code of conduct, contributing guide, changelog, etc)

Quality of Life Improvements:

Removed legacy upstream documentation not needed for this fork

Changed installation & configuration files location to avoid conflicts

Changed cached and temporary files location to avoid conflicts

Changed process identifiers so they do not conflict with other running instances of the GNU Image Manipulation Program

Added our own metadata for built and packaged executables

Removed “Color” icons (duplicates “Legacy”)

Removed “Gray” UI theme (duplicates “System”)

Provided our own AppStream metadata

Maintained compatibility with existing GNU I.M.P v2.x plug-ins

Refactored “Created with GIMP” notice to “Created with Glimpse” in the default save file metadata

Replaced Windows save file metadata icon

Re-branded categories used in Plug-in and Procedure browsers

Credits

We would like to thank everyone who contributed towards making Glimpse 0.1.0 a success, particularly those unnamed individuals who spread the word about our project on social media, shared their feature requests with us and provided feedback to the development team during the beta testing phase.

Creator

Bobby Moss

Maintainers

Christopher Davis

Clipsey

Code Contributors

Heather Ellsworth

igalic

Mathieu Bridon

psymole

Documentation Contributors

chaomodus

melody

Artwork Contributors

James Daniel

Dominic Watson

Kretz

Loren Dias

Massimo D’Ambrogio

Roberts-Loux Foundation

Sami Mannila

$5+ Tier Backers and One-off Donors

We would like to say a special thank you to all of our financial backers on Open Collective and Patreon regardless of whether they are listed below or not. Without your help this release would not have been possible, and your continued support is highly appreciated.