Updated to include McGimp 2.9 with the new G'MIC update. Enjoy!

Pretty neat; GIMP just keeps getting better and better.
Thanks Partha.

Does gimp 2.9 for windows reads the file .gimp-2.8 ? If true, what is the priority ? Is it possible that g'mic from 2.8 is preferred. Also, isn't this a bug, meaning gimp 2.9 should be looking for .gimp-2.9 ?

Arkadi:
Only if it's your first time and it's available.
G'MIC from 2.8 would be "preferred" in the sense that GIMP will give priority to plug-ins in your personal folder over the system folder. You should get rid G'MIC if it happens to be in your personal folder.

There is no longer a .gimp-2.9 folder. Currently your personal folder resides in C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\GIMP\2.9

Partha at gmail:

Partha, thank you very much for your work, my critique in no way should be construed offensive:

> ...it's available...

of course 2.8 is available, how would I know 2.9 is available otherwise :) ? The question is how can I make 2.9 installation independent w/o dismantling 2.8 ? Rename temporarily .gimp-2.8 into something else ? But I want to use 2.8 also. Why does 2.9 reads .gimp-2.8 ?

Arkadi:

No offence taken. :)

You don't need to dismantle 2.8 to use 2.9. Only the first time 2.9 usage migrates 2.8 personal plugins etc. After that it does not interact with your personal folder. It creates its own as I mentioned above.

Please let me know if this is not clear.

Finally you can also use the portable version which does not interact with your system at all.

Partha at gmail:

After some investigation looks true :). Thanks.

Thank you Partha, David and all who worked on this.

I took the plunge with Gimp 2.9 64 bit experimental portable for WIndows yesterday. And today have been trying Gimp 2.9 64 bit experimental for Windows. Apart from a few problems working out what the new symbols are for some tools eg crop have been impressed.

I guess though that all the old scripts won't work any more.

Mauritius100:

It will depend on the script. Most cases, you would have to update to new API. Compiled plugins would have to be updated and recompiled. Most color related scripts and plugins will need to be updated to use GEGL buffers.

But try using all the builtin GEGL plugins and of course G'MIC. You may be surprised. :)

I have been playing all afternoon ; - ) There is a lot that I like and I have found that at least one of my favourite plug ins seems to work even though there are several error messages along the way. Suddenly I am working with tiffs, 16 bits .... and a lot else that is fairly new to me. And of course making lots of mistakes but then that's not a bad way to learn photo processing. I do regret though that I haven't been able to succeed with foreground extraction in g'mic yet. Will just keep trying ; - )

As for scripts etc - I will hope that someone else finds the ones I miss useful and knows how to update and recomplile them.

Thanks again, Partha.

Partha at gmail:

I saw your post since the day you posted. I didn't have a chance to install G'MIC until today. It is easier to use than I thought.

GIMP + UFRAW + G'MIC ... what else do we need? Just learn to use all the options.

Thank you for sharing the information.

Updated GIMP and G'MIC based on git pull from today. Also, providing a color patched version based on patches provided by Elle Stone (ninedegreesbelow.com)

Thank you, Partha.

Just one issue for me: the Windows version of Gimp-2.9.1-color-patched-64bit-portable.exe seems to use a file-compressor.exe which does not handle bzip2. Rather serious for me, since nearly all my xcf are compressed with bzip2, as it reduces their size by ~2. I have already asked several times for an option which would provide the ability of saving bzipped xcf by default, but no one considers what I'm asking for; same thing when I ask for a simple option which would allow to select the default "export" format. (Sob) nobody likes me :(

I tried to replace the provided file-compressor.exe with the one from Dark Refraction and add libbz2-1.dll, but it does not wok either…

François Collard:

Sorry François. I forgot to modify the source this time around to save to jpg. My bad. :(

As for bzip, let me look into this to see why this is happening as I have not changed my build defaults in a while. The compressor is supposed handle all the standard formats; zip, bzip, lzma, etc.

Anyway, it's Thanksgiving in the US and so it'll have to wait for a little while.

Thanks,
Partha

looks like they're accelerating official 2.9 releases...2.9.2 was just released and it looks like they might release as 2.10 soon :-)

Are the 2.9 XCF files compatible w/ 2.8? Or are you stuck w/ 2.9 once you switch?

kenkyee:

Sorry, I didn't respond earlier. :(

No, I don't 2.9 XCF is compatible with 2.8.

Any reason you want to stay with 2.8.x?

In case 2.9.x is buggy or too slow, I'd like to back off to 2.8, but I want to try out their new subpixel hair selection :-)
I suppose I could just export to TIFF if needed.

Partha at gmail:
I think it is an old recurring compilation bug, but cannot explain it. Bzip seldom worked in old 2.4 and 2.6 official Windows versions, and I recompiled the plug-in separately. I think there is an issue with a dll.

Another MSYS drawback: even if you set CFLAGS=-s, many files are not stripped. For instance, the plug-ins directory is about 19 MB. If I type "strip *.exe", it drops to 13 MB. I noticed a similar issue with Lazarus, but I finally discovered that I should configure my compilation as "Release". Maybe there is something like this in MSYS?

François Collard:

I think it's usually due to the extension. The script files don't always pickup on the fact that on Windows, we have exe/dll extensions. I have noticed that also with with some makefiles where make clean does not remove exe files.

Just updated my website with new GIMP and G'MIC builds. Also updated is the color patched portable version.

Partha at gmail:

from your website:
------
Installation
Important: Uninstall previous builds from the target installation location
------
1. does this mean "uninstall 2.9.1 then install 2.9.3" ?
2. I thought: "install 2.9.3 over 2.9.1"

which one is true ? (neither :) ?)

Arkadi:

I always tell people to uninstall since sometimes some systems might have issues. :(

Anyway, yes, uninstall 2.9.1 and then install 2.9.3.

Please let me know if you have issues.

Happy Holidays.

Partha at gmail:

> Anyway, yes, uninstall 2.9.1 and then install 2.9.3.

OK, looks good. Thanks.

BTW: since early October I worked on roughly 300 photos using 2.9.1 and G'MIC, don't remember having troubles. So, thanks again.

Hi Partha. Thanks for the news of the latest update. I decided to download the latest version of Gimp from your site and I uninstalled the earlier version as suggested but now Avast has blocked access to www.partha.com with a message saying that a threat has been detected ( Infection URL:MAL ).

Mauritius100:

I've recently been hearing of this issue about Avast. All I can tell you is that my site has not been hacked and it's a false alarm.

Perhaps these virus checking companies would grow up and not use these scare tactics.

Thanks Partha. I will disable Avast and go ahead with the Download.

Mauritius100:

Let me know if you have any issues.

Sorry for the late reply. I downloaded a few days later and everything is working well. Thanks Partha and all who are working on Gimp and G'mic!

firstly: thanks as ever Partha for providing these builds, appreciated

I was having a problem with 2.9.1 hanging, so downloaded 2.9.3 and see the same issue, which is GIMP hangs when I use the dodge and burn tool, if the brush goes outside the canvas window.

For anyone else with the same issue a work around is to make the canvas much bigger than the image so the brush doesn't leave the canvas when dodging and burning.

Thanks for all your builds, Partha.

Your Darktable Windows build is great news, too. I love this software on Linux, and I missed it on Windows.
As I don't find another place to ask my question, I use this thread:
Everything seems to work even better than on Linux, except one issue: when I first tried to export an image I had just developed, I got a message telling it could not save the image (I used a path without spaces, which was reported accurately, but he file name was something like FILENAME▯.jpg, which meant that filename was sent with a trailing sort of EOL. I tried to replace the variable with a string of mine, but the erroneous char was still there.
I was disappointed, I closed Darktable and cried all the tears of my body. Then, before I sent you a bug report, I opened it again, reset the variable to $(FILE_NAME), and Darktable, with the malignity you know all software carry in their veins, worked great. So I have nothing to say, but "Thank you".

BTW, last week, I wrote a very simple prog in object pascal (Lazarus), which is intended to help novice users installing Gimp plug-ins (.exe, .dll, .py, .pyc, .scm) on Windows (in the user dir):

Sources and installers here:
partageurs.com/Polutropos/Logiciels/Gimp+Plug-in+Installer
But I am not sure many people still use this sort of extensions.

I am glad it worked for you François :).

Let me know if you have any issues.

Also, if you can move this to a separate thread, that would be great!!

Well, I thought it was off-topic in our Gimp group, anyway, though I often use DarkTable before editing in Gimp on Linux. Maybe you announced your DarkTable Windows build on a DarkTable group? But I'll create a new topic in order to announce it in this group.
I don't clearly understand the temporary FILENAME▯.jpg issue after installing. Maybe a C \n end of line which is not properly converted on Windows.

Updated today.

Updated today, July 5th. Enjoy.

I use gimp 2.9.3 from your site.
I have file-jpeg error with some jpeg:
Saving 'D:\Photo2015\p3\CIMG0706.JPG' failed:
Procedure 'file-jpeg-save' returned no return values.
After this error jpeg was created but it has no exif data and temporary file with JPGXXXXX (XXXXX some digits) extension saved on disk.
Version 2.9.1 from your site all works properly.
System: win10.