1.9.0 lets a GIMP edit leave as a layered PSD. Export to a .psd and the layers go with it, masks, opacity, blend modes and groups included, so a picture started in the GIMP beta can be finished in Photoshop. Live filters are baked into each layer on the way out, since a PSD has nowhere to keep a GIMP filter, and text is written as pixels. Photoshop blends partly transparent layers and blend modes in gamma space, so those can look slightly different once the file opens there, and the export result names them so you know where to look.

The GIMP effects gain an outline, an outer glow and surface blur, a blur that keeps edges sharp, along with the grain extract and grain merge blend modes. Text can now wrap inside a box, and with fit it takes the largest size that still fits the box, which is most of the work in setting a caption. A saved selection can also be expanded, contracted, feathered, bordered, inverted, hardened or smoothed before it becomes a mask.

1.7.0 and 1.8.0 went out without a post here. Between them the GIMP beta went from tone and color work to layers and groups, a second photo placed in as a layer, the canvas extended for a border, and live effects from vignette to drop shadow. Checkpoints stand in for undo, which GIMP doesn’t have when it runs in the background. Then came selections by shape, color range or Magic Wand, layer masks made from them, live text, and moving, scaling or rotating a single layer.

On the Photoshop side, ps_ping now says when it can’t find a Photoshop install at all and how to point Editmamei at one with PHOTOSHOP_PATH, instead of asking you to open an application the computer may not have. A save that runs past its time limit is checked on disk before it is reported as a failure. And since 1.8.0, editmamei config set automation.allow_execute_script false turns off the tools that run script code, a setting no tool can change back.

The GIMP guide covers setup and everything above, the changelog has the full list, and the download page has 1.9.0.

— Alex