Image Editor GIMP 2.10.4 Brings Async Fonts Loading, Simple Horizon Straightening

GIMP, the free and open source raster graphics editor, was updated to version 2.10.4. With this release, the image editor includes async fonts loading, simple horizon straightening, and more.

With GIMP 2.10.4, fonts are loaded asynchronous, which results in a much faster startup time. As a result of this change, some fonts may not be ready when GIMP starts so if you want to use the text tool as soon as the GIMP window shows up, some fonts may not be available. GIMP lets you know if that's the case though. Non-text related activities can be performed right away.

Another change in this GIMP release is the addition of a (auto) Straighten button in the Measure tool settings dialog:

What this does is automatically straighten a photo that has an uneven horizon.

Yet another font-related improvement in this release is the addition of fonts tagging - the user interface is the same as for patterns, brushes or gradients. The plan is to auto-tag fonts based on metadata, but this feature is not yet available and "patches are welcome".

Related: Free Painting Software Krita 4.1.0 Released With New Reference Images Tool, Option To Save And Load Sessions, More

GIMP 2.10.4 Dashboard

Other changes in GIMP 2.10.4 include:

Recursive Transform improvements: multiple transformations can be applied simultaneously
Dashboard dockable widget (can be accessed from the menu: Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Dashboard) changes:

it now includes a Memory group that displays the currently used memory size, the available physical memory size, and the total physical memory size
the Swap was updated to include read and written fields
the Swap busy indicator is now active when data was read or written during the last sampling interval, instead of at the point of sampling

PSD loader improvements: GIMP can now read "merged", pre-composited versions of the images which become available when PSD files are saved with the "Maximize Compatibility" option enabled in Photoshop.
When a plugin cannot be applied to an image because of mismatch in image types (as an example, if a layer has no alpha or the image is greyscale), GIMP now displays a message listing supported image types for this plugin
New tool option manager to better keep track of user context and paint options in a consistent manner.
The Smudge tool now paints correctly on images with a color profile other than the GIMP's built-in one
Run explicitly Python 2 as Python plugin interpreter to prevent breakage on systems where Python 3 is the default

There's some good news for macOS users too. There are now beta (there are still some issues) builds of GIMP 2.10 available for Mac. They are currently based on GIMP 2.10.2, and not the latest 2.10.4 though.