GIMP’s original image processing functions were programmed to operate on no more than 8 bit per channel RGBA colours. Over the years this caused multiple issues for GIMP users, such as image processing artifacts/inaccuracies and inability to work with some colour models. The solution is GEGL, a new image processing backend which has been linked to GIMP and will be used to replace existing GIMP image processing operations. While GEGL provides a solution to these issues and brings new possibilities like non-destructive editing, the first goal in integrating GEGL is to port existing GIMP functionality.

Profit for GIMP

• It aids GIMP in completely moving over to GEGL, discarding all legacy 8 bit code and providing a completely GEGL backed full-featured workflow for the users.
• After the move to GEGL is complete, users will not have to re-familiarise with GIMP.
• Thanks to the design of GEGL, the new operations will have cleaner, more readable code. This will make it easier to create optimized machine code (if necessary) or OpenCL versions.
• It will be easier for the developers to create new functionality once everything works using the graph API of GEGL.