Week highlights: new releases of Sigil, PipeWire, Qtractor, and Millisecond; new features in GIMP.
GIMP
Three notable patches landed in GIMP recently:
- CmykStudent added a new option for the Text tool that I wish was there in Inkscape: outline direction (growing outward, inward, or centered).
- The Curves and Levels tools can now load respective Photoshop presets, patch also by CmykStudent.
- Jehan added a new option for the Brushes and the Palettes docks: “Use theme colors for preview". It’s a toggle at the top right of the respective docks. TBH, I think it should be just always on, depending on whether it’s a light or a dark theme.
Here are both the outline direction and the brush preview options:
Sigil 2.5.0
This is a mixed-bag-of-things kind of release of this EPUB editor, with minor quality-of-life improvements, updated lower-level tech (Qt 6.8.2, Python 3.13.2, pcre2-10.45), and various bugfixes.
If you are a Linux user specifically, you’ll finally find the AppImage build to be on par with the Windows/macOS builds at long last. In other words, upgrading makes perfect sense.
PipeWire 1.4.3
Wim Taymans spent more time hacking on netjack2 support (that’s the part of the JACK server tech that distributes audio over LAN) and made further improvements to MIDI2 support, such as better UMP SysEx handling and fixes to UMP program change conversion to MIDI 1.0.
Qtractor 1.5.5
Rui made a purely bugfix release of his audio/MIDI sequencer. I know this is getting old, but if Qtractor is your choice, upgrading is a no-brainer. Builds for Linux are over on SourceForge.
Millisecond 0.1
This is a brand-new application by Gahel, that runs Jeremy Jongepier’s rtcqs tool to figure out which parts of your Linux system configuration need tweaking. Wehn you click an expander, it tells you what to do and links to the specific part of the Linux Audio wiki. See here for a few more details.
Artworks
Are You Already Asleep? by Karina Onisenko, made with Blender and Photoshop:
Cursed ruins 02 by Ying Lam, made with Blender and Photoshop:
Steel Hunters - Desert Environments by Igor Mariev, made with Blender, Photoshop, and Unreal Engine:
Verdentia City by Atari Refanada, made with Blender and Clip Studio Paint:
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