Apple Silicon version of open source GIMP image editor finally available for macOS

Apple switched to its own ARM-based desktop processors for Mac computers in 2020. Believe it or not, despite it now being 2022, not all macOS apps are optimized for Apple Silicon. While M1 and M2 Mac computers are also compatible with Intel apps (with some emulation sorcery), the software won't run as well -- developers really need to embrace the Apple Silicon future.

Thankfully, after much waiting, one of the world's most popular open source image editors, GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), has finally been optimized for Apple Silicon. Yes, a stable M1/M2 version of the excellent (and free) Adobe Photoshop alternative can now be downloaded for macOS.

ALSO READ: Tweetbot developer Tapbots working on Mastodon app 'Ivory' for Apple devices

"It is a bit of an early Christmas for people using Apple Silicon machines (Apple M1, M2…) as we release for the first time ever a stable version of GIMP for this architecture! It is a revision package for GIMP 2.10.32, already released a few months ago, re-built with our new MacPorts-based infrastructure on both x86_64 ('macOS on Intel' architecture) and AArch64 ('macOS on Apple Silicon')," explains Jehan Pagès, GIMP developer.

ALSO READ: Plugable Quad HDMI Adapter adds four video ports to your MacBook or Windows PC

Pagès adds, "Additionally in this revised package, dependencies have been updated, in particular babl and GEGL. It means that even for macOS on Intel, you will get the recent fix to the race condition bug which was sometimes causing crashes of GIMP (somehow we mostly saw it happen on macOS). This is why we recommend every person on macOS (whichever your hardware) to update GIMP with this revision 1 of GIMP 2.10.32."

The Apple Silicon variant of GIMP 2.10.32 can be downloaded from the developer directly here. Simply install the DMG and you will be off to the races. If you do decide to try it on your M1 or M2-based Mac computer, we kindly ask you to please share your experience with us in the comments below.