The developers of the GIMP graphic editor have announced that the GIMP 3 branch has been translated to the frozen stage Strokal data, meaning changes to the text lines displayed in the interface have been stopped. The freezing of lines is a crucial step in the release preparation process, allowing translators ample time (at least a month) to complete their work without being distracted by ongoing changes to the interface. Exceptions are only made for correcting typos and errors that result in line changes.
It is expected that all the functionality planned for the upcoming release is already in place, and the remaining tasks will not require any further alterations to the text lines. The next stage will involve freezing the API to prevent any amendments. A release candidate (GIMP 3.0.0-RC1) will be created before the final release, with efforts focused on identifying and correcting any errors that arise. Depending on testing outcomes, a second release candidate may be issued. However, the deadlines for freezing the API and creating release candidates have not been set.
The GIMP 3.0 branch introduces several enhancements, including the shift to GTK3, native support for Wayland and Hidpi, initial support for the CMYK color model (with later integration), extensive code base cleaning, a new API for plugin development, brush performance caching, Multi-Layer Selections, and editing in the original color space.