The new version of GTK 4.8.0 has already been released and comes with various improvements for Linux

After eight months of development the release of the new version of GTK 4.8.0 was announced, which continues development of the GTK 4.x branch under a new development process that attempts to provide application developers with a stable and multi-year compatible API, which can be used without fear that applications will need to be reworked every six months due to API changes.

For those new to GTK, you should know that this is a cross-platform graphics component library to develop graphical user interfaces (GUI) It is licensed under the terms of the GNU LGPL, so it allows the creation of both free software and proprietary software.

Main new features of GTK 4.8

In this new version that is presented, the library GDK, which provides a layer between GTK and the graphics subsystem, has optimized the conversion of pixel formats. On systems with NVIDIA drivers, the EGL extension EGL_KHR_swap_buffers_with_damage is enabled.

Library GSK, which provides the ability to render graphical scenes via OpenGL and Vulkan, supports processing of large visible areas (viewports), in addition to libraries for drawing glyphs using textures.

for Linux in Wayland, support for the “xdg-activation” protocol is implemented, which allows focus to be transferred between different first-level surfaces (for example, using xdg-activation, one application can switch focus to another).

In GTK 4.8 the GtkTextView widget has reduced the number of situations that lead to repeated redraws and implemented the GetCharacterExtents function to determine the area with a glyph that defines a character in the text (a feature requested by tools for people with disabilities).

Class gtkviewport, which is used to arrange scrolling in widgets, has “scroll to focus” mode enabled by default, in which the content automatically scrolls to keep the view of the element that has the input focus.

The GtkSearchEntry widget, which displays the area for entering a search query, offers the ability to configure the delay between the last keystroke and sending a content change signal (GtkSearchEntry::search-changed).

In addition to that, also in GTK 4.8 highlights the expanded capabilities of the debugger, for se implemented application data visualization and allowed the display of PangoAttrList properties during inspection.

It is also highlighted that the CSS engine has optimized the regrouping of associated elements with the same parent and allowed the use of non-integer values ​​when determining the size of the space between letters.

For macOS, added support for full screen mode and video playback using OpenGL, as well as improved monitor detection, worked on multi-monitor setups, window placement, and size selection for the file dialog, too apps were allowed to run in the background.

On Windows, improved window placement on HiDPI screens, added a color detection interface, implemented support for high resolution mouse wheel events, and improved touchpad support.

Of the other changes that stand out:

• Updated emoji data to CLDR 40 (Unicode 14) set.
• Added support for new locales.
• The screenshot command was added to the gtk4-builder-tool utility to create a screenshot, which is used when generating screenshots for documentation.
• The font chooser interface (GtkFontChooser) has improved support for OpenType formatting features.
• The GtkCheckButton widget now has the ability to assign its own child widget with a button.
• The "content-fit" property has been added to the GtkPicture widget to fit the content to a given area size.
• Scroll performance has been optimized in the GtkColumnView widget.
• The gtk4-node-editor utility has been installed.
• Sound support has been added to the ffmpeg backend.
• The memory limit on the JPEG image uploader has been increased to 300 MB.
• Changed the style of the color picker interface (GtkColorChooser).

Finally, if you are interested in being able to know more about it, you can consult the details in the following link