Single single-window mode.

[teapot]

This is probably a silly question but what is singular in single-window mode?  I used to think it meant literally one window but you can have dockable dialogs as separate windows in both single-window mode and multi-window mode.

Hitherto I have used multi-window mode mainly for two reasons:

1. I put in long layer names to document what I did and often have many layers so having the layers dialog as a separate window allows me to easily adjust it's size.

2. I often like to see more than one image side by side, or a new view of an image along side the original.

This was all fine in gimp 2.10.

In gimp 3 I'm finding window management in multi-window mode OK when one image is open but pretty unusable when more than one is open.

So I'm thinking I could use single-window mode but with dockable dialogs as separate windows, e.g.  the layer dialog on it's own and several others docked together also in a separate window.  Point 1. would still be OK but not point 2.  I'm guessing you can't see more than one image at a time in single-window mode, not even a new view, is that what the single refers to?

[rich2005]

(01-05-2026, 05:21 AM)teapot Wrote: This is probably a silly question but what is singular in single-window mode?  I used to think it meant literally one window but you can have dockable dialogs as separate windows in both single-window mode and multi-window mode.

Lots of questions, "what is singular in single window mode"  Yes, you can have floating docks as required but there is one image showing (that is the singular), other open images you get from the tabs.

Quote:Hitherto I have used multi-window mode mainly for two reasons:

1. I put in long layer names to document what I did and often have many layers so having the layers dialog as a separate window allows me to easily adjust it's size.

2. I often like to see more than one image side by side, or a new view of an image along side the original.

This was all fine in gimp 2.10.

In gimp 3 I'm finding window management in multi-window mode OK when one image is open but pretty unusable when more than one is open.

There is a difference (bug ?) between versions. No adding a dock under Tools + tool options.  Best I can get is side-by-side like this, with three docks stacked.

   

It would be nice if opened images tiled or stacked in some way from within Gimp.  Usability then reverts to what your OS has. Linux KDE has options like this: ctrl-F9 shows the open image windows and you can choose which image to make active.

   

There is also "shading" a window or dock to make the desktop less cluttered.

Quote:So I'm thinking I could use single-window mode but with dockable dialogs as separate windows, e.g.  the layer dialog on it's own and several others docked together also in a separate window.  Point 1. would still be OK but not point 2.  I'm guessing you can't see more than one image at a time in single-window mode, not even a new view, is that what the single refers to?  

In single window mode the docks as separate windows is no problem. The snag is having more than one image showing, that means back to multi window mode.  As with most Gimp it has come up before, When Gimp was only multi window there was a plugin "dewyrdifier" which provided an type of single window mode.

Maybe someone will come up with a plugin to show an original / edited image side by side. It might come about in Gimp 3.2 with linked layers.

[Tas_mania]

Could you use another instance of Gimp to achieve multi windows? Just open Gimp again on another virtual desktop

I notice using AppImages every new appimage takes-over the last one. That includes completely different versions of Gimp.

[teapot]

Thanks Rich, That's really helpful.

I've now made two similar setups one for single-window mode and one for multi and saved their sessionrc files.  Then I can copy one of them back to the config directory before stating gimp if I want to swap setups.  That said, starting in single-window mode and then switching to multi gives pretty much the same setup and I've turned off the 'Save window positions on exit.' preference.  So at least I can use single-window mode and swerve the multi-window bugs when not wanting two images side by side.

Single setup:

   

(Yesterday, 09:18 AM)rich2005 Wrote: There is a difference (bug ?) between versions. No adding a dock under Tools + tool options.  Best I can get is side-by-side like this, with three docks stacked.

Which version has that bug? I'm still on 3.0.4 (due the the aarch64 AppImage issue but there may be some movement on that soon). I can dock things alongside tool options so probably have misunderstood what you meant but I gave it a go anyway:

   

(Yesterday, 09:27 PM)Tas_mania Wrote: Could you use another instance of Gimp to achieve multi windows? Just open Gimp again on another virtual desktop

I notice using AppImages every new appimage takes-over the last one. That includes completely different versions of Gimp.

Thanks Tas_mania that's an interesting idea but I don't know how to do it. I have a couple of AppImages as well as the normally installed gimp. If I run any one from the terminal when another is open it doesn't open a second.

[rich2005]

@ teapot

quote "Which version has that bug? I'm still on 3.0.4 (due the the aarch64 AppImage issue but there may be some movement on that soon). I can dock things alongside tool options so probably have misunderstood what you meant but I gave it a go anyway:"

I do not think it matters which version, it is the "hot-spot" bottom of the tools dock that is missing in Gimp 3.

   

Edit: Just as a note. I fire a whole Gimp profile across from a backup folder into ~./config/GIMP/ to change single / multi window mode