Shotwell 33 brings GTK4 port

Shotwell 33 is out, the first stable version of the photo manager for GNOME desktops to use GTK4.

A GTK4 port of Shotwell has been in the works since 2025. It’s the first big toolkit port the image tool has since since it migrated to GTK3 in 2012 (v0.12.0).

Yet despite the leap, the user-facing result is just a plain port; it’s not as visually transformative as gThumb’s GTK4/libadwaita port (which looks like an entirely new app)

A more substantive visual revamp using GTK4/libadwaita may follow. For now, Shotwell 33 looks like Shotwell v32 – the benefit is that more of the underlying technologies and packages that help it work on modern GNOME desktops are in sync.

Many Linux distributions are trying to get rid of vestigial GTK3 dependencies.

Other improvements feature in this release, albeit nothing that’ll have anyone rushing out to try it. There’s an improved printing experience, lower-level performance tweaks and memory leak fixes.

While not as widely used as it once was, Shotwell is still Ubuntu’s default photo manager and image editor (on the live image and extended installs; it’s not included on minimal installs). It’s had that role since Ubuntu 10.10, having replaced F-Spot.

It’s not clear if Ubuntu 26.10 will manage to package and ship Shotwell v33 in time – it’s released rather late in the stonking development cycle – but if not, lookout for it on Flathub or the Snap Store.