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GIMP is freely available open source software. It works well for most things, but it has some quirks that can make using it extremely frustrating. This is not a comprehensive instructional manual, it just covers the most common tasks that we refer to in our other instructional materials. Instead of trying to explain to you how the entire program works, we will walk you through some of the thing you might need to do, and you should be able to learn most of the program features this way, as well as look up just the thing you are trying to do. We will cover the following:
GIMP is a little different than some programs, in that it has multiple windows. The tools are in one window, the image you are working with is in another, and if you accidentally tear off your Tool Options panel, it will be forever in its own window, because there is no way to put it back! GIMP is also missing an essential tool set, which makes it frustrating to use for large projects. It lacks a line, and object tool set. GIMP has a Help system, but it has to be installed separately. It does offer tips at the beginning of each session, and if you leave them on and keep reading them, eventually they can tell you many of the most common feature differences in GIMP. In spite of the limitations, it is very flexible software, and if you need to work with free software, GIMP is the most functional choice available for Image Editing - believe me, I have tried a bunch, and most are just plain pathetic. And what it does do, it does very well for the most part.
The All-Powerful Undo Most programs have an Undo feature. And typically it will at least undo the last thing you did. Undo really comes into its own though in Image programs, because the good ones have multiple levels of Undo. You can undo more than one command, in exactly reverse of the order you did them in. GIMP has this feature, and it is as simple as using the Edit menu, or the standard Control-Z to rapidly reverse the disaster you just created. You can undo virtually anything you do, including pasting, scaling, text, filters, and more. Keep this in mind, because as you work creatively in an image program, things often do not look the way you hoped they would, and you have to go back and make modifications.
Cropping and Scaling Cropping and Scaling are fairly routine tasks, and GIMP only has a couple of differences in how they work. Using the Marquee tool (rectangular selection), you can select an area, and choose Image -> Crop to Selection to quickly crop an image. You can also use the AutoCrop option to automatically crop all white area from around an image. This does not work well if there are color variations that are not detectible to the human eye though. Scaling has two options - Scaling the image, or scaling a layer. You can scale the entire image using the Image -> Scale Image command. To scale just a layer - for instance if you just pasted in something that you want to scale down to size, use the Layer -> Scale Layer command. The dialog box has the height and width boxes for sizing, as most Scale dialogs do. It also has a chain icon beside the height and width boxes. This chain "links" the two in for proportional scaling. When it is left alone, it will automatically adjust both measurements to the same proportion as the original. You can just type in one of the two numbers. This is handy for if you want to fit the final image into a space either horizontally or vertically. If you click the chain and "break" it, then you can adjust the two numbers independently. The same chain is used in the Canvas Size dialog box, where you can manually set resolution (DPI), and the size of the document. This can help you resize the document to a different size, either smaller or larger, without resizing the image itself. This dialog box has a preview down at the bottom that shows you how the canvas size will be adjusted, and you can drag the image around in the preview window to put it where you want it to end up in the finished resizing. If you make the Canvas Size larger than the image was, then you'll also need to go to the Image menu and choose Layer to Image Size.
Lightening, Darkening, and Color Changes GIMP lets you do some fairly complex color adjustments, but they can take getting used to in order to get realistic colors out of them, and to produce a predictable result. I frequently need to adjust the contrast on an image, especially on background images, to get them so they don't conflict with my text for web pages. GIMP makes this harder to do than many programs, because of how it handles colors. Normally I'd just put it into my image program and turn the contrast down, and the brightness up to wash it out. If I do that in GIMP, it goes gray, and loses the color. So then I have to adjust the Color Balance (in the Tools Menu, under Color Tools) to get the color back, and sometimes the Levels to intensify the colors again. The best way to learn what the color tools can do is by playing with them. Because even if someone tells you what they do, you still have to get in and tinker before you can see the actual effect.
Copying and Pasting When you paste something into GIMP, it wil stay selected until you anchor it. You can do this one of two ways - If the pasted part is smaller, you can slide the mouse outside the pasted image and then click when you see the anchor cursor. If the pasted image is so big that it fills the window, then you can use the Layer menu, and choose Anchor layer. You can move the pasted part around by dragging it until you anchor it, then it is fixed in place. A couple of useful commands are Paste into New, and Paste Into. Paste into New gets you a new window with the part you copied pasted into it - the window will be the right size for the image you copied. Paste into is useful when you want to paste something around something else. For example, if I want to paste part of an image behind text, I can select the colors around the text, and then use Paste Into, to paste the copied image into the selected part only.
Layers Many professional quality image editors use layers. GIMP does this also, and has some quirks (its a feature, not a bug!), which can be confusing at first. A dotted line (which does not move like a selection does) appears around the edge of each image. You can turn that on and off in the Layers menu. Layers allow you to keep items separate so you can make changes more easily later. GIMP defaults to layers on certain things, like inserting new text. You can get rid of the layers by using the Image -> Flatten Image command. This may be easier for someone who is not familiar with working with them.
Selections GIMP has the standard assortment of Selection tools - Marquee (rectangle), Oval, Lasso, and Magic Wand. It also has an option for Select by Color, which is a handy feature. I have not yet figured out how to get the lasso to do anything other than select exactly what I draw around (no shrinking around light or dark colors), but that does not mean it can't do that - I don't know yet. The Selection menu lets you do a number of specialized functions. You can invert your selection (for example, you can select a background with the magic want, invert the selection, and pick up everything BUT the background very quickly that way), you can grow or shrink the selection (to include more or less than what is selected), select all, or select none. The Shift and Control keys are especially handy with selection tools. Shift allows you to select more than one item at a time. You can use that with shape selectors, or with the Magic Wand or Select by Color tools. The Control key lets you subtract from the selection. And you can switch selection tools in the middle and the program won't mind. That means you can select an object with the rectangle or oval tools, then eliminate a color block with the magic wand tool, etc. The quirk it has in using this is that the Shift key also constrains the selection to a square or perfect circle. That means that when you add parts to a selection, the tool will only select a square or circle. The Control key also constrains it so that will make the part you want to remove behave oddly.
Brushes GIMP has the usual pencil, paintbrush, and airbrush tools. It also has a Clone tool, Smudge tool, and several other specialty brushes. Each can have the size adjusted using the Tool Options panel, and you can also usually adjust the brush shape, and the opacity (how dark it applies the color or effect). If you have a Graphic Tablet, it has Pressure Sensitivity capability.
Applying Filters I am really impressed with the wide range of filters that GIMP comes with. I have been able to apply beveled effects, sphere effects, drop shadows, and to control a range of effects on my images. Filters generally are applied to anything that is selected, or to the entire image if no selection is active. Many filters are found under the Script-Fu menu. You really just have to play around with them if you want to know what all of them do, because they will react differently on different images.
Retouching I personally think that the most useful tool for retouching is the Clone Tool. By Control Clicking on part of the image when the Clone Tool is chosen, you can select a color, texture, or image part to duplicate. For example, if you want to remove a zit from your teenager's nose on that photograph that is just great except for that, you can find a place on their face where the color matches what it should be (match the lighting), and use that for your source. Then use the clone tool to click right on top of that zit - if the brush size is the right size (and you want to choose the brush shape that is blurred on the edges), you can just blot that zit right out, and it will look like it was never there. The clone tool has a specific behavior that you must watch out for. When you use it like a brush, and drag it around, the source marker (looks like a + on your image) will move too. That means you must not move it far enough in one sweep to get into different colors or textures, or it will look really odd. I have created some very cool images using the clone tool. Using one image as the source, and another to paint onto, I was able to take a photo and filter it with the Emboss command. That turned to to a textured black and white image. Then I used the Clone tool, set at a very low opacity, to paint in the original image again, so that it faded in from the edges. Parts in tne center were fully painted in, and it faded into embossing at the edges. It has been useful for removing unwanted items from a background, and even for removing a finger from a nose in a photo of a small child! You can take the bunny ears out that your teen held over your husband's head just as the camera clicked. And if the Christmas tree behind your head just happens to line up in such a way that the French Horn ornament looks like it is coming out of your ear, you can tactfully remove it and no one will be the wiser!
New Images Because of the way that GIMP handles windows, you have TWO File menus. Normally when working with an image, you'll use the commands in the image window. But when you choose to create a new image, you have two choices. You can use either File menu. If you have something on the clipboard (that you copied), then the New command from the IMAGE window will get you a new window the right size for the clipboard item. The New command from the Tool Window will get you the default dialog box with a different image size set.
Working with Text GIMP is very flexible in how it works with text, though you do have to type everything in through a dialog box. At least it does show you the results in the image window though. The Tool options let you change the font, and style. Use the color bar in the Tool options to set the text color, do NOT use the regular foreground and background color rectangles. You can almost never click the text into place where you want it. You'll have to just eyeball the size until you can put the text where you really want it. Get the size and style and color right. Then close the text window (where you typed), and choose the Move tool (a plus sign with arrows on the ends). Use that to move the text where you want it. You can also nudge it using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Once it is where you want it, you can leave it as a separate layer, or you can use the Image -> Flatten Image command to eliminate the extra layer.
Creating a Logo
Creating a Web Banner Whether you are creating a page header, or a banner for an ad, you can easily crop, scale, or resize to get it just the size you need it. You are limited only by your creativity.
Saving Images GIMP saves images in its own proprietary format by default, but you can tell it to save in a variety of formats. I like the fact that you can set it to save it in any format you like, just by typing in the correct file extension. In other words, if I type photo.jpg, it will save it as a JPEG. If I name it photo.gif, it will save it as a GIF. If I type photo.pgr, it will say, "file type not recognized"! If you need to save the file somewhere other than the destinations it shows, you'll need to click the + to expand save options.
GIMP is by no means perfect. Personally, I think it has a few rather needed improvements before I can say that it will be a practical single solution for image editing. Still though, it has some very powerful features, and if you need to get by on cheap software, this one is not only the best option available, it is highly usable and a truly viable choice.
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