GNU Image Manipulation Program

GNU Image Manipulation Program

User Manual

Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 The GIMP Documentation Team

Legal Notice

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section enphrased GNU Free Documentation License.

Revision History
Revision $Revision: 2452 $	2007-07-15	romanofski

Table of Contents

1. GIMP User Manual Authors and Contributors

I. Getting started

1. Introduction

1. Welcome to GIMP

1.1. Authors
1.2. The GIMP Help system
1.3. Features and Capabilities

2. What's New in GIMP 2.4?

2. Fire up the GIMP

1. Running GIMP

1.1. Known Platforms
1.2. Language
1.3. Command Line Arguments

2. Starting GIMP the first time

2.1. Finally . . .

3. First Steps With Wilber

1. Basic Concepts

2. Main Windows

2.1. The Main Toolbox
2.2. Image Window
2.3. Dialogs and Docking

3.1. Things That Cannot be Undone

4. GIMPLite Quickies

4.1. Intention
4.2. Change the Size of an Image (Scale)
4.3. Make JPEGs Smaller
4.4. Crop An Image
4.5. Find Info About Your Image
4.6. Change the Mode
4.7. Flip An Image
4.8. Rotate An Image

5. How to Draw Straight Lines

5.1. Intention
5.2. Examples

4. Getting Unstuck

1. Getting Unstuck

1.1. Stuck!
1.2. Common Causes of GIMP Non-Responsiveness

II. How do I Become a GIMP Wizard?

5. Getting Images Into GIMP

1. Image Types

2. Creating new Files

3. Opening Files

3.1. Open File
3.2. Open Location
3.3. Open Recent
3.4. File Browser
3.5. Drag and Drop
3.6. Copy and Paste
3.7. Image Browser

6. Getting images out of GIMP

1.1. Saving Images
1.2. Saving Files

2. Preparing your Images for the Web

2.1. Images with an Optimal Size/Quality Ratio
2.2. Reducing the File Size Even More
2.3. Saving Images with Transparency

7. Painting with GIMP

1. The Selection

1.1. Feathering
1.2. Making a Selection Partially Transparent

2. Creating and Using Selections

2.1. Moving a Selection
2.2. Creating a Free Selection

3. QuickMask

3.1. Overview
3.2. Properties

4. Using the Quickmask

5.1. Path Creating
5.2. Paths and Selections
5.3. Transforming Paths
5.4. Stroking a Path
5.5. Paths and Text
5.6. Paths and SVG files

7. Adding New Brushes

8. The GIH Dialog Box

9. Varying brush size

9.1. How to vary the height of a brush
9.2. Creating a brush quickly

10. Gradients

11. Patterns

12. Palettes

12.1. Colormap

13. Drawing Simple Objects

13.1. Drawing a Straight Line
13.2. Creating a Basic Shape

8. Combining Images

1. Introduction to Layers

1.1. Layer Properties

2. Layer Modes

3. Creating New Layers

4. Text and Fonts

5.1. Embellishing Text
5.2. Adding Fonts
5.3. Font Problems

9. Enhancing Photographs

1. Working with Digital Camera Photos

1.1. Introduction
1.2. Improving Composition
1.3. Improving Colors
1.4. Adjusting Sharpness
1.5. Removing Unwanted Objects from an Image
1.6. Saving Your Results

10. Color Management with GIMP

1. Color Management in GIMP

1.1. Problems of a non Color Managed Workflow
1.2. Introduction to a Color Managed Workflow

11. Pimp my GIMP

1. Preferences Dialog

1.1. Introduction
1.2. Environment
1.3. Interface
1.4. Theme
1.5. Help System
1.6. Tool Options
1.7. Toolbox
1.8. Default Image Preferences
1.9. Default Image Grid
1.10. Image Windows
1.11. Image Window Appearance
1.12. Image Window Title and Statusbar
1.13. Display
1.14. Color Management
1.15. Input Devices
1.16. Input Controllers
1.17. Window Management
1.18. Folders
1.19. Data Folders

2. Grids and Guides

2.1. The Image Grid
2.2. Guides

3. Rendering a Grid

4. How to Set Your Tile Cache

5. Creating Shortcuts to Menu Functions

6. Dialogs and Docking

6.1. Creating Docking Dialogs
6.2. Removing Tabs

7. Customize Splash-Screen

12. Scripting

1.1. Introduction
1.2. Using Plugins
1.3. Installing New Plugins
1.4. Writing Plugins

2. Using Script-Fu Scripts

2.1. Script-Fu?
2.2. Installing Script-Fus
2.3. Do's and Don'ts
2.4. Different Kinds Of Script-Fus
2.5. Standalone Scripts
2.6. Image-Dependent Scripts

3. A Script-Fu Tutorial

3.1. Getting Acquainted With Scheme
3.2. Variables And Functions
3.3. Lists, Lists And More Lists
3.4. Your First Script-Fu Script
3.5. Giving Our Script Some Guts
3.6. Extending The Text Box Script
3.7. Your script and its working

III. Function Reference

13. Toolbox

1. The Toolbox

1.1. Tool Options

2. Selection Tools

2.1. Common Features
2.2. Rectangle Selection
2.3. Ellipse Selection
2.4. Free Selection (Lasso)
2.5. Fuzzy selection (Magic wand)
2.6. Select By Color
2.7. Scissors
2.8. Foreground Select

3. Brush Tools

3.1. Common Features
3.2. Painting Tools (Pencil, Paintbrush, Airbrush)
3.3. Bucket Fill
3.4. Blend
3.5. Pencil
3.6. Paintbrush
3.7. Eraser
3.8. Airbrush Tool
3.9. Ink
3.10. Clone
3.11. Heal
3.12. Perspective Clone
3.13. Convolve (Blur/Sharpen)
3.14. Smudge
3.15. Dodge or Burn

4. Transform Tools

4.1. Common Features
4.2. Move
4.3. Align
4.4. Crop
4.5. Rotate
4.6. Scale
4.7. Shear
4.8. Perspective
4.9. Flip

5. Color Tools

5.1. Color Balance
5.2. Hue-Saturation
5.3. Colorize
5.4. Brightness-Contrast tool
5.5. Threshold
5.6. Levels
5.7. Curves
5.8. Posterize

6.1. Path
6.2. Color Picker
6.3. Magnify
6.4. Measure
6.5. Text

7. Color and Indicator Area

7.1. Color Area
7.2. Indicator Area
7.3. Active image Area

14. Dialogs

1. Dialog Introduction

2. Image Structure Related Dialogs

2.1. Layers Dialog
2.2. Channels Dialog
2.3. Path Dialog
2.4. Colormap Dialog
2.5. Histogram dialog
2.6. Navigation Dialog
2.7. Undo History Dialog

3. Image-content Related Dialogs

3.1. The “FG/BG Color” Dialog
3.2. Brushes Dialog
3.3. Patterns Dialog
3.4. Gradients Dialog
3.5. Palettes Dialog
3.6. Fonts Dialog

4. Image Management Related Dialogs

4.1. Buffers Dialog
4.2. Images Dialog
4.3. Document History Dialog
4.4. Templates Dialog

5. Misc. Dialogs

5.1. Tools Dialog
5.2. Device Status Dialog
5.3. Error Console
5.4. Export File
5.5. Sample Points Dialog
5.6. Pointer Dialog

1. Introduction to Menus

1.1. Context Menus
1.2. Detachable Submenus

2. The Toolbox “File” Menu

2.1. The “File” Menu of the Toolbox
2.2. Acquire
2.3. The “Preferences” Command
2.4. Units
2.5. The “Dialogs” Sub-Menu

3. The “Xtns” Menu

3.1. Introduction to the “Xtns” Menu
3.2. The Module Manager
3.3. Plug-In Browser
3.4. The Procedure Browser
3.5. The “Script-Fu” Submenu

4. The “Help” Menu

4.1. Introduction to the “Help” Menu
4.2. Help
4.3. Context Help
4.4. Tip of the Day
4.5. About
4.6. GIMP online

5. The “File” Menu

5.1. File menu
5.2. New
5.3. Open
5.4. Open Location
5.5. Open Recent
5.6. Open as Layer
5.7. Save
5.8. Save as
5.9. Save a Copy
5.10. Save as Template
5.11. Revert
5.12. Print
5.13. Close
5.14. Close all
5.15. Quit

6. The “Edit” Menu

6.1. “Edit” Menu Entries
6.2. Undo
6.3. Redo
6.4. Fade...
6.5. Undo History
6.6. Cut
6.7. Copy
6.8. Copy Visible
6.9. Paste
6.10. Paste Into
6.11. Paste as...
6.12. Buffers
6.13. Clear
6.14. Fill with FG Color
6.15. Fill with BG Color
6.16. Fill with Pattern
6.17. Stroke Selection
6.18. Stroke Path

7. The “Select” Menu

7.1. Introduction to the “Select” Menu
7.2. Select All
7.3. None
7.4. Invert
7.5. Float
7.6. By Color
7.7. From Path
7.8. Selection Editor
7.9. Feather
7.10. Sharpen
7.11. Shrink
7.12. Grow
7.13. Border
7.14. Rounded Rectangle
7.15. Toggle QuickMask
7.16. Save to Channel
7.17. To Path

8. The “View” Menu

8.1. Introduction to the “View” Menu
8.2. New View
8.3. Dot for Dot
8.4. Zoom
8.5. Shrink Wrap
8.6. Full Screen
8.7. Navigation Window
8.8. Display Filters
8.9. Show Selection
8.10. Show Layer Boundary
8.11. Show Guides
8.12. Show Grid
8.13. Show Sample Points
8.14. Snap to Guides
8.15. Snap to Grid
8.16. Padding Color
8.17. Show Menubar
8.18. Show Rulers
8.19. Show Scrollbars
8.20. Show Statusbar

9. The “Image” Menu

9.1. The “Image” Menu of the Image Window
9.2. Duplicate
9.3. Mode
9.4. RGB mode
9.5. Grayscale mode
9.6. Indexed mode
9.7. Transform
9.8. Flip Horizontally; Flip Vertically
9.9. Rotation
9.10. Guillotine
9.11. Canvas Size
9.12. Fit Canvas to Layers
9.13. Print Size
9.14. Scale Image
9.15. Crop to Selection
9.16. Autocrop Image
9.17. Zealous Crop
9.18. Merge Visible Layers
9.19. Flatten Image
9.20. Guides
9.21. New Guide
9.22. New Guide (by Percent)
9.23. New Guides from Selection
9.24. Remove all guides
9.25. Configure Grid
9.26. Align Visible Layers
9.27. Image Properties

10. The “Layers” Menu

10.1. Introduction to the “Layer” Menu
10.2. New Layer
10.3. Duplicate layer
10.4. Anchor layer
10.5. Merge Down
10.6. Delete Layer
10.7. Discard Text Information
10.8. The text commands of the Layer menu
10.9. “Stack” Submenu
10.10. Select Previous Layer
10.11. Select Next Layer
10.12. Select Top Layer
10.13. Select Bottom Layer
10.14. Raise Layer
10.15. Lower Layer
10.16. Layer to Top
10.17. Layer to Bottom
10.18. The “Reverse Layer Order” command
10.19. Layer Color-Stretching Commands
10.20. Autocrop Layer
10.21. The “Mask” Submenu
10.22. Add Layer Mask
10.23. Apply Layer Mask
10.24. Delete Layer Mask
10.25. Show Layer Mask
10.26. Edit Layer Mask
10.27. Disable Layer Mask
10.28. Mask to Selection
10.29. Add Layer Mask to Selection
10.30. Subtract Layer Mask from Selection
10.31. Intersect Layer Mask with Selection
10.32. The “Transparency” Submenu of the “Layer” menu
10.33. Add Alpha Channel
10.34. Color to Alpha
10.35. Semi-flatten
10.36. Threshold Alpha
10.37. Alpha to Selection
10.38. Add Alpha channel to Selection
10.39. Subtract from Selection
10.40. Intersect Alpha channel with Selection
10.41. The “Transform” Submenu
10.42. Flip Horizontally
10.43. Flip Vertically
10.44. Rotate 90 degrees CW
10.45. Rotate 90 degrees CCW
10.46. Rotate 180 degrees
10.47. Arbitrary Rotation
10.48. Offset
10.49. Layer Boundary Size
10.50. Layer to Image Size
10.51. Scale Layer
10.52. Crop to Selection

11. The “Colors” Menu

11.1. Introduction to the “Colors” Menu
11.2. Colors Tools
11.3. Desaturate
11.4. Invert
11.5. Value Invert
11.6. The “Auto” Submenu
11.7. Equalize
11.8. White Balance
11.9. Color Enhance
11.10. Normalize
11.11. Stretch Contrast
11.12. Stretch HSV
11.13. The “Components” Submenu
11.14. Channel Mixer
11.15. Compose
11.16. Decompose
11.17. Recompose
11.18. The “Map” Submenu
11.19. Rearrange Colormap
11.20. Set Colormap
11.21. Adjust Foreground & Background