Learning objectives

When you have completed this session, you should be able to

• list other panels, windows of the program.

Windows, Pages

Let us have an overview of the pages we can find in Gimp and their applications.

Pages appear in different windows in clusters. This classification can be changed according to our need simply with the drag and drop technique. Grab the title of a page and drag into another window. Also it can be dragged to the work area. This way a new suspended window will be created and the program puts the page in it.

If some windows cannot be found that can be displayed in the Dialogue window.

Let us have an overview of the functions of the most important pages.

Navigation

Navigation navigates the occurrence of the drawing in the window. The most part of it is filled with a viewing picture. If the drawing cannot fit in the window only a part of it can be seen. This part is shown by a rectangle in the Navigator’s viewing picture. The rectangle can be moved and this way the part of the picture displayed on the screen can also be moved.

Under the picture box the size of the enlargement can be seen. This can be modified with a slide bar.

Next to it there are some small buttons which can also be used for adjusting the enlargement.

Paintbrushes

Paintbrushes are located on the Paintbrushes page. We can select one when we work with a paintbrush, eraser or some other editor tools. The program uses the same selected paintbrush for every tool.

We can create new paintbrushes if we chose the New Paintbrush command.

We can also further modify a paintbrush which was created earlier if we double click on it.

Undo

In some newer programs we may have get used to the multiple possibility of undoing things. We can have the same great experience with Gimp as well.

Moreover!

We have a much better tool. It is called Undo History. Here, we can follow up our work and can return to any previous stage. Simply click on a point of Undo History’s flap and that returns you to an earlier stage. As long as the picture is untouched it is possible to go forward in the History. This way we can jump to any phase of the editing work and continue the job.

There is a possibility to repeat some stages by simply clicking on the Redo button.

Paths, Patterns, Color Transitions

On the page for Paths trimming curves can be stored. To use them we need to know Bezier-curves which exceed the extents of this material.

On the Patterns page different patterns can be seen to fill in any empty space; provided that we selected earlier the Fill with Pattern radio button at the properties of the Filling.

On the page of Gradients the color transitions between the foreground and the background and any color transitions are found respectively.

Info

The Info palette provides information about the pixel where the cursor [ROSSZ LINK!!!] is located. In the left upper area the color components are displayed in the mode the picture is being edited. In the right upper area the CMYK components are displayed.

The left lower area displays the coordinates of the point in the measurement selected.

In the right lower area the size of the selected area is shown (if there is a selected area).

Action

In Action palette actions can be stored which is called macros in Gimp. Editing steps can be saved and later with pressing only one key or with a key combination the steps can be played. Suppose that the same type of frame is often used for your pictures. For this reason the action can be saved in which the usual, boring steps are stored. Later this series of actions can be repeated with Gimp by pressing only one key.

Storing actions is simple. Press the button for Create New Action and give a name and a key combination for the action. Following this do the steps you want to store.

After having all steps done the saving can be stopped with the Stop button on the bottom of the page and all is done.

Playing starts when Action is chosen on the palette.