GNU Image Manipulation Program 1 / 653 GNU Image Manipulation Program User Manual GNU Image Manipulation Program 2 / 653 Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 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. GNU Image Manipulation Program 3 / 653 COLLABORATORS TITLE : REFERENCE : GNU Image Manipulation Program ACTION NAME DATE SIGNATURE WRITTEN BY July 26, 2007 REVISION HISTORY NUMBER DATE DESCRIPTION NAME $Revision: 1985 $ 2007-07-15 romanofski GNU Image Manipulation Program 4 / 653 Contents I Getting started 21 1 Introduction 22 1.1 Welcome to the GIMP . 22 1.1.1 Authors . 22 1.1.2 The GIMP-Help system . 22 1.1.3 Features and Capabilities . 22 1.2 What’s New in GIMP? . 23 1.2.1 Interoperability and Standards Support . 23 1.2.2 Shortcut Editor . 23 1.2.3 Plug-in Previews . 24 1.2.4 Real-Time Previews of Transform Operations . 24 1.2.5 GNOME Human Interface Guide Conformance . 24 1.2.6 GTK+ 2.4 Migration . 24 1.2.7 Basic Vector Support . 24 1.2.8 Also . 24 2 Fire up the GIMP 25 2.1 Running GIMP . 25 2.1.1 Known Platforms . 25 2.1.2 Language . 25 2.1.3 Command Line Arguments . 26 2.2 Starting GIMP the first time . 26 3 First Steps With Wilber 30 3.1 Basic Concepts . 30 3.2 Main Windows . 32 3.2.1 The Main Toolbox . 33 3.2.2 Image Window . 35 3.2.3 Dialogs and Docking . 36 GNU Image Manipulation Program 5 / 653 3.3 Undoing . 40 3.3.1 Things That Cannot be Undone . 41 3.4 GIMPLite Quickies . 42 3.4.1 Intention . 42 3.4.2 Change the Size of an Image (Scale) . 42 3.4.3 Make JPEGs Smaller . 44 3.4.4 Crop An Image . 47 3.4.5 Find Info About Your Image . 48 3.4.6 Change the Mode . 50 3.4.7 Flip An Image . 52 3.5 How to Draw Straight Lines . 53 3.5.1 Intention . 53 3.5.2 Final . 55 4 Getting Unstuck 57 4.1 Getting Unstuck . 57 4.1.1 Stuck! . 57 4.1.2 Common Causes of GIMP Non-Responsiveness . 57 II How do I Become a GIMP Wizard? 61 5 Getting Images Into GIMP 62 5.1 Image Types . 62 5.2 Creating new Files . 64 5.3 Opening Files . 64 5.3.1 Open File . 64 5.3.2 Open Location . 65 5.3.3 Open Recent . 66 5.3.4 File Browser . 66 5.3.5 Drag and Drop . 66 5.3.6 Copy and Paste . 66 5.3.7 Image Browser . 66 6 Getting images out of GIMP 67 6.1 Files . 67 6.1.1 Saving Images . 67 6.1.2 Saving Files . 67 6.2 Preparing your Images for the Web . 72 6.2.1 Images with an Optimal Size/Quality Ratio . 72 6.2.2 Reducing the File Size Even More . 73 6.2.3 Saving Images with Transparency . 73 GNU Image Manipulation Program 6 / 653 7 Painting with GIMP 75 7.1 The Selection . 75 7.1.1 Feathering . 76 7.1.2 Making a Selection Partially Transparent . 77 7.2 Creating and Using Selections . 78 7.2.1 Moving a Selection . 78 7.2.2 Creating a Free Selection . 79 7.3 QuickMask . 79 7.3.1 Overview . 79 7.3.2 Properties . 80 7.4 Using the Quickmask . 80 7.5 Paths ......................................................... 81 7.5.1 Path Creating . ..