[Gimp-user] Newbie having trouble with layers, text and otherwise
Hello, everyone. I'm brand new to GIMP for Mac, so first a hearty hello! For my first project with GIMP, I'm trying to make a postcard for an art exhibition. I started by opening the central image that I want on the card, then I adjusted the size of the layer containing the image to 6.75 X 4.75 inches, the approximate dimension of most postcards, with a little extra at bottom for some text info. Now, here's where I'm having trouble: I want to place a text layer on the image, but with only part of the text on the image. The rest of the text should be dangling off the image, with a line of text in the extra white space under the image. So, I typed the text I wanted into the text tool window. The part of the text that lies on the image is visible, but the part that dangles off into the white space below is invisible. I can't see it. This seems to be a problem with the way the two layers--the one with the image and the one with the text--are interacting. It seems that after I enter a text layer, I can no longer see the entire image layer, including the extra white space at bottom. Likewise, it seems that whatever I put into the text layer dangling off the image itself, I cannot see. Any guidance? Please... I have a deadline for this project. Thank you. Regards John Grimmett ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
[Gimp-user] Re: Newbie having trouble with layers, text and otherwise
John Grimmett and Loreta Medina wrote: Hello, everyone. I'm brand new to GIMP for Mac, so first a hearty hello! For my first project with GIMP, I'm trying to make a postcard for an art exhibition. I started by opening the central image that I want on the card, then I adjusted the size of the layer containing the image to 6.75 X 4.75 inches, the approximate dimension of most postcards, with a little extra at bottom for some text info. Now, here's where I'm having trouble: I want to place a text layer on the image, but with only part of the text on the image. The rest of the text should be dangling off the image, with a line of text in the extra white space under the image. So, I typed the text I wanted into the text tool window. The part of the text that lies on the image is visible, but the part that dangles off into the white space below is invisible. I can't see it. This seems to be a problem with the way the two layers--the one with the image and the one with the text--are interacting. It seems that after I enter a text layer, I can no longer see the entire image layer, including the extra white space at bottom. Likewise, it seems that whatever I put into the text layer dangling off the image itself, I cannot see. Any guidance? Please... I have a deadline for this project. Thank you. Regards John Grimmett Hi John, I am not sure to understand everything you said, so I will ask you a few questions: What you want is a white frame (6.75x4.75 inches) around an image (smaller), and some text at the bottom overlapping both the image and the white frame, right? You said you adjusted the size of the layer containing the image to 6.75 x 4.75 inches, did you adjusted using Layer boundary size... (in the Layer menu or right-clicking on the layer in the Layers, Channels... window) or by Canvas Size... (in the Image menu) ? I suspect you have used the first one which would result in what you describe, while what you really want is not to use the second. Sincerely, Olivier. ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
Re: [Gimp-user] Re: Disadvantage of GIMP when compared to Photoshop
On Wed, 2005-05-04 at 09:38 -0700, Carol Spears wrote: On Wed, May 04, 2005 at 09:28:48AM +, Kent Tong wrote: Thanks for all who have replied. Yes, the Chinese problem is bogus. It works as long as the LANG env variable is set. it is interesting that the one time i saw anyone use this photoshop layers effect stuff, i was able to get TheGIMP to produce the same image in less than twenty minutes. that was using a little knowledge of computer graphics (most of which i learned by working with TheGIMP). The key difference is that effects or effect layers give the power to easily change things after they have been done. Nothing is set in stone. The changes are non-destructive giving the freedom to change things in future. This is especially useful when presenting things to clients, which by nature want to change things no matter what you present them :). Larry was also able to draw the Linux penguin without features like layers, yet I'm sure he would have been happy beaing able to make use of them. It's not that things are not achievable. Non-destructive workflows are in my view a very useful functionality worth investigating. cheers -- Jakub Steiner [EMAIL PROTECTED] Novell, Inc. ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
Re: [Gimp-user] Newbie having trouble with layers, text and otherwise
So, I typed the text I wanted into the text tool window. The part of the text that lies on the image is visible, but the part that dangles off into the white space below is invisible. I can't see it. Any guidance? Please... I have a deadline for this project. Thank you. Hm, RTFM comes to mind - http://docs.gimp.org. What you want to do is to resize the canvas. HTH, Michael -- +++ Neu: Echte DSL-Flatrates von GMX - Surfen ohne Limits +++ Always online ab 4,99 Euro/Monat: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
Re: [Gimp-user] Newbie having trouble with layers, text and otherwise
Welcome John. (2 ways to do this. Top one is better, because it's easier to colour the background) 1.) First open a new image (FileNew...) with the desired size (in this case I thing you said 6.75 X 4.75) and the desired background colour, then open the central image (FileOpen...), then copy the central image (EditCopy (make sure it's the correct layer if you have more than one in the central image, or just flatten the central image, the flattening of an image means merging all layers together and it's done by right clicking on the layers dialog box and choosing Flatten image)) and paste it into the new image (the one you just created with 6.75X4.75) by doing EditPaste in the new image and then finally you have to create a new layer in new image or choose anchor layer for the pasting to take place. The last thing, of course, would be the text. OR 2.) You can open central image, go to ImageCanvas Size... then choose the new size (6.75X4.75) and at the bottom a little preview should be there. Here you can drag the image around to tell GIMP where the new space is going to go (e.g. around the image, top left, bottom left, etc.) -Gezim ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
Re: [Gimp-user] Disadvantage of GIMP when compared to Photoshop
Eric P wrote: On Linux, I have no problem using a desktop solely for the Gimp, but on Windows (at work) I end up using a multi-desktop switcher to keep windows from getting out of hand (in numbers). Unfortunately, all the multi-desktop switcher programs I've tried (VirtuaWin, MegaScale MultiDesktop Manager, MS Virtual Desktop Manager) are a tad buggy and/or don't implement as well as the Unix model of multiple desktops. Sounds like you should write some feature requests for these Managers then. Michael -- +++ Neu: Echte DSL-Flatrates von GMX - Surfen ohne Limits +++ Always online ab 4,99 Euro/Monat: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
Re: [Gimp-user] Re: Disadvantage of GIMP when compared to Photoshop
On Wed, 2005-05-04 at 21:59 -0700, Tom Williams wrote: j Mak wrote: Using them you can experiment with various settings without changing the set up of your layer structure. In addition, you can edit your artwork, even months or years after finishing it, simply by altering the Adjustment layer or changing the layer effects parameters. For instance, if I decide at some point that don't want drop shadows anymore, I simply click on the layer effect representing the shadow and I turn it off, or add other effect if I want to. I'm not a PhotoShop user so please excuse the question but how does your example *not* change the setup of the layer structure? If I add a drop shadow to something in Gimp, the drop shadow is in a layer an I show or hide. How is that different from the Adjustment layer you describe? I'm sure it is but I don't know how it differs. :) Hi Tom! The dropshadow effect layer would simply take the alpha mask of the parent layer and apply the blur on that dynamically. So when in GIMP you would have to recreate the dropshadow manually each time you draw on the above layer, with a dynamic dropshadow effect layer, you would get that done automatically. Imagine you would create a set of filters applied on a layer - fill with pattern with keep transparency on, apply displacement map based on blurred copy of the alpha channel, applied bumpmap. And now imagine that sequence being applied every time you paint on a layer automatically. Hope that gives you an idea how layer effects can be useful. cheers -- Jakub Steiner [EMAIL PROTECTED] Novell, Inc. ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
[Gimp-user] Re: Newbie having trouble with layers, text and otherwise
Olivier Ripoll wrote: You said you adjusted the size of the layer containing the image to 6.75 x 4.75 inches, did you adjusted using Layer boundary size... (in the Layer menu or right-clicking on the layer in the Layers, Channels... window) or by Canvas Size... (in the Image menu) ? I suspect you have used the first one which would result in what you describe, while what you really want is not to use the second. sorry for the typo in the last line. It should be: describe, while what you really want is to use the second. Sincerely, Olivier. ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
Re: [Gimp-user] when even free advertising fails
Eric P wrote: David Marrs wrote: I *am* very grateful for the GIMP and think it says much for the spirit of free software. I also think it has some way to go before it becomes a mature product, Huh... the Gimp is not mature? Thank you for sharing that. I honestly didn't know! Shit... and while I'm at it, I best let my boss know ASAP that he's been paying me in a professional capacity to use an app that's not mature. It's a wonder I've gotten anything done at all! ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user Refined, then. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.5 - Release Date: 04/05/2005 ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
[Gimp-user] Tricks and tutorials
Hmm. Due to selective demand, I've begun to assemble a few articles, tutorials and tips on how to use the aforementioned brushes, patterns etc. but also on various other subjects. Some of these things are old - the manual is clearly better - and some is hurled together in a few minutes. Well, anyway.. Articles: http://www.artcamilla.dk/vaultage/articles/index.html Resources: http://www.artcamilla.dk/vaultage/cornucopia/ Sincerely Rene Jensen ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
[Gimp-user] Re: when even free advertising fails
David Marrs wrote: Since you bring it up, I was thinking just earlier today how frustrated I get when something suddenly stops working and I need to stop what I'm doing and look through the manual to find out what's wrong. The manual, btw, is always close at hand. I was wondering if it's' something I should discuss with the list or not. How can the interface be improved? What are its short comings? Does anyone else have this problem with it? Judging by Carey Bunks's FAQ section at the end of every chapter of Grokking the GIMP, yes. It would be nice to see some discussion of the GIMP's design, or its roadmap, or to feel that one can be involved in this project other than just by submitting bug reports or hacking code. Hey! If you think the FAQ section in (the excellent) Grokking the Gimp is a proof that the interface has to be improved, then you should install Gimp 2.0 or even 2.2. ;-) Seriously, Carey Bunk's book was about gimp 1.2 (and it was even written based on the 1.1.x series, not the final 1.2). Gimp developers have worked a lot on the interface since that era. It is still not perfect (what is perfection?) but has probably solved quite a lot of the problems mentionned by the book (which was, I do not remember if I mentionned it ;) , excellent). If you want to participate to the improvement of the interface not only by submitting bug reports or hacking code, you can do some interface testing/surveying. Some people have presented such results in the past and they were usually welcomed and accounted by the developers: Write a set of typical tasks to be performed (e.g. removing red eyes from a photo, cropping and rescaling an image, opening, rotating right -or left- and saving to a new name and location) and find some volunteers to perform these tasks (classify them in several categories such as experienced gimp user, experienced PS user, totally new to image manipulation, granny / aunt Tilly). Then observe them while performing the tasks (one volunteer at a time), take notes of their comments, frustrations, the places they expected to find the functionnality, the time they spent, everything. Such a survey is always useful. Before launching it, present the protocol to us for comments of course. Best regards, Olivier ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
RE: [Gimp-user] Disadvantage of GIMP when compared to Photoshop
Yea it's a very uncommon thing, but I am working with J2ME apps for mobile phones. Part of making an app smaller in filesize or take less memory on a mobile device is to optimize images and explore different image types. Some apps we've come across have code that specifically needs something like an image to be e.g. 2-bit grayscale in order for something to happen (or another example having to do with palettes... that it requires colour 3,3,3 to be in position 4 of the palette). I would appreciate sub-8bit support in GIMP... it would definately be a reason for me to use the program more often. Not many people would need this kind of stuff tho =). -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Joao S. O. Bueno Calligaris Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 9:13 PM To: gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Subject: Re: [Gimp-user] Disadvantage of GIMP when compared to Photoshop On Thursday 05 May 2005 12:17, Kalle Ounapuu wrote: One of the things I've noticed is that Adobe Photoshop (and the PSD file format) does not allow Indexed images with multiple layers. If you save to any format other than XCF you cannot be sure all features will be supported. Amen to that! That is one thing I wished Photoshop had... saving an Indexed PSD with layers. Also support for sub-8bit Indexed mode (e.g. 2bit, 4bit, etc)... currently I only know of Paintshop Pro that can do that (though it's buggy). Nobody have asked, that I recall, saving in indexed formats with 2 and 4 bit. This is not hard to do code in the GIMP PNG and maybe some other format. (bmp, or tiff) Do you need this feature? Another thing I wish for Photoshop is a hard 1-pixel eraser in RGB mode (that acts just like the 1-pixel erase in Indexed mode). Bringing down square brush size to 1 and hardness to 100%, you have bleeding/softness around the area you are erasing. ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
Re: [Gimp-user] when even free advertising fails
Hi, Gezim Hoxha [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: On Thu, 2005-05-05 at 07:04 -0700, Carol Spears wrote: a forum where they can constantly bombard and belittle TheGIMP and are free to do so and the best they can pull out of their over-extended reasoning is this layers effect stuff. I'm not sure who they are, but if you're referring to people in this list that are not afraid to admit gimp's weaknesses, these people have every right to point them out. You can't fix a problem if you don't even accept it. Lack of layer effects is not a problem? You are perfectly right that it is important to point out weak spots. The discussions that have been happening on this list lately have however not pointed out a singleq weak spots that wouldn't have been well-known already. Bringing up stuff that is already in the bug-tracker and on the roadmap for years doesn't really help anyone. Sven ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
Re: [Gimp-user] Re: when even free advertising fails
Olivier Ripoll wrote: Hey! If you think the FAQ section in (the excellent) Grokking the Gimp is a proof that the interface has to be improved, then you should install Gimp 2.0 or even 2.2. ;-) I'm running 2.2 and still find the FAQ invaluable. As an example, I thought I'd try toggling a selection. Bunks mentions in Ch.3 that it's easy to forget that you've toggled a selection so I thought I'd see if this is still the case: I opened an image and used the lasoo to make a quick selection. Hmm, that's odd... no marching ants. Let's try again, making sure the start and end points overlap... nope, still isn't working. Oh well, scrap that and use the elipse select. Use control-T to toggle its visibility. Is there any indication that visibility is switched off? No, which is why Bunks has scratched (his) head many times trying to figure out why...the GIMP no longer seemed to be working. In trying that just now, I (genuinely) couldn't get the lassoo to work. This is an example of the sort of problem I come across every time I try a new tool, or come back to one that I haven't used in a while. Because I've been using GIMP for a little while now, I'm getting used to the idea of holding down modifier keys. So it didn't take me long to figure out that I needed to hold down shift to make the selection. With a bit more playing, I finally figured out what the default lassoo action actually does. Maybe there's a good reason for having the primary action intersect and the secondary action add. Whatever it is, it's not to aid learning. I figured it out relatively quickly, but unless a newbie cottoned on to the idea, he would probably remain lost. I've quickly come to accept that the GIMP cannot be learned by mucking about with it and picking things up. One can't just launch the application and start making graphics with it. One needs to sit down with the manual, or a book, and learn it that way. Clearly the GIMP works well for some people, but not for me. It's an application that I'm starting to get, but the learning curve is often a frustrating one. Most people just simply wouldn't bother; they'd go use something else instead, regardless of whether or not it's free, proprietary, better or worse. In direct contrast, I was making some pretty cool graphics in Inkscape within minutes of first launching the application. I learned to get loads out it long before I ever looked at the manual. In fact, the manual, which I eventually discovered under the help section (a place I visited out of curiosity rather than necessity), merely served to confirm many of the operations I'd already learnt by myself. Granted, it's still a new app and has a long way to go before it becomes complicated, but, no matter how complicated it eventually becomes, it will always be childsplay to make graphics with it, because it's childsplay now. Write a set of typical tasks to be performed (e.g. removing red eyes from a photo, cropping and rescaling an image, opening, rotating right -or left- and saving to a new name and location) and find some volunteers to perform these tasks (classify them in several categories such as experienced gimp user, experienced PS user, totally new to image manipulation, granny / aunt Tilly). Then observe them while performing the tasks (one volunteer at a time), take notes of their comments, frustrations, the places they expected to find the functionnality, the time they spent, everything. Such a survey is always useful. Before launching it, present the protocol to us for comments of course. I don't think I'll be able to find the volunteers, but I can certainly document my own experiences with the GIMP, if you think they will be helpful. Kind regards, David -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.5 - Release Date: 04/05/2005 ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
RE: [Gimp-user] when even free advertising fails
The bug-tracker serves it's purpose, but you can't expect everyone to be reading it over before making any comment about GIMP. Maybe there are GIMP users who would love everyone to drop Photoshop (or whatever) and use GIMP. If so, they will have to deal with more of this. Not everyone can spend the time to search something out, or in fact they don't care, they would rather voice it out right away. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Sven Neumann Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 2:49 PM To: Gezim Hoxha Cc: gimp user Subject: Re: [Gimp-user] when even free advertising fails Hi, Gezim Hoxha [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: On Thu, 2005-05-05 at 07:04 -0700, Carol Spears wrote: a forum where they can constantly bombard and belittle TheGIMP and are free to do so and the best they can pull out of their over-extended reasoning is this layers effect stuff. I'm not sure who they are, but if you're referring to people in this list that are not afraid to admit gimp's weaknesses, these people have every right to point them out. You can't fix a problem if you don't even accept it. Lack of layer effects is not a problem? You are perfectly right that it is important to point out weak spots. The discussions that have been happening on this list lately have however not pointed out a singleq weak spots that wouldn't have been well-known already. Bringing up stuff that is already in the bug-tracker and on the roadmap for years doesn't really help anyone. Sven ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user ___ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
