On Sat, Jul 09, 2005 at 11:50:51AM -0500, David McClamrock wrote:
>
> In some future GIMP version, maybe there will be actual rectangle- and
> oval-drawing tools, so this clunky multi-step procedure isn't needed any
> more? :o) Or are there already, and I just don't know about them?
>
since gimp-1.2 the developers have been really good about working out
the best logic and such before introducing it into the gimp tree. while
not an excuse, it might help to understand the reason that it still
takes several more steps in gimp than it does with other software.
you can cut down on some of these steps, especially if you are using the
same shapes over and over again. while the following information is
starting to go off-topic for this thread, it might be useful to future
development for everyone to see some of the step saving features that
are already there in gimp.
if you have a shape selected that you are fairly certain you will use
again, you can convert this shape into a path via Dialogs -->Paths. i
have to search the tooltips on the buttons to find it. there is a button
for Selection to Path and another one for Path to Selection. if you make
a collection of shapes that are useful for certain uses, you can collect
them on a one layered image and save them as xcf. the paths are
remembered and handled much like the gimp handles layers. in the paths
dialog, you can turn the view of the path on and off with the same view
icon that is found in the layers dialog.
when you want to use your saved paths again, all you need to do is to
make your new image and add the xcf with the saved paths as a new layer.
this effectively imports all of those saved shapes into the new image.
gimp is still a little weird about stroking. some shapes are better
stroked as selections, others are better stroked as paths. well, maybe
i have not tried it lately to be able to confidently say this. best (as
always) to try both and see which works better for you. that is one
thing that gimp has historically done much better than all the rest:
Edit-->Undo. if you have worked with other applications and worked with
them for a very long time, you might not understand this as an option or
how powerful it can be in learning the best way to work with gimp.
carol
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