Here is a screenshot showing the a basic
arrangement of Gimp windows that would be very appropriate
for this course - I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU SET UP THE
GIMP LAYOUT LIKE THIS FOR THIS COURSE.
Two windows are shown, and the lower half of the
left window gives access to several 'dialogs' or
'tabs' which could exist as separate windows but
which have 'docked' into the main window for
convenience. Many tools and dialogs are not shown
directly accessible in this basic layout but they
can be added at any time using the menus or keyboard
shortcuts. :
|
The Main
Toolbox: This is the heart
of the Gimp. It contains the highest
level menu, plus a set of icon buttons
that can be used to select tools, and
more. For help with the various tools
press F1 while in the GIMP and check out
section 3 of the GIMP help system. |
|
Tool options:
Docked below the main Toolbox is a Tool
Options dialog, showing options for the
currently selected tool (in this case,
the Free Select tool). Several other
'dialogs' are also docked in this window
and you can switch between dialogs by
clicking the corresponding tab. For
example, to switch to the brushes
dialog, click the second tab. In
addition to the Tool Options and Brushes
dialogs, I recommend that your basic
layout should include the undo
history dialog and the layers
dialog. |
|
An image
window: Each image open in
Gimp is displayed in a separate window.
Many images can be open at the same
time: the limit is set only by the
amount of system resources. |
This is a minimal setup. There are over a dozen
other types of dialogs used by Gimp for various
purposes, but users typically create them when they
are needed and close them when they are not.
Knowledgeable users generally keep the Toolbox (with
Tool Options) and Layers dialog around at all times.
The Toolbox is essential to many Gimp
operations; in fact, if you close it, Gimp will
exit. The Tool Options are actually a
separate dialog, shown docked to the Main Toolbox in
the screenshot. Knowledgeable users almost always
have them set up this way: it is very difficult to
use tools effectively without being able to see how
their options are set. The Layers dialog
comes into play whenever you work with an image that
has multiple layers: once you advance beyond the
very most basic stages of Gimp expertise, this means
almost always.
And finally, of course, the necessity of having
images displayed in order to work with them is
perhaps obvious. For more details see section3.1 of
the GIMP help system.
The most obvious difference between the GIMP and
most other Windows programs, including Photoshop, is that
the GIMP runs in many
separate windows at the same time while most Windows
programs run in a single comprehensive window . In other words the GIMP
has its main window, its image window(s) and perhaps several
other dialog window(s) which each appear like
separate programs in the task bar at the bottom of
the Windows desktop, allowing you to make any window
active at any time. Each of these multiple windows has its
own set of menus - the main GIMP window has a File menu for
example while each image window has its own file menu with a
different (less general) set of commands to those in the
main window. You may be confused and disoriented by this way
of working and by the fact that the windows appear separate
on your screen with other programmes appearing distractingly
underneath - you'll get used to it. Why did the creators of
the GIMP design the program in this way? Because they
figured that by letting the operating system (Windows on a
PC, for example) handle the displaying of the different
parts of the program it would be easier for them to make
versions of the GIMP for many different operating systems.
Hint: If you are bothered by the mess of windows and
desktop icons behind your Gimp windows then open any
small image in the Gimp, expand it to full screen by
double-clicking its blue title bar and then just
leave it there in the background behind your other
Gimp windows.
How to set up the Gimp Layout as above
Start the Gimp and in the main Gimp window choose
File>Dialogs>Tools. Choose (by clicking the eyes) to
hide or show each tool until the toolbox matches the
toolbox above. To show the 4 dialogs that are docked
into the main window above, choose File>Dialogs
and then the 4 dialogs: Tool Options, Brushes,
Layers and Undo History. If any other dialogs are
open you can close them by clicking the 'close this
tab' icon
in
the top right corner of the dialog. Finally, to
'dock' the 4 dialogs into the main window, drag the
part of the dialog that is just below the title bar
(the pointer will change to a hand) on top of the
tab of a dialog
which is already in the lower half of the main
window. If the lower half of the main window is
empty then drag onto the thin
bar underneath the tool box.
If you share your
computer with other users who may also be using the
Gimp then it would be a great idea to reset all the
tool options by Shift-clicking the Reset button
in the
bottom right corner of any dialog.
Getting Help
The GIMP has a fairly good help system - you can get help at any time by
pressing the F1 key or from the Help menu which is only
accessible in the Main window, not from an image window.
(ignore the first section of help - start with section 2).
At the bottom of the main help page is a link to a useful
alphabetical list of help items, but there is no 'search'
option. Alternatively you can get
context-sensitive help by pressing Shift-F1 and then
clicking on the item you want help with (unfortunately you
can't get help this way for individual items in the various
menus, only for complete menus).
Undoing Mistakes
Brilliant student though you may be, it's just possible
that you may make a mistake or two during the course of
these lessons. Luckily for you, the GIMP has powerful 'undo'
features. Edit > Undo or Ctrl-Z will undo the LAST
change that you have made but you can undo many more steps
by using the Using History dialog (the number of
steps is set with File>Preferences>Environment>Maximum
number of undo levels. This is 5 by default - don't set
it much higher than that unless your computer has a huge
amount of RAM.
If you want to to revert to the image as it was when it
was last saved then choose Revert in the File
menu.
Acquiring, opening and viewing the images
If you are lucky enough to be in my class I will tell you
the location on the network of a folder containing all the
images you will need for this class - simply copy them (e.g.
with Windows Explorer) to your own folder. If you are not in
my class then for each lesson you will need to right-click
the image and choose 'save target as...', saving the copy of
the image onto your computer. Then you can open the image in
the GIMP by choosing File>Open. Once the image is open I
suggest you choose View>Dot for Dot - if this is not
turned on then the Zoom numbers become almost meaningless,
so leave it on all the time. Then choose View>Zoom>1:1
(or simply press the '1' key) and finally choose
View>Shrink Wrap (or Ctrl-E) to resize the window
to fit neatly round the image, if possible.
If you want to resize the window AND zoom the image to
match then make sure that the 'zoom image when window size
changes' button 
in
the top-right corner of the image window is turned on
('pushed down'). Note however if that option is turned on
then Shrink Wrap (Ctrl-E) won't work properly.
I suggest that you keep keep your screen as simple as
possible by keeping the Rulers turned off (View>Show
Rulers) all the time unless you really need them.
To zoom in and out use the + and - keys on the main
keypad (not the numeric keypad) or choose the Magnify Tool
and click to zoom
in or Ctrl-click to zoom out. If you can't see the whole
image in the window (because you have zoomed in) then you
can move around the image using the navigation control
in the
bottom-right corner of the image window.
Saving your work
You should be able to produce some beautiful,
high-quality work in this class and you won't want to lose
it, so save your work at least every 10 minutes (Ctrl-S,
unless you want to change format, name or location). In this
way, even if your computer crashes, you can be sure you will
never lose more than 10 minutes' work...
I've spend dozens of hours using the Gimp 2.2 and for me
it crashes about once for every 8 hours of intensive use.
That's usable but not as stable as Photoshop 6 so please
do save your work regularly.
Work-in-progress is best saved in the GIMP 'XCF'
format which will save with no loss of image quality and
record all the details about the image, including
information about layers. However, XCF files
are very large and therefore once the image is finished you
should save it in a compressed format such as JPEG.
When saving in this format increased compression comes at
the cost of decreasing picture
quality - you can control the balance
between small file size and high picture quality - a setting
of 80 (out of 100) is recommended for this class.
Use meaningful names when you save - it will make it
easier for me to locate and grade your work.
Copying and Pasting
The Gimp is unconventional in that it usually uses its
own internal clipboard memory. If you have copied an image
and want to paste it into the Gimp you can't use Edit>Paste
or Ctrl+V, you have to use Edit>Paste from Clipboard.
Similarly, if you want to copy an image in the Gimp so that
it can be pasted into another program you must use
Edit>Copy to Clipboard instead of Edit>Copy or Ctrl+C.
Understanding Digital Images
Click HERE for an
introduction to color, resolution and image formats, all of
which are important concepts when working with digital
images.
