GNU Image Manipulation Program

GNU Image Manipulation Program

GIMP 2.99 User Manual, 11/07/2024

Copyright © 2002-2024 The GIMP Documentation Team

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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 entitled GNU Free Documentation License.

Table of Contents

1. GIMP User Manual Authors and Contributors

I. Getting Started

1. Introduction

1. Welcome to GIMP

1.1. Known Platforms
1.2. History of GIMP
1.3. GIMP's Help system
1.4. Features and Capabilities

2. What's new in GIMP

2. Starting GIMP

1. Running GIMP

1.1. Changing the Language
1.2. Command Line Arguments
1.3. Configuration Folders
1.4. Tips and Tricks

3. First Steps with GIMP

1. Basic Concepts

2. Main Windows

2.1. The Toolbox
2.2. Image Window
2.3. Dialogs and Docking

3.1. Things That Cannot be Undone

4. Common Tasks

4.1. Intention
4.2. Change the Size of an Image for the screen
4.3. Change the Size of an Image for print
4.4. Compressing Images
4.5. Crop An Image
4.6. Find Info About Your Image
4.7. Change the Mode
4.8. Flip An Image
4.9. Rotate An Image
4.10. Separating an Object From Its Background

5. How to Draw Straight Lines

5.1. Intention
5.2. Examples

4. What to do if you are stuck

1. Introduction

2. Common Causes of GIMP Non-Responsiveness

2.1. There is a floating selection
2.2. The selection is hidden
2.3. You are acting outside the selection
2.4. The active drawable is not visible
2.5. The active drawable is transparent
2.6. You are trying to act outside the layer
2.7. You are trying to act on a layer group
2.8. The image is in indexed color mode.
2.9. No visible effect when trying to use a brush, eraser or other tool
2.10. No visible effect when trying to use the move tool, rotate or other transform tool
2.11. Eraser and brushes no longer work
2.12. Eraser does not make area transparent
2.13. Unexpected colors when trying to use a brush or eraser
2.14. The crop tool leaves an empty area after cropping
2.15. I've been waiting for a long time and GIMP is not responding
2.16. General guidelines on what to check if you are stuck

3. How to fix missing windows and dialogs

3.1. All tool windows are missing
3.2. Tool options dialog is missing
3.3. Some of the tool icons are missing
3.4. The area showing the opened images at the top is missing

4. How to fix problems exporting images

4.1. I am exporting to a jpeg image and my transparent area turned white or black
4.2. I am exporting to a gif image and the colors changed

II. How do I Become a GIMP Wizard?

5. Getting Images into GIMP

1. Image Types
2. Creating new Files
3. Opening Images

6. Getting Images out of GIMP

1.1. Save / Export Images
1.2. File Formats

2. Preparing your Images for the Web

2.1. Images with an Optimal Size/Quality Ratio
2.2. Reducing the File Size Even More
2.3. Saving Images with Transparency

7. Painting with GIMP

1. The Selection

1.1. Feathering
1.2. Making a Selection Partially Transparent

2. Creating and Using Selections

2.1. Moving or Resizing a Selection
2.2. Adding or subtracting selections

3. The Quick Mask

3.1. Overview
3.2. Properties
3.3. Using Quick Mask Mode

4.1. Path Creation
4.2. Path Properties
4.3. Paths and Selections
4.4. Transforming Paths
4.5. Stroking a Path
4.6. Paths and Text
4.7. Paths and SVG files

5.1. Adding New Brushes
5.2. Creating animated brushes
5.3. Changing brush size
5.4. Creating a brush quickly

6. Gradients

7. Patterns

8. Palettes

8.1. Colormap

10. Drawing Simple Objects

10.1. Drawing a Straight Line
10.2. Creating a Basic Shape

8. Combining Images

1. Introduction to Layers

1.1. Layer Properties

2. Layer Modes

2.1. Normal Layer Modes
2.2. Lighten Layer Modes
2.3. Darken Layer Modes
2.4. Contrast Layer Modes
2.5. Inversion Layer Modes
2.6. HSV Components Layer Modes
2.7. LCh Components Layer Modes

3. Legacy Layer Modes

4. Creating New Layers

5. Layer Groups

9. Text Management

1. Text Management

1.1. Text Area
1.2. Managing Text Layer
1.3. Text Toolbox
1.4. Text Context Menu

2.1. Adding Fonts
2.2. Font Problems

10. Enhancing Photographs

1. Working with Digital Camera Photos

1.1. Introduction
1.2. Improving Composition
1.3. Improving Colors
1.4. Adjusting Sharpness
1.5. Removing Unwanted Objects from an Image
1.6. Saving Your Results

11. Color Management with GIMP

1. Color Management in GIMP

1.1. Problems of a non Color Managed Workflow
1.2. Introduction to a Color Managed Workflow

12. Enrich my GIMP

1. Grids and Guides

1.1. The Image Grid
1.2. Guides

2. Creating Shortcuts to Menu Commands

3. Customize Splash-Screen

13. Scripting and writing plug-ins

1. Plug-Ins

1.1. Introduction
1.2. Using Plug-Ins
1.3. Installing New Plug-Ins
1.4. Writing Plug-ins

2. Using Script-Fu Scripts

2.1. Script-Fu?
2.2. Installing Script-Fu scripts
2.3. Do's and Don'ts
2.4. Different Kinds Of Script-Fus

3. A Script-Fu Tutorial

3.1. Getting Acquainted With Scheme
3.2. Variables And Functions
3.3. Lists, Lists And More Lists
3.4. Your First Script-Fu Script
3.5. Adding Additional Functionality
3.6. Extending The Text Box Script
3.7. Your script and its working

4. A Python plug-in writing Tutorial

4.1. The basic elements of a plug-in for GIMP

III. Function Reference

1. The Toolbox

1.1. Introduction
1.2. Tool Icons
1.3. Color and Indicator Area
1.4. Tool Options

2. Selection Tools

2.1. Common Features
2.2. Rectangle Selection
2.3. Ellipse Selection
2.4. Free Selection (Lasso)
2.5. Foreground Select
2.6. Fuzzy Selection (Magic wand)
2.7. Select By Color
2.8. Scissors Select

3. Paint Tools

3.1. Common Features
3.2. Dynamics
3.3. Brush Tools (Pencil, Paintbrush, Airbrush)
3.4. Bucket Fill
3.5. Gradient
3.6. Pencil
3.7. Paintbrush
3.8. Eraser
3.9. Airbrush
3.10. Ink
3.11. MyPaint Brush
3.12. Clone
3.13. Heal
3.14. Perspective Clone
3.15. Blur/Sharpen
3.16. Smudge
3.17. Dodge/Burn

4. Transform Tools

4.1. Common Features
4.2. Align and Distribute
4.3. Move
4.4. Crop
4.5. Rotate
4.6. Scale
4.7. Shear
4.8. Perspective
4.9. 3D Transform
4.10. Unified Transform
4.11. Handle Transform
4.12. Flip
4.13. Cage Transform
4.14. Warp Transform

5. Other Tools

5.1. Overview
5.2. Paths
5.3. Text
5.4. Color Picker
5.5. Measure
5.6. Zoom
5.7. GEGL Operation

15. Dialogs

1. Dialog Introduction

2. Image Structure Related Dialogs

2.1. Layers Dialog
2.2. Channels Dialog
2.3. Paths Dialog
2.4. Colormap Dialog
2.5. Histogram Dialog
2.6. Navigation Dialog
2.7. Undo History Dialog

3. Image-content Related Dialogs

3.1. FG/BG Color Dialog
3.2. Brushes Dialog
3.3. MyPaint Brushes Dialog
3.4. Patterns Dialog
3.5. Gradients Dialog
3.6. Palettes Dialog
3.7. Tagging
3.8. Fonts Dialog

4. Image Management Related Dialogs

4.1. Buffers Dialog
4.2. Images Dialog
4.3. Document History Dialog
4.4. Templates Dialog

5. File related Dialogs

5.1. Open Image
5.2. Import File Formats
5.3. Save File
5.4. Export File
5.5. Export File Formats

6. Preferences Dialog

6.1. Introduction
6.2. System Resources
6.3. Debugging
6.4. Color Management
6.5. Image Import and Export
6.6. Experimental Playground
6.7. Tool Options
6.8. Default Image Preferences
6.9. Default Image Grid
6.10. Interface
6.11. Theme
6.12. Icon Theme
6.13. Toolbox
6.14. Dialog Defaults
6.15. Help System
6.16. Display
6.17. Window Management
6.18. Canvas Interaction
6.19. Canvas Interaction: Modifiers
6.20. Canvas Interaction Snapping Behavior
6.21. Image Windows
6.22. Image Window Appearance
6.23. Image Window Title and Statusbar
6.24. Input Devices
6.25. Input Controllers
6.26. Folders
6.27. Data Folders

7. Miscellaneous Dialogs

7.1. Welcome Dialog
7.2. Tool Presets Dialog
7.3. Tool Preset Editor
7.4. Device Status Dialog
7.5. Error Console
7.6. Dashboard
7.7. Sample Points Dialog
7.8. Pointer Dialog
7.9. Symmetry Painting Dialog
7.10. Keyboard Shortcuts Dialog

1. Introduction to Menus

1.1. The Main Menu
1.2. Context Menus
1.3. Tab menus

2. The “File” Menu

2.1. Overview
2.2. New…
2.3. Create
2.4. Open…
2.5. Open as Layers…
2.6. Open Location…
2.7. Open Recent
2.8. Save
2.9. Save As…
2.10. Save a Copy…
2.11. Revert
2.12. Export… and Overwrite…
2.13. Export As…
2.14. Create Template…
2.15. Print
2.16. Send by Email
2.17. Copy Image Location
2.18. Show in File Manager
2.19. Close View
2.20. Close All
2.21. Quit

3. The “Edit” Menu

3.1. “Edit” Menu Entries
3.2. Undo
3.3. Redo
3.4. Undo History
3.5. Cut
3.6. Copy
3.7. Copy Visible
3.8. Paste
3.9. Paste In Place
3.10. Paste as
3.11. Buffer
3.12. Clear
3.13. Fill with FG Color
3.14. Fill with BG Color
3.15. Fill with Pattern
3.16. Fill Selection Outline
3.17. Fill Paths
3.18. Stroke Selection
3.19. Stroke Paths
3.20. Preferences
3.21. Input Devices
3.22. Keyboard Shortcuts
3.23. Modules
3.24. Units

4. The “Select” Menu

4.1. Introduction to the “Select” Menu
4.2. Select All
4.3. None
4.4. Invert
4.5. Float
4.6. By Color
4.7. Selection From Paths
4.8. Selection Editor
4.9. Feather
4.10. Sharpen
4.11. Shrink
4.12. Grow
4.13. Border
4.14. Remove Holes
4.15. Distort
4.16. Rounded Rectangle
4.17. Toggle Quick Mask
4.18. Save to Channel
4.19. To Path

5. The “View” Menu

5.1. Introduction to the “View” Menu
5.2. New View
5.3. Show All
5.4. Dot for Dot
5.5. Zoom
5.6. Flip & Rotate (0°)
5.7. Center Image in Window
5.8. Shrink Wrap
5.9. Full Screen
5.10. Navigation Window
5.11. Display Filters
5.12. Color Management
5.13. Show Selection
5.14. Show Layer Boundary
5.15. Show Canvas Boundary
5.16. Show Guides
5.17. Show Grid
5.18. Show Sample Points
5.19. Snap to Guides
5.20. Snap to Grid
5.21. Snap to Canvas
5.22. Snap to Active Path
5.23. Snap to Bounding Boxes
5.24. Snap to Equidistance
5.25. Padding Color
5.26. Show Menubar
5.27. Show Rulers
5.28. Show Scrollbars
5.29. Show Statusbar

6. The “Image” Menu

6.1. Overview
6.2. Duplicate
6.3. Mode
6.4. RGB mode
6.5. Grayscale mode
6.6. Indexed mode
6.7. Encoding
6.8. Color Management
6.9. Use sRGB Profile
6.10. Assign Color Profile
6.11. Convert to Color Profile
6.12. Discard Color Profile
6.13. Save Color Profile to File
6.14. Transform
6.15. Flip Horizontally; Flip Vertically
6.16. Rotation
6.17. Canvas Size
6.18. Fit Canvas to Layers
6.19. Fit Canvas to Selection
6.20. Print Size
6.21. Scale Image
6.22. Crop Image
6.23. Slice Using Guides
6.24. Zealous Crop
6.25. Merge Visible Layers
6.26. Flatten Image
6.27. Align Visible Layers…
6.28. Guides
6.29. New Guide (by Percent)
6.30. New Guide
6.31. New Guides from Selection
6.32. Remove all Guides
6.33. Configure Grid…
6.34. Image Properties
6.35. Metadata
6.36. Metadata Editor
6.37. Metadata Viewer

7. The “Layer” Menu

7.1. Introduction to the “Layer” Menu
7.2. New Layer
7.3. New from Visible
7.4. New Layer Group
7.5. Duplicate layers
7.6. Anchor Floating Layer or Mask
7.7. Merge Down
7.8. Merge Layer Groups
7.9. Delete Layers
7.10. The Text Commands of the Layer Menu
7.11. Discard Text Information
7.12. Text to Path
7.13. Text along Path
7.14. “Stack” Submenu
7.15. Select Previous Layers
7.16. Select Next Layers
7.17. Select Top Layer
7.18. Select Bottom Layer
7.19. Raise Layers
7.20. Lower Layers
7.21. Layers to Top
7.22. Layers to Bottom
7.23. Reverse Layer Order
7.24. The “Mask” Submenu
7.25. Add Layer Masks
7.26. Apply Layer Masks
7.27. Delete Layer Masks
7.28. Show Layer Masks
7.29. Edit Layer Mask
7.30. Disable Layer Masks
7.31. Masks to Selection
7.32. Add Masks to Selection
7.33. Subtract Masks from Selection
7.34. Intersect Masks with Selection
7.35. The “Transparency” Submenu
7.36. Add Alpha Channel
7.37. Remove Alpha Channel
7.38. Color to Alpha
7.39. Semi-Flatten
7.40. Threshold Alpha
7.41. Alpha to Selection
7.42. Add Alpha to Selection
7.43. Subtract Alpha from Selection
7.44. Intersect Alpha with Selection
7.45. The “Transform” Submenu
7.46. Flip Horizontally
7.47. Flip Vertically
7.48. Rotate 90° clockwise
7.49. Rotate 90° counter-clockwise
7.50. Rotate 180°
7.51. Arbitrary Rotation
7.52. Offset
7.53. Layer Boundary Size
7.54. Layers to Image Size
7.55. Scale Layer
7.56. Resize Layers to Selection
7.57. Crop Layers to Content

8. The “Colors” Menu

9. The “Tools” Menu

9.1. Introduction to the “Tools” Menu

10. The “Filters” Menu

10.1. Introduction to the “Filters” Menu
10.2. Repeat Last
10.3. Re-Show Last
10.4. Reset All Filters
10.5. The “Development” Submenu
10.6. The “Python-Fu” Submenu
10.7. The “Script-Fu” Submenu

11. “Windows” Menu

12. The “Help” Menu

12.1. Introduction to the “Help” Menu
12.2. Help
12.3. Context Help
12.4. User Manual
12.5. Tip of the Day
12.6. Welcome Dialog
12.7. Search and Run a Command
12.8. Plug-In Browser
12.9. The Procedure Browser
12.10. GIMP online
12.11. About

17. Filters

1. Introduction

2. Common Features

3. Blur Filters

3.1. Introduction
3.2. Focus Blur
3.3. Gaussian Blur
3.4. Lens Blur
3.5. Mean Curvature Blur
3.6. Median Blur
3.7. Pixelize
3.8. Selective Gaussian Blur
3.9. Variable Blur
3.10. Circular Motion Blur
3.11. Linear Motion Blur
3.12. Zoom Motion Blur
3.13. Tileable Blur

4. Enhance Filters

4.1. Introduction
4.2. Antialias
4.3. Deinterlace
4.4. High Pass
4.5. Noise Reduction
4.6. Red Eye Removal
4.7. Symmetric Nearest Neighbor
4.8. Sharpen (Unsharp Mask)
4.9. Despeckle
4.10. NL Filter
4.11. Wavelet Decompose

5. Distort Filters

5.1. Introduction
5.2. Apply Lens
5.3. Emboss
5.4. Engrave
5.5. Lens Distortion
5.6. Kaleidoscope
5.7. Mosaic
5.8. Newsprint
5.9. Polar Coordinates
5.10. Ripple
5.11. Shift
5.12. Spherize
5.13. Value Propagate
5.14. Video Degradation
5.15. Waves
5.16. Whirl and Pinch
5.17. Wind
5.18. Blinds
5.19. Curve Bend
5.20. Page Curl

6. Light and Shadow Filters

6.1. Introduction
6.2. Bloom
6.3. Supernova
6.4. Lens Flare
6.5. Gradient Flare
6.6. Lighting Effects
6.7. Sparkle
6.8. Drop Shadow
6.9. Long Shadow
6.10. Vignette
6.11. Drop Shadow (legacy)
6.12. Perspective
6.13. Xach-Effect

7. Noise Filters

7.1. Introduction
7.2. CIE lch Noise
7.3. HSV Noise
7.4. Hurl
7.5. Pick
7.6. RGB Noise
7.7. Slur
7.8. Spread

8. Edge-Detect Filters

8.1. Introduction
8.2. Difference of Gaussians
8.3. Edge
8.4. Laplace
8.5. Neon
8.6. Sobel
8.7. Image Gradient

9. Generic Filters

9.1. Introduction
9.2. Convolution Matrix
9.3. Distance Map
9.4. Normal Map
9.5. Dilate
9.6. Erode
9.7. GEGL Graph

10. Combine Filters

10.1. Introduction
10.2. Depth Merge
10.3. Filmstrip

11. Artistic Filters

11.1. Introduction
11.2. Apply Canvas
11.3. Cartoon
11.4. Cubism
11.5. Glass Tile
11.6. Oilify
11.7. Photocopy
11.8. Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SLIC)
11.9. Softglow
11.10. Waterpixels
11.11. Clothify
11.12. GIMPressionist
11.13. Van Gogh (LIC)
11.14. Weave

12. Decor Filters

12.1. Introduction
12.2. Add Bevel
12.3. Add Border
12.4. Fog
12.5. Fuzzy Border
12.6. Old Photo
12.7. Round Corners
12.8. Slide
12.9. Stain
12.10. Stencil Carve
12.11. Stencil Chrome

13. Map Filters

13.1. Introduction
13.2. Bump Map
13.3. Displace
13.4. Fractal Trace
13.5. Illusion
13.6. Little Planet
13.7. Panorama Projection
13.8. Recursive Transform
13.9. Paper Tile
13.10. Tile Seamless
13.11. Map Object
13.12. Small Tiles
13.13. Tile
13.14. Warp

14. Rendering Filters

14.1. Introduction
14.2. Flame
14.3. Fractal Explorer
14.4. IFS Fractal
14.5. Cell Noise
14.6. Perlin Noise
14.7. Plasma
14.8. Simplex Noise
14.9. Solid Noise
14.10. Difference Clouds
14.11. Bayer Matrix
14.12. Checkerboard
14.13. Diffraction Patterns
14.14. Grid
14.15. Linear Sinusoid
14.16. Maze
14.17. Sinus
14.18. Spiral
14.19. Checkerboard (legacy)
14.20. CML Explorer
14.21. Grid (legacy)
14.22. Jigsaw
14.23. Qbist
14.24. Circuit
14.25. Gfig
14.26. Lava
14.27. Line Nova
14.28. Sphere Designer
14.29. Spyrogimp

15. Web Filters

15.1. Introduction
15.2. Image Map
15.3. Semi-Flatten

16. Animation Filters

16.1. Introduction
16.2. Blend
16.3. Burn-In
16.4. Optimize
16.5. Playback
16.6. Rippling
16.7. Spinning Globe
16.8. Waves

I. Keys and Mouse Reference

File — Key reference for the File menu
Edit — Key reference for Edit menu
Select — Key reference for Select menu
View — Key reference for View menu
Image — Key reference for Image menu
Layers — Key reference for Layer menu
Tools — Key reference for the Tools menu
Filters — Key reference for Filters menu
Windows — Key reference for Windows menu
Help — Key reference for Help menu
Zoom tool — Key reference for the Zoom tool

Bibliography

A. Reporting Bugs and Requesting Enhancements

1. Making sure it's a Bug
2. Reporting the Bug

B. How to Contribute

1. Prerequisites

1.1. Join Discourse
1.2. Create a Local Working Copy of Code
1.3. Installing your sandbox
1.4. The gimp-help folder

2. Workflow

2.1. Writing
2.2. Validating
2.3. Images
2.4. Create HTML Files
2.5. Sending your files

4. Working under Windows

C. Tone Mapping and Shadow Recovery Using GIMP’s Colors → Exposure…

1. High bit depth GIMP’s floating point Exposure operation: much better than Curves for lightening the shadows and midtones of an image without blowing the highlights
2. A step-by-step example showing how to recover shadow information using high bit depth GIMP’s floating point Colors → Exposure… operation
3. Use Notes
4. Conclusion

D. GNU Free Documentation License

1. PREAMBLE
2. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
3. VERBATIM COPYING
4. COPYING IN QUANTITY
5. MODIFICATIONS
6. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
7. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
9. TRANSLATION
10. TERMINATION
11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
12. ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

E. Eeek! There is Missing Help


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