GIMP permette di trasformare la selezione di un'immagine in un tracciato; permette anche di trasformare i tracciati in selezioni. Per informazioni riguardo le selezioni ed il loro funzionamento, vedere la sezione Selezioni.

When you transform a selection into a path, the path closely follows the «marching ants». Now, the selection is a two-dimensional entity, but a path is a one-dimensional entity, so there is no way to transform the selection into a path without losing information. In fact, any information about partially selected areas (i.e., feathering) are lost when a selection is turned into a path. If the path is transformed back into a selection, the result is an all-or-none selection, similar to what is obtained by executing Sharpen from the Select menu.