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V o l u m e • O n e
A beginner's guide to GIMP
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Hello, my name is -DarkAssasin-. I create signatures for members of the Tribal wars forum. The guide was specificaly created to help YOU, learn the basics of signature making.
A beginner's guide to GIMP
__________________________________________________
Hello, my name is -DarkAssasin-. I create signatures for members of the Tribal wars forum. The guide was specificaly created to help YOU, learn the basics of signature making.
Many of you know that I am not the greatest signature maker here. I will not deny that. As I have said before, this guide has been made for beginners, do not expect to find any advanced techniques. It is simply a way to make quick, easy, signatures with a free, easy to use program. I have created this guide due to many request made by some of you. Even if you are not a beginner, I would recommend you at least take a look at this guide.
R e q u i r e m e n t s
- Gimp 2.6.7 although anything above 2.0 works just as well.
- Creativity, this is key.
- Patience (It is a virtue, eh?)
- Time, signatures are not made in 5 minutes.
These key factors play a major part on the outcome of your signature. You must have creativity, no one likes signatures that have been done 1,000 times before. Time and patience coincide, without them, your signature will turn out badly and look very rushed.
If you are passed the beginner step and do not wish to waste 5-10 minutes reading things you already know, please feel free to leave this thread. If not, I hope you learn something new!
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If you have any questions concerning this post, contact me via Private Message or make a post in this thread.
Volume II will be coming this September.
Volume II will be coming this September.
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Original guide was created by,
Dark Assassin
Editing, Formating, BB-Coding, and Guide Updating done by,
Dolton / Tillyboy
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L e s s o n • O n e
I n s t a l l i n g . G i m p
Gimp is a relatively easy program to install for any system. Currently it supports eight operating systems. As listed before, all the download links and information are listed on their official website. There is no need to worry about viruses from this website.
If you have any other questions about the inter workings of the program, head over to their official FaQ.
If you still can't figure out how to download it, I would assume you are a caveman eating mud
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L e s s o n • Two
T h e. T o o l b a r
L e s s o n • Two
T h e. T o o l b a r
The tool bar is a bar that holds most of the tools used in GIMP; hence the name. It is one of the 2 dialog boxes the open upon starting (Version 2.5 and above I believe.) In this section I will explain what each tool is, and what is does.
(The numbers going down are the tens digits, the numbers across are the ones digits)
1.1 Rectangle Select Tool (R):
This tool creates a rectangle section by dragging the handles. Holding shift will lock the proportions of the selection, such as a 1:3 width to hight ratio (Example.) Holding return or clicking inside the selection will finalize it.
1.2 Elliptical Region Select Tool (E):
Creates an elliptical selection and uses the same metrics as the rectangle selection tool.
1.3 Freehand Select Tool (F):
Despite the name this is actually a combination of a freehand- and polygon-select tool, first seen in Version 2.6. Free-hand selection is done by holding the mouse button and dragging. If you instead click the mouse, you will place nodes, linked by straight lines. You may combine the two modes and also adjust the polygon nodes after you made them. Tie the ends together or press Return to finalize the selection. A very, useful tool.
1.4 Continuous Region Select (Magic wand) (Z):
A wonderful tool to make quick, easy selections. When you click, it selects the area around and connected to the place you clicked. Raising the threshold makes the selection more lenient, in turn making it include a larger area. Lowering it does the opposite.
1.5 Color Select (Shift + O):
Selects areas of similar colour. Click and drag to include a wider range of colors. Lowering the threshold causes it to select colors more and more slimier to the original color. Raising it makes it more lenient.
1.6 Select Shape From Image (Intelligent Scissors) (I):
Selects along an edge. Can be very useful to select and cut out parts of an image, though the results can be
1.7 Foreground Select tool
Not a useful tool, I would recommend not to use it.
How do I start with GIMP???
[spoil]"How do I start with GIMP???"
(A Quick Orientation!!!)
(All Thumbnails in this Tutorial are Clickable!!!)
When you start GIMP for the very first time, something like this will greet you. This tutorial image is from GIMP version 2.6.1 which will be used for this Tutorial. The operating system shown is Linux Debian, so the Window Decorations (Window Bars, Close Buttons etc) might not look familiar to Windows/Mac Users, but the program should nevertheless work the same under all systems.
Let us take a look at what we have:
First of all it should be remembered that GIMP's Interface is extremely flexible. You can add, and remove windows from it as you like. The areas marked in green as DOCK ATTACH STRIP are places where different windows can attach and merge with each other (WE WILL TRY THIS BELOW). The default setup is pretty reasonable, but we will tweak it a bit later to be even more convenient.
To the top left you have the Tool box. This contains the most commonly used functions of the program, quite literally the artist's box of utilities. These tools are in fact so often used that almost all of them also have default keyboard shortcuts for even faster access. You are wise to learn most of these by heart if you want to be effective.
Attached to the bottom of the tool box is the Tool options Dock. This shows the settings for each tool, and thus changes depending on which tool is currently active. In the image we see the tool options for the Paintbrush Tool.
To the far right we have a dock that contains several things in one. What we see at the moment is the empty Layer List Window. As we start creating a new image, this list will start to fill with layers. We will explain the use of layers a little later.
You also see that there are a bunch of tabs in the upper part of this window, clicking these will bring forth other functionality. All these are useful, but we will not dealt into them too much in this Tutorial.
Below the Layer List is another dock that is attached, containing the list of brushes usable by GIMP. Brushes are, quite like their real-world counterpart, things you use to mark down things on the canvas. They can be used to emulate actual paint brushes, but also be used as "stamps" for creating nice effects, as well as be animated.
There are two more tabs in this dock, these show lists of patterns, and gradients respectively (click them to see). Patterns create seamless mosaics of structure (you could for example use a pattern to paint a checker board). Gradients produce transitions between colours in various ways. All brushes, patterns and gradients can be modified and customized by the user.
In the center you find the main dock window (Formally this is actually called the Empty Image Window). This is the main work area. It starts out small for others, but it will resize to hold your image when you create or load one. It is also here you find the Menu. To close GIMP you can either close this Window, or close the Tool Box (or use the menu File -> Quit).
The Tool Box
I will not explain all the options for each tool, but you should at least know which one is which, and roughly what it is for. For a much more detailed description of the tools, refer to the Gimp Manual's Entry on the Toolbox here. Some of the default keyboard shortcuts are given as well.
The top of the tool box contains a Drop Target Area, you can drop images from other places on your hard drive to open them in GIMP.
Rectangle Select, Elliptical Select, Freehand Select (THE LASSO TOOL), Magic Wand
Select, Colour Select, Intelligent Scissors
The first row of the toolbox solely deals with selecting various parts of your image in clever ways. Think of a selection as if you were placing a paper with a hole in it over your image. You can then only paint on that part of your image which is visible in the hole. By shaping the hole cleverly you can create all sorts of effects, and also not have to worry you will mess up other parts of your image.
The art of selecting is crucial for many tasks in GIMP, and many of GIMP's Functions only works on selections. They are also the way to easily paint forms like squares, circles, and polygons. We will try a few later.
A VERY common newbie problem is that you have create a selection somewhere, and forgot about it. You will then not be able to paint outside it at all and it looks like the paint tools does not work. The menu option Select -> All, or Select -> None will solve that for you. These two are so useful that you are wise to learn their keyboard shortcuts:
- Shift+A
- Shift+Ctrl+A
Rectangle Select Tool (R):
Creates a square selection. When using this, you get the chance to pull handles to adjust it. Press Return or click inside it to finalize the selection.
Elliptical Region Select Tool (E):
Circular selection.
Freehand Select Tool (F):
Despite the name this is actually a combination of a freehand- and polygon-select tool, first seen in Version 2.6. Free-hand selection is done by holding the mouse button and dragging. If you instead click the mouse you will get to place nodes linked by straight lines. You can combine the two modes as you like as well as adjust the polygon nodes after you made them. Tie the ends together or press Return to finalize the selection. A very, very useful tool.
Continuous Region Select (Magic wand) (Z):
Selects connected areas. Click and drag to include more areas.
Colour Select (Shift + O):
Selects areas of similar colour. Click and drag to include a wider range of colours.
Select Shape From Image (Intelligent Scissors) (I):
Selects along an edge. Can be very useful to select and cut out parts of an image, the results can be a bit unpredictable though.
Foreground Select, Path Tool, Colour Picker, Zoom, Measurer, Move Tool
Foreground Select Tool:
An advanced algorithm intended primarily for cutting out items and people from photos. Rather involved and not for newbies. Refer to the manual for how to use this.
Path Tool (B):
Creates "paths", mathematical objects possible to be perfectly adjusted and modified to any shape and form. The paths can be saved and also converted to selections, making this the most advanced but also most involved way to create a selection.
Colour Picker (O):
Picks colour from the image and makes it your active colour. This tool is often not accessed directly -- holding Ctrl when using a paint tool will temporarily switch to the colour picker. By default the picker only selects from the current layer, an often useful option for this tool is to set "Sample Merged", which means you pick the colour you "see", not just what is on the current layer (once you understand layers, that will make sense).
Zoom Tool:
This tool is very useful, so much so that it should mostly be used by keyboard shortcut. The default keys are + and -, we will learn how to change that and other keys later.
Measure Tool:
Measure pixel distances and angles on the canvas.
Move Tool (M):
Move layers and selections around. To avoid newbie frustration during this tutorial, it is recommended that you set this tool's option to "Move active layer".
Align Tool, Crop Tool, Rotate, Rescale, Shear, Perspective
Align Tool:
This is used for aligning or distributing layers relative to each other. Most useful for text, but can be used whenever things need to be distributed and placed neatly.
Crop tool (Shift + C):
Used for cutting away unneeded parts of an image. Primarily a photo manipulation tool.
Rotate (Shift + R):
Rotate a selected area or layer.
Scale (Shift + T):
Scale a selected area or layer.
Shear (Shift + S):
Skew a selected area or layer.
Perspective (Shift + P):
Works as if you took a 2D-part of your image and "tipped" it down into the image.
Flip Tool, Text Tool, Bucket Fill, Gradient Fill, Pencil Tool, Paint Brush
Flip Tool (Shift + F):
Flips your selection from one side to the other.
Text Tool (T):
This allows you to place text in your image, using any fonts available to GIMP.
Bucket Fill Tool (Shift + B):
Fill parts of the image with a colour or pattern. It can be used to replace particular colours or parts of the image.
Gradient Fill Tool (L):
Fill parts of the image with a gradient.
Pencil Tool (N):
This is the first of the Brush paint tools, that is, tools that use brushes to paint on the canvas. The pencil creates "pixellated", jagged lines, that is, lines that are not smoothed. It is best used for create very small images where each pixel matters, like icons and smileys and similar.
Paint Brush Tool (P):
This tool emulates a real paint brush by smoothing the edges of brush strokes to create smooth, "realistic" lines. This means that cannot place individual pixels as precisely as you can with the Pencil tool, but the result looks much nicer for larger works. This is the primary tool for digital painters.
Eraser Tool, Airbrush Tool, Ink Tool, Clone Tool, Healing Tool, Perspective Clone Tool
Eraser Tool (Shift + E):
This, as expected, erases the colour from an image/layer. What it really does is "paint with transparency". Since GIMP has an Undo function (Ctrl+Z), this tool is less used to correct mistakes than a real-life eraser and just as often used to adjust minor details or as a paint tool in its own right.
Airbrush Tool (A):
This emulates an airbrush or paintbrush to create the a more fuzzy "sprayed" effect than the paintbrush does.
Ink Tool (K):
Emulates a fountain pen or steel nib; useful for comics, calligraphy and other situations when dynamic lines are important.
Clone Tool (C):
Allows to clone parts of an image (also from another layer or a completely different image) to where you want it. Ctrl-click sets the point which should be cloned, from there on, painting will cause that part of the image to appear (also different brushes can be used to apply it). Very useful for adding structure and for realistically modifying photos.
Healing Tool (H):
Specialized tool for removing small blemishes in photographs.
Perspective Clone Tool:
Advanced tool for cloning parts of an image into a plane different to the screen. Could for example be used to clone a face-on image of a window onto a wall seen from below.
Blur/Sharpen Tool, Smudge Tool, Burn/Dodge Tool
Blur tool (V):
Used to soften or sharpen coloured edges and blend colours together.
Smudge Tool (S):
Mimics the effect of putting a finger in paint and pulling it away. A powerful tool for painting with faster effects than the blur tool, but dangerous for a newbie if not used with care since the image easily can be smeared and look messy.
Dodge/Burn Tool (Shift + D):
Selectively darken or brighten the area you paint. [/spoil]
Where can I go to Install some Brushes for GIMP???
[spoil].[/spoil]
How do I transfer the Brushes in GIMP???
[spoil].[/spoil]
Where can I go to Install some Fonts for GIMP???
[spoil].[/spoil]
How do I transfer the Fonts in GIMP???
[spoil].[/spoil]
How to Render an Image in GIMP???
[spoil]"HOW TO RENDER AN IMAGE IN GIMP???"
(This guide was made by Cheeze-Weezet, and was edited by -Dark Assasin-!!!)
There are a lots of way rendering an Image in GIMP, and I will try to teach you the most pratical way to do it.
RENDERING AN IMAGE USING THE PATHS TOOL:
Step #1:
Open the image that you wish to cut out by going to the Main Gimp Window, and then following these steps:
- Go to File -> Open -> Browse your Image
After you have opened your image from the Main Gimp Window. Do this step:
- Select the "Paths Tool", and start clicking around the part of the image you wish to cut out.
Step #3:
After fully selecting the area in the image,and connecting the two meeting endpoints. Follow these steps:
- Go to Select.
- Click the words "FROM PATH".
Step #4:
Now follow these steps:
- Go to Layer.
- Find the word Transparency.
- Click "ADD ALPHA CHANNEL".
Step #5:
Follow these steps:
- Click Select.
- Click Invert.
Step #6:
Now that you have Selected the image, added an Alpha Channel, and Inverted the image, now it's time to make the background transparent leaving your rendered image the only thing left in the image box. To do this follow these steps:
- Go to Edit.
- Click the word Cut.
If this step does not work, backtrack and make sure you followed every step. If this step worked then the image should have little Grey and dark Grey boxes surrounding your selected image (It looks some like a Checker Board with really tiny boxes.), this is what "Transparency" looks like in GIMP. Virtually it is not really there so when you save the image the only thing in the picture will be your selected image.
Step #7:
Finally Save the image as a .PNG, or .JPG.
PNG ---> When you save your image at File/Save as, there will be a pop up window in which are a bunch of pre-set settings for .PNG's , the pre-set settings are fine so leave them alone, and click Save.
JPG ---> JPG will not handle the transparency, so you have to export it first.
When you are done saving your image, you may wish to look over your work, and make sure all the edges are smooth and there is no trace of the background left, if there is, then just get the "Eraser Tool" from the main GIMP window and erase the leftovers from the background and smooth the edges.
That is the most practical way to render an image in GIMP. I hope you learn something new...again...^_^[/spoil]
How to Make a Border in GIMP???
[spoil]"HOW TO MAKE A BORDER IN GIMP???"
(This guide was made by KOA Anubis, and was edited by -Dark Assasin-!!!)
These are the two of many ways putting a border in a Signature in GIMP:
Option #1:
Make a New Layer. Make sure that the New Layer is above(ON TOP) the Background Layer. Also, make sure that the Foreground Color is BLACK. Then follow these simple steps:
- Go to Select -> All.
- Edite -> Stroke Selection
- Make the Stroke Line either 2 or 3 -> Stroke/Ok
Option # 2:
Make a New Layer. Make sure that the New Layer is above(ON TOP) the Background Layer. Make sure that your Foreground Color is on its Default Setting(BLACK). Now follow these steps:
WARNING!!!
You might be lost with these steps.
Go to Select -> All.
With Black as your Foreground Color.
- Edit -> Stroke Selection
- Put Stroke Size 10 -> Stroke/Ok
With White as your Foreground Color.
- Edit -> Stroke Selection
- Put Stroke Size 8 -> Stroke/Ok
With Black as your Foreground Color.
- Edit -> Stroke Selection
- Put Stroke Size 5, or 6 -> Stroke/Ok
Here is the outcome of this border:
I hope you learn something new with this Guide.[/spoil]
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