#RULER TOOL GIMP FREE#

Note that you can also control the zoom level very precisely using the percent zoom setting in the Status Bar on the bottom: But it is very useful for making precise edits since you can zoom in to the point that you can see individual pixels, which can be very helpful in making a selection, whether you are using the Selection Tools discussed previously or the Paths tool discussed above. So you see this tool is really very useful. You can paint along a path, you can stroke the path (which means drawing a line, which can be dotted, dashed, etc.), and you can even write text that follows a path. GIMP’s vector graphics tools are not all that powerful, but it is handy.įinally, the Paths Tool allows you to do other things as well. So you could open this path in Inkscape, for instance, which is the premier open source Vector Graphics program, and you can also import from Inkscape. SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics, and that is the type of graphic that can be re-scaled without any problems because it is not raster based, but instead based in equations. Save it as an *.svg file, and you can then open it in another image (via Import), but also in another program. To do this, right-click on the path in the upper-right section, and select “Export”. This makes the Paths tool extremely useful. If you then click Selection from Path in the Options on the lower left, you can do anything you want with it, such as copy the selection and insert it into another image. Used with other tools, like the Zoom Tool, this can let you draw very precise outlines around objects in a photo. This lets you add anchor points in the middle of your path, for instance, and you enter Edit mode by using the Control key as you click if you don’t want to keep changing modes. This is a great tool for cutting out an object from one image to then use in another image. When you get to the end you need to Control+Click on the very first anchor point to connect it to the last anchor point. But the real power of this tool is curves, and this is a good option if you want to mix curved sections and straight line sections.

#RULER TOOL GIMP FREE#

Note that if you check the Polygonal box in the Tool Options on the lower left, you will get straight line segments between the Anchor points, which makes it very similar to the free form select tool. You can then adjust the curve by moving one of those squares to reshape your curve. From there you will have a tangent line with squares on either end.

One of those points is active, the one you most recently clicked on, and that is the one that is an “empty” circle instead of a solid dot. This all works the same as the Selection Tools we looked at earlier. Click again on a different part, and you will get a second anchor point with a straight line connecting the two anchor points. For example, if you select the Paths tool, then select Design Mode in the Tool Options and click on the image, you will get one anchor point. Of course, there is also a Tool Options area on the bottom Left sidebar, just as with all other tools.īézier Curves are defined by anchor points and tangent lines, and you can manipulate the curve by moving the anchor points, twisting the tangent lines, or both. The first tab is Layers, the second is Channels, and the third is Paths, so you should open that when working with the Paths tool. Instead, you go to the Right sidebar, and on the top there is a section we’ll use a lot more often when we get to Layers. You can click on the Icon in the Toolbox, and this one does not have a pop-up dialog box like many of the other tools. To begin with, the Paths tool lets you create and manipulate Bézier Curves on your image.

All but the GEGL Operation Tool have icons in the Toolbox, and all of them are accessible on the Tools menu. The ToolsĪgain, practice makes perfect, so you should open up GIMP and either create a blank image or open a photo to work with these tools. These don’t necessarily have anything to do with each other, but they are important so we should want to take a brief look at them. But that leaves us with a few more that are a grab bag of miscellaneous tools: To wrap up our tour of the tools, we need to look at a few of the tools that don’t fit neatly into any of the other groups we have covered, such as Selection Tools, Paint Tools, Transform Tools, and Color Tools, all of which we looked at in earlier posts. Done using GIMP 2.8 on Kubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS

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