# This is a list of tips for the GIMP. Every time the GIMP is # started, one tip will be selected from this file and will be # displayed in the "Tip of the day" dialog. # # - Lines starting with '#' are comments. # - Blank lines or comments separate two tips (they are not ignored). # Multiple blank lines are treated as one. If you want to have a # blank line in a tip, put a space or tab in it. # - Text will appear in the dialog as it is in this file. This is # done on purpose in order to have more freedom in the layout of the # tips than with automatic word-wrapping, but this also means that # you have to avoid excessively long lines in this file. # - Tips should be concise: 3 lines or less. # # Tips in this file have been contributed by Zachary Beane, Mo Oishi, # Raphael Quinet, Sven Neumann and other people on the gimp mailing # lists. # -------------------------------------------------------------------- # The first tip should be a welcome message, because this is the # first thing that a new user will see. # # welcome message: Welcome to CinePaint ! To ask questions or report bugs visit www.CinePaint.org. CinePaint exists thanks to the generous contributions of sponsors, developers, and users. It is free open source software. CinePaint has been used in production on more than a dozen feature films and is available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. If you would like to contribute to CinePaint or get involved join one of our mailing lists from our web page at www.CinePaint.org. CinePaint internally supports 32-bit float, 16-bit RnH float, 16-bit unsigned integer, and 8-bit unsigned integer. # Tips for beginners start here # CinePaint uses layers to let you organize your image. Think of them as a stack of slides or filters, such that looking through them you see a composite of their contents. You can perform many layer operations by right-clicking on the text label of a layer in the Layers dialog (Dialogs->Layers & Channels). When trying to save files as GIF, XPM, or any other indexed color format, you need to convert the image to indexed using the Image menu. You can get the Tool Options menu to open by double-clicking any button in the toolbar. You can change the name of a layer by double-clicking on its name in the Layers dialog box. The layer named "Background" is special. You can't add transparency or a layer mask to it. To add transparency, you must first "add alpha" to the layer by right-clicking in the layers dialog and selecting "Add Alpha Channel". When using a drawing tool (Paintbrush, Airbrush, or Pencil), Shift-click will draw a straight line from your last drawing point to your current cursor position. Most plug-ins work on the current layer of the current image. In some cases, you will have to merge all layers (Layers->Flatten Image) if you want the plug-in to work on the whole image. Most file-formats can't handle layers and for that reason only the active layer is saved. Use XCF to keep layers, channels and guides when saving. Not all effects can be applied to all kinds of images. This is indicated by a grayed-out menu-entry. You may need to change the image to RGB, add an alpha-channel or flatten it. # Tips for intermediate users start here # The file selection dialog box has command-line completion with Tab, just like the shell. Type part of a filename, hit tab, and voila! It's completed. You can reassign shortcut keys on any menu by bringing up the menu, selecting a menu item, and pressing the new shortcut key combination. This is dynamic and is saved when you exit. All the old channel operations have been replaced with the more powerful and flexible Layer and Layer Mode operations. They may take getting used to, but they are simply a better way to operate. You can use the middle mouse button to pan around the image, if it's larger than its display window. Click and drag on a ruler to place a Guide on an image. All dragged selections will snap to the guides. You can remove guides by dragging them off the image with the Move tool. Pressing and holding the Shift key before making a selection allows you to add to the current selection instead of replacing it. Using Ctrl before making a selection subtracts from the current one. You can press or release the Shift and Ctrl keys while you are making a selection in order to constrain it to a perfect square or circle, or to have it centered on its starting point. # Tips for advanced users start here # You can adjust the selection range for fuzzy select by clicking and dragging left and right. Shift-click on the eye icon in the Layers dialog to hide all layers but that one. Shift-click again to show all layers. Ctrl-click on the layer mask's preview in the Layers dialog toggles the effect of the layer mask. Alt-click on the layer mask's preview in the Layers dialog toggles viewing the mask directly. You can use Alt-Tab to cycle through all layers in an image (if your window manager doesn't trap those keys...). Shift-click with the Bucket Fill tool to have it use the background color instead of the foreground color. Control-drag with the Transform tool in rotation mode will constrain the rotation to 15 degree angles. You can adjust and re-place a selection by using Alt-drag. # FIXME: The next tip should disappear once we have solved the # problems of stale pluginrc files and plug-in directories. # All other files in ~/.gimp can be kept after an upgrade. # In particular, we should try to preserve gimprc. --Raphael # #When installing a new version, be sure to #delete your ~/.gimp directory first. Using Edit->Stroke allows you to draw simple squares or circles by painting the edge of your current selection with the active brush. More complex shapes can be drawn with Filters->Render->Gfig. To create a perfect circle, hold Shift while doing an ellipse select. To place a circle precisely, drag horizontal and vertical guides tangent to the circle you want to select, place your cursor at the interesection of the guides, and the resulting selection will just touch the guides. # (end of tips)