GIMP has no specific tool for drawing a straight line, but you can draw one with any painting tool. After choosing the drawing tool and setting the parameters, click the first point of the line and then press the key and place the endpoint. You can even draw a polygon in this way, by pressing and clicking at each corner of the shape.

We explain this in detail in Drawing Ellipses and Rectangles. The simplest solution is to stroke a circular selection, but you can create a ring-shaped selection and fill it or transform it to a path and stroke it.

The most direct solution is to create a path from the text (use the layer menu of the text layer) and then to stroke this path with the painting tool and whatever options you want.

Suppose you build a complicated selection and want to save it as a new image. Copy it and then select Image: Edit > Paste As > New Image or press . Then save this new image.

Select Image: File > Open as layers or press . You can also drag the image thumbnail from a file manager or a browser to the current image, and it will be added to it as a new layer.

As a rule, using small fonts in a raster image is not a good idea. Building a larger image with proportionate fonts and then scaling it to the proper size is a better idea. Either way, always check the ANTIALIAS checkbox in the Text tool options and choose anything other than NONE for HINTING.

You can set keyboard shortcuts using two methods. The safer method is to select Image: Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. You can then select the command you want to define a shortcut for and type the shortcut.

The other method is to open Image: Edit > Preferences, choose the INTERFACE page, and check the option USE DYNAMIC KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS. Once you’ve checked this option, you can define a new shortcut by selecting the menu entry corresponding to the command and typing the desired shortcut. Do not leave this option checked, however, because accidentally changing an existing shortcut is easy.

One way is to select Image: Edit > Preferences, choose the TOOL OPTIONS page, and check the option SET LAYER OR PATH AS ACTIVE. Once you’ve done this, moving a layer with the Move tool makes it active. Note that working this way can become confusing.

First, the layer you want to add transparency to must have an Alpha channel, which you can add from the layer menu or in Image: Layer > Transparency. If an Alpha channel is present, cutting or deleting a selection, or using the Erase tool, replaces the color with transparency. For example, if you use the Select by Color tool and then cut the selection, all the pixels of the selected color are replaced with transparency.

Another way to do this is to apply Image: Colors > Color to Alpha.

The color of the brush is the only painting tool option that is not chosen in its option dialog. A brush paints with the foreground color, which you can change by clicking the color swatch in the bottom-left part of the Toolbox to open the Color chooser dialog. From here, you have several ways to choose the new color.

If you want to blur a selection or layer, open the Image: Filters > Blur submenu and select one of the available filters. If you want to blur a small part of the image, use the Blur/Sharpen tool ().

First use the Rectangle Select tool () to build the outline of the rectangle. Then select Image: Edit > Stroke Selection, which allows you to choose all the details of the stroke.

Select the Move tool (), and click and drag the guide you want to move. If this moves the active layer, change the TOOL TOGGLE option or press .

You can get rid of a floating selection in three ways: Delete it, if you don’t need it; anchor it to the previously active layer or channel; or create a new layer with it. All these actions are available in the Layers menu, which you can access by right-clicking the Layers dialog. You can also access them directly from the Image: Layer menu or by clicking the buttons at the bottom of the Layers dialog.

The LOCK ALPHA CHANNEL button must be unchecked. This button is the second button from left on the line beginning with LOCK in the Layers dialog.

Make sure the Image: View > Show Selection option is checked. toggles this visibility.

Change the mode of the image to RGB using Image: Image > Mode > RGB.

The short answer is that this is done when printing the image, using your printing software, rather than through GIMP.

You can easily adjust the size of your photo on the screen, but that won’t change its size on a website or its size when printed.

The photo’s size on a website depends on its dimensions in pixels and on the definition of the screen used for viewing it, which you can’t control. The photo will be a different size on a smartphone, an LCD screen, and a CRT screen, for example.

The printed photo size is chosen in the printing interface. You can change the printing definition to change the printed size, or you can change the final size of the print, which changes the definition. In any case, the printing size is generally very different from the viewing size on a screen.

The easiest way is to -click the image with one of the paint tools, which makes the color you clicked the new foreground color.

Text should scale without any loss of quality as long as it is not rasterized, so don’t merge the text layer with the underlying layer until your image is finished.

Just as you would any other component (or drawable in GIMP jargon): Make the layer mask active (by clicking its thumbnail in the Layers dialog), select it (using any selection tool), copy it (), make the layer mask of the destination layer active, paste (), and anchor ().

If the list is long and you know the name of the font, brush, or pattern, press (or sometimes ), and then type the first letters of the name. You can also use tags to restrict the size of the list, for example, when selecting a brush in the Texture category.

Let’s assume that by “erasing” you mean replacing with transparency. The active layer must have an Alpha channel (its name does not appear in boldface in the Layers dialog). Choose your painting tool, its brush, and all its options but change the tool mode to COLOR ERASE. You then replace the pixels of the foreground color with transparency. Image: Colors > Color to Alpha replaces the foreground color with transparency throughout the entire layer or selection.

The Scale tool enlarges the current selection or layer. To enlarge the image, apply Image: Image > Scale Image. Or, if you only want to see the image with more detail on your screen, choose a zoom tool instead.

All the dialogs can be opened via Image: Windows > Dockable Dialogs. If you closed a dock with several dialogs inside, select Image: Windows > Recently Closed Docks.

Some dialogs can also be accessed directly with a keyboard shortcut: opens the Toolbox; opens the Layers dialog; opens the Gradients dialog; opens the Brushes dialog; and opens the Patterns dialog. Double-clicking a tool icon in the Toolbox opens the tool options dialog with the options for that tool.

Duplicate the layer. Then invert the colors on the lower layer and set the layer mode of the upper (unchanged) layer to Color.

Look at the tool options for the Crop tool. Check the FIXED box, and choose ASPECT RATIO in the field on the right. Then enter an aspect ratio, like 4:3 or 5:8, in the field below.