Nancy Fusco » graphic design

Quick White Balance Correction in Gimp

Nancy — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:32:32 +0000

I notice that most of my winter, aka “snow”, pictures have this dull gray color to them. For quick white balance correction in Gimp, open the image. Now from the menu on the Image, choose COLOR | AUTO | WHITE BALANCE

click image for a larger version

Gimp’s auto white balance has been pretty reliable to quickly set the correct tones in my grayish photos. See the results here:

click image for a larger version

And there you go – one click white balance correction in Gimp!

GIMP – Working with layers and autocrop layers

Nancy — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:43:28 +0000

Once you start getting to work on a complex graphic, you’ll want to use layers. Here’s what I’ve found works best for me and seems to flow easily in GIMP. You can start with your own image, or download my classroom graphic here: classroom_small_zip.

To view the Layer’s dialog box, press CTRL-L or from the Dialog menu.

Create a new layer:

Notice that in the dialog box for a new layer you can select different options. I use the “Transparent” option most of the time, so my new layer will overlay the background layer. Also notice the size of the new layer. This is where it gets tricky in GIMP. Leave it at the size of the image right now.

Next, draw a new selection on this new layer and fill it with a color. When you click on a tool in GIMP, the dialog box below the tools area will change to allow for options with that tool. Experiment a bit with that and you’ll find some cool effects.

Once you have created a new shape on the layer:

Click to see a bigger version of this screenshot

Click on the Bucket tool and fill it.

Great! You’ve created a shape that’s on it’s own layer! Now if you move that graphic around it will float independant of the lower and upper layers. Oh, wait a minute – if you move it around you’re moving a layer the size of the entire graphic, not just the shape you made. This can really get you at the end of your design when you go to print or export – you’ll have a layer that is “over the edge” of the background layer. Trust me when I say, this is pure GIMP chaos.

So, just as soon as I’m happy with a shape for that layer I use the Autocrop Layer to resize the layer to just around my shape. Then, when I move the shape around, the layer won’t go over the edges of the main background layer.

Click for a bigger version of this screenshot

Choose, Layer and then Autocrop Layer. Voila! Now, the layer is exactly the size of your shape. What’s awesome about the Autocrop Layer is if you had multiple shapes and lines on a layer it would Autocrop to the edges of all the elements.

Experiment with this and you’ll soon see Autocrop Layer is your best friend when working with complex graphic layers.

How to add scripts to Gimp

Nancy — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:59:18 +0000

Close Gimp if it’s running. Download your favorite Gimp scripts from The Gimp Plug-in Registry. Right click the download link(s) and choose “Save as…”

Save the file to your scripts folder. If you’re not sure where your scripts folder is, you can find that by opening GIMP and going to File | Preferences | Folders > Scripts. If more than one folder is shown, any of those locations will work.

Once you have saved the file in your scripts folder, the new plug-in(s) will appear under the toolbar item called Script-Fu. If it’s not showing there, make sure the file is in your scripts folder and that the filename ends with “.scm”, not “.txt” or “.scm.txt”. Some versions of web browsers will append .txt to the end of downloaded files, esp IE. If you choose “Save as…” check to make sure the file type is set to “All files”, so that the extension of scm will be retained in the download.

Another way around this is to simply path out to your files in the Scripts folder and change the file extensions to .scm instead of .txt.