Ellie's Treasures GIMP Tutorials-Getting Started with GimpShop

This will open in a new window and print out on standard 8½" X 11" paper For information about which fonts, programs, etc I used to construct my pages and my headers, click here.
GIMPshop is free and I can offer it from my site as it's Open Source. I have also included the free open source plugin manager which allows you to put Photoshop Filters into the program. GIMPShop Graphics program and Plugin Manager, download them free here PSPI plugin manager can be downloaded here by itself if you already have the program Website for GIMPShop is here
Here are some bars you can drag and drop where you need to mark or underline where you are. Just left click and drag to where you want it then let go. They will stay where you put them until you close your browser.
My screenshots may look different than yours because I use GIMPShop which is made to look like Photoshop. If you have a different version of GIMP I believe the interface will look different. GIMPShop and the plugin manager can be downloaded from my link at the top of this page. Keep in mind that I just got this program a couple of days ago and still learning it myself. As the need arises in my tutorials, I will add more basic instructions here. These are instructions for the steps I have used in my tutorials so far. I hope you find this helpful! If you don't find your answer here, the coder's website has many screenshots etc. See the address above If you are still having a problem, email me and I'll see if I can help.
Index of quick tuts
Program Screenshots 1. Tool Palette 2. Tool Palette File Menu 3. Tool Palette Xtns Menu 4. Menu bar of working canvas 5. Working Canvas File Menu	Resizing 1. Resizing an image using Image Size command 2. Resizing an image using the Transform>Scale command 3. Scaling (Resizing) a layer	Layer Palette 1. Right Click options in layer palette 2. Changing the view in Layer Palette 3. Changing Opacity and Blend Mode in layer palette	Customizing Changing Folder Locations for Program Extras
Using a Mask	Adding Photoshop Plugins	1. Add new Pattern to Palette 2. Fill canvas with pattern 3. Apply a Gradient
Saving Files
TROUBLESHOOTING AND ANNOYANCES
Gimpshop opens big blank windows when you focus away from program	Gimpshop crashes when opening a new canvas
File Menu on Tool Palette You can see the basic commands here. This is from the left side palette.
Xtns Menu This is where you'll look for the plugin manager and to add more plugins Back to top
Preferences are in the Toolbar File menu and you can change the locations of your folders here along with a lot of other options. Back to top
Menu bar of working canvas File menu is shown below. All of the items on the menu bar are similar to what you're used to in other graphic programs, so I won't show them all. Back to top
File menu of working canvas Back to top
TOOL PALETTE In the program just hover over the palette with your cursor and it will tell you what the tool is. Don't hover over this screenshot because it doesn't speak! LOL If you are familiar with other graphic programs you should be able to figure out what most of them are. Back to top
RIGHT CLICK OPTIONS IN LAYER PALETTE Back to top
CHANGING THE VIEW IN THE RIGHT PALETTE As you can see, this is where you change the view. Just click on the appropriate icon and that palette will appear below it. From left to right it's Layers, Channels, Paths and Undo History Back to top
SAVING FILES First, before you save, if you are saving as a jpg make sure you flatten image first or an error window will say you have to flatten image first. The Save File command is in the File Menu of the working canvas. When you're saving in gimp, you need to either add the extension to the name (as for instance .jpg) or click on Select File type and pick from the list. If you want to keep a layer on a transparent layer, save either as psd or the Gimp native xcf file. The psd file will be compatible with most graphic programs. The save and save as commands are in the File drop down menu on the working canvas. Back to top
CHANGING OPACITY AND BLEND MODE This is the layer palette showing where you lower the opacity and change the blend mode (there are more blend modes, I just shortened the screenshot) Back to top
RESIZING AN IMAGE USING THE IMAGE SIZE COMMAND In the menu bar of your working canvas click on Image>ImageSize See that little icon that looks like a chain right next to the dimensions? If it's linked it will keep it in proportion, if not linked you can resize it out of proportion. Click on it to change it to linked or unlinked. I prefer to resize it using the Cubic interpolation for the best quality. Back to top
RESIZING AN IMAGE USING THE TRANSFORM>SCALE COMMAND In your working canvas, go to Edit>Transform. A scaling window will show up but you want to use the bounding boxes, so look at your working canvas. You will see the bounding boxes there. Using the left click mouse button, click on the right bottom box and push it up and to the left. You'll still see your full image below it but once you click on Scale that will go away. Back to top
SCALING A LAYER (RESIZING) In your working canvas menu bar, click on Layer>Scale Layer Back to top
ADDING PHOTOSHOP PLUGINS (8bf files) Download the GIMP Plugin Manager (called pspi) (It's included in my download of GimpShop above) Put it in your GIMP plug-ins folder. My program is installed on my F Drive so the path is F:\Program Files\GIMPshop\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins If you have installed to the default it will be here C:\Program Files\GIMPshop\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins Then go to the Xtns on the toolbar palette and you will see a new menu called "PhotoShop Plug-in Settings...", click it and a new window will appear where you can browse to the folder which contains .8bf (Photoshop) plugin files. You can add as many folders as you want (containing filter files) then press OK. The new filters will be available when you restart the program. Close gimp and restart it. The incompatible filters will automatically be discarded from the list on next startup. Ignore the messages. And if you receive a console window containing too many text messages just minimize it (don't close it). Any plugins you add that are compatible will show up in the Filters menu of your working canvas. Don't make the mistake I did of pointing it towards a folder full of plugins. It wouldn't open up. I renamed the plugin folders so GIMPShop would open, and when it opened they weren't listed so I assumed it was ok to rename the folders back to the original name. Not so! I had to then go into my other graphic programs and change the plugin paths in there. I have now made a folder called GIMP plugins and am putting one filter at a time in it, as I need them, to make sure I know which ones it can't handle. You can also use your plugin folder that's default with the program, but I always prefer to keep them separate. Back to top
ADDING A NEW PATTERN TO THE PATTERN PALETTE To add a new pattern to the collection, so that it shows up in the Patterns dialog, you need to save it in a format GIMP can use, in the Patterns folder in the GIMP directory or in any pattern folder you made yourself and have pointed the program to in preferences. I always prefer to put program extras into my own folders away from the program. The GIMP directory will be here, unless you installed GIMP to a different drive, then just look for the same directory on that drive C:\Program Files\GIMPshop\share\gimp\2.0\patterns There is a System Patterns folder which you should not add to or alter. There are several file types you can use for patterns: PAT (Gimp's native pattern file format), png, jpg, bmp, gif, tiff. If you have an image you would like to save as a PAT file, you can open it in GIMP and save it using .pat as the file extension. Any compatible patterns added to the Patterns folder will show up in the Patterns dialog the next time you start GIMP. To use a pattern, just click on the pattern image in the left palette and the pattern palette will show up in the right palette. Back to top
FILLING CANVAS WITH PATTERN Pick the pattern in the right palette as shown above. In your working canvas menu bar, click on Edit>Fill with Pattern. Once you click that command your canvas will fill with the pattern. Back to top
APPLYING A GRADIENT Click on your gradient tool in the left palette. Your gradient choices will show up in the right palette. Applying the gradient is very similar to the old Photoshop if any of you had it. Put your cursor in the canvas and drag it from one top corner to the opposite bottom corner to make a diagonal gradient fill. For a fill from left to right vertically, start at the center left and drag across to the center right (or vica versa) To apply repeats, start in the middle and drag across or diagonally or start in a corner and only go partway before letting go of the cursor. The smaller the amount you drag, the more repeats you get. Always remember that at the point you start will start with your foreground color and wherever you let go will signify the end of the first repeat, so it will be your background color. At this point it will gradually fade to your foreground color again (unless you picked sawtooth, then it will be a sharp line instead of a gradual fading). Choose the gradient you want. To get a single gradient that goes across the canvas, choose Shape of linear, repeat of none. To get a gradient that repeats, in the repeat field, pick triangular wave. This will give you repeats that gradually fade from one color to another. if you go from top left to the middle and let go, you get this If you go from top left 1/3 of the way down diagonally, you get this To get a gradient that is in sharp bands, choose sawtooth wave If you go halfway across from top left diagonally toward the right, you get this. Here is an example. Pick Linear, Triangular wave, offset of 30 starting point (where you put your cursor to start with) is at 200 horizontally and 150 vertically ending point is at 80 horizontally and 290 vertically After you let go of the cursor, the grad fill will look like this. Always remember that wherever you start will start with your foreground color and wherever you let go will signify the end of the first repeat, so it will be your background color. At this point it will gradually fade to your foreground color again. Back to top
USING A MASK This is a very simple process in GIMPshop. Open your mask. You can use jpg and psd formats. Maybe more but those are the two I used so far. I started with this and used this mask, a very common one called 20-20 This is it after resizing it to fit my image above, the original dimensions were 500X500 pixels Resize your mask to the same dimensions as your image you want to apply it to (Image>ImageSize) Make sure you click on that little icon looking like a chain right next to the dimensions. If it's linked it will keep it in proportion, if not linked you can resize it out of proportion. In working canvas Layers/ Mask/Add Layer Mask Copy and paste it into your working canvas Right click in layer palette, Anchor Layer Right click in layer palette>Apply Layer Mask layer palette after applying layer mask Image after applying mask This is a screenshot, not a saved picture, the grid is your transparent layer. Back to top
TROUBLESHOOTING Big blank open tool windows: Another irritation is if you go away from the Gimpshop window for a minute and go back to it, you have these big blank windows open, some may say change background color, save image, open image, etc in the title bar. You can't seem to close these but if you right click in the title bar, you can minimize them to put them out of the way till you're done. They will minimize to the bottom of the Gimpshop window. Gimpshop crashes when opening a new canvas. This started happening for me and I ran across a solution. Nothing I tried worked, reinstalling, removing plugins and extras. What did work is open a picture, any picture, doesn't matter what. With that picture still open, open your new canvas. Now you can close your picture and it should work as usual. Back to top



l hope this was helpful!
If you have any questions or suggestions, click on the email button below to contact me. Have a wonderful day!
These tutorials are created by Ellie of Ellie's Treasures. Any resemblance to any other tutorial is purely coincidental and unintentional. Feel free to share any of my tutorials on this site by a link back to my site, but do not copy and send the entire tutorial to anyone or any group. ©2003-2007 Ellie's Treasures DSL Internet Services

Back to top Webpage Design Information This webpage background was made in PhotoImpact with a tutorial by Deb DeHaven Sadly, she passed away but her tutorials just came back online, thanks to PIRCNet. You can find the tutorial here. The font I used for the text on the buttons (except for Email) is BrockScript Click on the font name to download the font. I use PhotoImpact to make all of my headers due to the amazing 3D text it has and the wonderful presets available free online Most of the presets I use are either the ones that come with PhotoImpact, usually the Gel ones, or from Deb's PI Tutorials and More (see below) or Carol Oyl's site This is the address to Deb's old pages http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/millenit/1716/pitutorials/objects/presets/presets1.html I can't find any links to her new pages but the presets are still on this page for download. For more sites to find PI Presets, take a look at my Great Beginnings page.