So how do you make a selection go away in GIMP? Simple. It only takes one little step.
Remove a Selection In GIMP
To get rid of the current selection without saving it first:
Go to Select > None in the Main Menu. The selection will be removed.
Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Shift Ctrl A on a Mac, or Shift Cmd A in Windows.
If you want to save the selection before you get rid of it, you can save it as a Path which you can turn back into a selection later.
To do that, first go to Select > To Path.
You can check that your selection was saved as a path by going to Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Paths in the Main Menu to open the Paths Dialog. You can dock this dialog to the Toolbox if you want to keep your saved paths handy.
Then go to Select > None to remove the active selection from the image.
Now, if you want to re-activate the selection, go to the Paths Dialog, highlight the correct path, then go to Select > From Path in the Main Menu. The path will be turned into a selection.
Conclusion
See? Making a selection go away in GIMP isn’t super obvious, but it’s not exactly hard either.
I’ll be honest. I don’t always get great photos right out of my camera. Most of the time there are two problems I have to tackle with my photos. White balance (or color problems) and exposure (or brightness problems).
Lucky for me, White Balance and Exposure are both really easy to fix in a program like GIMP.
Anyway, since I usually have to correct these two problems, and I’ve seen these problems in a lot of photos on the internet, I thought I would give you the quick run down on how I tackle them. If you sell anything online (maybe you’re an Etsy seller looking to up your photography game?) this tutorial is for you!
The Problem:
This picture of a necklace was taken on a white background, but it’s easy to see that this background isn’t white! With a little tweaking I can correct the blue tone of the photo and make the beads stand out against the background by adding some contrast.
How to Fix Color and Brightness in GIMP:
First, open up the problem picture in GIMP. To do that, just open GIMP and go to File > Open. Navigate through your computers files to find the photo you want to open, then click Open.
Now, follow along to Fix White Balance and Exposure problems fast!
Fix White Balance (color)
Like I said before, this picture is too blue so I’ll need to balance the blue out with more yellow, and even a bit of red. I’ll do that with the Color Balance Tool.
Go to Colors > Color Balance in the Main GIMP Menu Bar. The Color Balance Window will pop up.
Start with the MidTones option checked.
Adjust the Blue/Yellow slider to remove some blue, and add yellow. Then Adjust the Red/Cyan slider to add some Red, and take away some Cyan. (If your photo is too yellow or orange, do the opposite)
Now, check the Highlights option, and do the same thing.
Check the Shadow option, and repeat the process.
Go back and forth between the MidTones, Highlights, and Shadows, tweaking your adjustments until the colors are just right. Then click OK to apply the effect to your photo.
You may have to adjust the Magenta/Green slider a bit too to make your picture perfect.
So that’s problem number one solved. My picture no longer has that blue tint, but it’s still pretty dull. It’s bright enough, but there isn’t enough contrast. So, I’ll use a tool in GIMP called Curves to make the beads and the shadows a little bit darker against the white background. The contrast will make them really pop!
Use Curves to Fix Exposure/Contrast in GIMP
Go to Colors > Curves in the Main GIMP Menu. The Curves window will pop up.
Let’s pause for a second to take a look at this window.
There’s a grid in the middle of the window with a diagonal line going across it. That line is adjustable, you can click anywhere on that diagonal line and drag up or down to make parts or your photo lighter or darker.
Drag up to make the photo lighter, drag down to make it darker. Where you click matters. The right side of the line controls highlights in the picture, the left side controls shadows, and the middle of the line controls mid tones.
Got that? Cool, here’s how we’ll use that line to fix this photo:
Click the highlight side (a box or two from the right edge) and drag up, just a little bit. The highlights of the photo will start to get brighter as you drag.
Now, the shadow side (a box or two from the left edge) and drag down a bit.
The shadows and mid tones of the picture will get darker as you make this adjustment, so you can tell how far you should drag.
Click OK to apply the effect when you’re happy.
That’s better!
I usually only click two points with Curves to make a nice smooth S curve. That keeps the line, and therefore my picture, nice and pretty.
Bonus: Levels to Whiten Whites
If the whites of your photo aren’t quite white, but curves it making everything too bright, try this trick. It whitens whites better than bleach!
Go to Colors > Levels. The Levels window will pop up.
In the top section of this window, there’s a chart (AKA a histogram), and if you look closely you’ll see three little arrows underneath it.
Click on the arrow on the right side of the histogram, and drag it just a little to the left. As you drag the white parts of your photo will whiten without substantially brightening the rest of your picture.
Click OK to apply the effect
That’s It!
I ended up going back to do another Color Balance adjustment after I brightened my photo because I realized there was still some blue to remove. And that’s kind of the nature of photo editing. Sometimes you have to go back and tweak things.
I’ve gotten a lot of visits from people who want to get rid of the yellow dotted line around their image in GIMP. So I figured, if you’re asking I should deliver, right?
This same problem drove me absolutely crazy for a long time, but it’s so easy to fix I’m almost embarrassed how long it took me to figure it out.
Without further delay, here’s how you turn off the yellow dotted line in GIMP:
Open GIMP
Click on View in the Main Menu, and click Show Layer Boundary box to uncheck that option. That’s it!
I think a lot of the issue is just knowing that yellow dotted line in GIMP is called the “Layer Boundary”. Still, after being annoyed by that little dotted line for so long, I feel like getting rid of it is cause for celebration.
I hope this saves you some money in therapy sessions.
There’s no “line tool” in GIMP. That might be frustrating if you’re familiar with image editing programs that have a tool like that. But, once you know how easy it is to make a straight line in GIMP without having to grab a different tool as you paint, you’ll never look back.
How to Draw A Straight Line in GIMP
Grab a painting tool like the Pencil, or Paintbrush.
Choose the appropriate tool settings for the brush in the Tool Options Dialog.
Click the starting point of the line on your image, then hold down the Shift button on your keyboard, and move your mouse to over the image to the point you would like the line to end.
You’ll see a straight “guide” line appear as you move your mouse to let you know where the line will be drawn.
Now, click the end point of the line. The line will be drawn on the picture between the start and end points that you clicked.
GIMP isn’t like an online editing program. You don’t have to upload photos before you can edit them. And it’s not a photo organizing program like iPhoto or Picasa. You don’t have to import photos into GIMP. You can use GIMP right out of the box to open and edit any photo that’s on your computer.
To open photos with GIMP do the following:
Start GIMP, then find the Main Window. It’s the one with the menu bar across the top.
Go to File > Open. The Open Image window will pop up (see the image below).
se this window to navigate through your computer’s files, and find the image you want to open. You can also use the Search function on the left side of this window to search for files by name.
Once you find your image, click it to highlight it, then click Open. The image will open in GIMP’s main window, and you can start editing.
There’s obviously a lot more to using GIMP than opening your photos. But it’s a really important first step! I mean, if you couldn’t open you photos, you wouldn’t get very far.
You can use GIMP to do just about anything to your pictures. From small tweaks to contrast and color, to creating web banners, ‘Photoshopping’ people onto different backgrounds, GIMP’s got it all.
So tell me, what do you want to do with GIMP? Do you want to retouch portraits, or spruce up your product photos? Make a web banner, or a Valentines card? Do you want to correct funky colors, or create photographic works of art? Pick your poison, and let me know in the comments below.
You’ve decided to come join the fun in GIMP land, and we’re excited to have you! Now the question is, how do you get GIMP up and running on your computer?
It’s really easy to Install GIMP. Here’s the basic idea:
First, you’ll need to know just a little information about your computer. Basically, you’ll need to know what operating system you’re running, and if GIMP is compatible with it.
Then, you’ll find the correct version of GIMP for your operating system at GIMP.org.
Last, you’ll download GIMP, and run the installer.
Now that you have the basic idea, here are the instructions in more detail.
Install GIMP For Windows:
At the time of writing, you’ll need Windows 7 or newer to run the latest stable version of GIMP.
If you’re on Windows, and you don’t know what operating system you’re using (ie Windows 7, Windows XP, etc.) follow these instructions to find out which operating system you’re running.
Now, go to the official GIMP repository and click the Download link at the top of the page to download GIMP. This version of GIMP will work with any version of Windows, as long as it’s Windows 7 or newer.
While GIMP is available from a lot of sites (since it’s free and open source software), I recommend only downloading it from the official repository at GIMP.org to make sure you don’t get stuck with any malware.
When the download is complete, open up the package, and run the installer. Follow any instructions on the windows that appear.
That’s it! You’re finished installing GIMP! The first time you start GIMP, it may take a few minutes to get going, because there’s a lot of new stuff to load. Just be patient, it will start eventually.
Install GIMP For Mac:
To install the latest version of GIMP on a Mac, at the time of writing you’ll need OS X Yosemite or newer.
Not sure which version of Mac OS you’re using? Follow these instructions to find out.
Now, head over to the official GIMP download page, and click it’s link to download GIMP to your computer.
When the files are finished downloading, open up the Zip file, then open the installer to begin installing GIMP. Follow any directions you’re given in the windows that pop up.
GIMP will now be installed on your computer! The first time you start GIMP, it may take a few minutes to get going, because there’s a lot of new stuff to load. Just be patient, it will start eventually.
Have Fun!
Now that GIMP is installed, you’re ready to get started editing! You can use GIMP to open and edit any image file that’s on your computer.
There’s plenty more GIMP help where this came from. I mean, literally, where this came from. HowToGIMP.com has a growing library of easy to understand, plain English GIMP tutorials and videos to help you learn GIMP faster.
I consume so much info about photo editing, graphic design, typography, and other digital art topics throughout the week… it’s kind of crazy. Since I’m taking so much in, I thought it would be fun to curate a list of links from my favorite design and digital art tutorial and news sources.
Photo Editing News
This week Digital-Photography-School.com published a post on creating a consistant visual style in your photography and post processing. If you find your style is all over the place (as I sometimes do!) their post might help.
My current YouTube obsession, Borodante, posted a tutorial/overpaint video on digitally painting night scenes. This guy is seriously entertaining, a master at Photoshop and other digital painting software, and has taught me more about light than I can even describe. His videos are seriously a must watch.
I’m a sucker for a good free font, and the good folks over at Free Typography wrote about a font called Mr Grieves recently. It’s a blocky, hand drawn, grungy font that’s free for personal and commercial use. That’s a winning combination for me. Looking forward to making a T-Shirt design or two with it.
Let’s wrap things up on an exciting note: in GIMP news, GIMP.org reported they received a $100,000 donation, which is sweet because that should keep development chugging while GIMP stays 100% free for you and me.
That’s it for the roundup. I hope you’re having a great week, and I wish you good fortune with any digital art endeavors you’re tackling in the week to come.
Why in the world would the eraser tool in GIMP paint a color instead of erasing? Sometimes quirks like this seem totally inexplicable, but if you know why it’s happening it actually makes sense… sort of.
If the eraser tool is painting instead of erasing, here’s what’s going on and how you can fix it.
Each pixel in your image has color information stored in a color channel. A channel is just a segment of color. In RGB mode, those channels are red (R) green (G), and blue (B). Pixels can use combinations of these channels, basically mixing colors to make other colors like you did in elementary school. Combining channels in different ways basically gives you every color of the rainbow. There are other color models like CMYK, but they work similarly. A set of basic colors can be mixed together to make other colors.
So you have a huge amount of colors to work with, but transparent pixels aren’t possible yet. Without transparency, the only way to “erase” using just R, G, and B channels is to replace the image pixels with a solid color. The color used to replace pixels is kind of arbitrary, so GIMP will use the “background color” to replace your image pixels as a default. That’s why GIMP’s eraser sometimes paints with black, white, or another color depending on the background color you set in the Toolbox.
The first layer in any JPG image you open in GIMP does not support transparency, because JPG’s themselves do not support transparency. That means any time you open a JPG in GIMP and try to erase, you’ll see this eraser not erasing problem. PNG files do support transparency, so if you open a PNG in GIMP the eraser tool will work as expected right away.
If you want that first JPG layer to support transparency you’ll need to add a “alpha channel”. In GIMP, alpha just means transparency. So in addition to R, G, and B, the alpha channel gives your pixels information about transparency to work with. The ability to make transparent pixels is what allows the eraser to really erase.
How to Fix GIMP Eraser Painting Instead of Erasing
Here’s how you add an alpha channel to a layer in GIMP:
Find the Layers Dialog. If you don’t see it, go to Window > Dockable Dialogs > Layers. If the Layers Dialog was already open it will blink. If it wasn’t open, it will open in a small window.
Now, in the Layers Dialog, look for the correct layer thumbnail. It will look like a mini version of the image you have open, or the layer you want to work on.
Right-click (or alternate click using your preferred method if you’re on a Mac) on that layer thumbnail. A menu of options will appear.
Choose “Add Alpha Channel” from the list of options.
The Alpha Channel will be added to your image, and the eraser should work as expected now.
Erasing with Transparency – The Gray Checkerboard Pattern
Now that your eraser is erasing and your pixels support transparency, you’ll be able to see through your erased parts of a layer to the layer below. It’s like you have a stack of papers, and erasing rubs holes in a sheet of paper so you can see what’s beneath it.
Makes sense… but when you only have one layer, you’ll see a weird gray checkerboard pattern everywhere you erase. It’s not exactly attractive, and it can be kind of alarming when you first see it. I mean, I know I really don’t want that pattern showing up in my image.
Thankfully that pattern isn’t actually part of your image. It’s there because you can’t see transparent pixels, so when there’s nothing underneath a layer GIMP has to show you something to indicate that there’s basically a hole in your layer. It could show you a solid color like white, but then you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between holes and where you actually painted with white. So it uses this really obvious checkerboard pattern to make it clear where transparent pixels are.
This is a standard way of representing transparency, and you’ll see it in other image manipulation programs like Photoshop. You’ll even see this pattern used to represent transparency in menus and tools. You can see a little gray checkerboard icon next to the “add alpha channel” option in the layers dialog.
This pattern is not saved in your image. If you save using a file type that supports transparency (like PNG), your transparent pixels will actually be transparent and they’ll allow anything that’s beneath that image to show through.
Saving Images With Transparency
Final note about transparency in GIMP:
Adding an alpha channel won’t change the fact that JPG’s don’t support transparency. If you save your new GIMP image as a JPG, those transparent pixels will be replaced with your background color again. If you want to keep the transparency, you’ll need to save your image as a PNG.
I hope that clears up some of the unexpected transparency related quirks you’ll find in GIMP and other photo editing programs. The big takeaway is, if your GIMP eraser isn’t erasing and it looks like it’s painting a color instead, you probably just need to add an alpha channel to that layer.
This photo was very underexposed, but because I shoot RAW, I was able to bring it back to life.
Hi! This post was written as extra info for folks reading my book, How to GIMP so It’s got a lot of extra information about what RAW files are and why you would want to use them.
But if you just want to know how to work with RAW files as a GIMP user, this post will be helpful for you too.
Skip to the sections you’re interested using these links, or read the whole post to take it all in.
When your digital camera takes a picture, it’s really just recording the light that hits its sensor. In some ways, the camera physically limits or transforms that light. The lens aperture limits the amount of light that hits the sensor and determines how much of the scene is in focus. The shutter speed also limits the amount of light hitting the sensor, and effects whether moving objects blur or stay sharp. Those physical limits are set in stone as soon as you snap the photo.
But, there are a lot of ways in which your camera interprets the light that hits its sensor that aren’t a matter of physical limitations.
Here’s an example: The white balance of a picture isn’t a matter of a physical transformation of light, but the the camera decides what color to render pixels in the photo based on its interpretation of the scene. Whether you chose a white balance setting like “daylight”, or “cloudy”, or let the camera guess the light by setting the white balance to “auto”, the camera will do its best to make everything the right color.
Why JPG’s Are Hard To Post Process
When your camera records a JPEG photo, the way your camera decided the light should be transformed into pixels is locked into that JPEG. It doesn’t contain any information about the way the light was hitting the sensor when you hit the shutter button. It’s just a collection of “dumb” pixels.
Sure, you can use something like GIMP or Photoshop to adjust the pixels in your JPEG. But if you’ve ever tried to brighten super dark shadows in a photo only to end up with an indistinct blob of gray, you know that those dumb pixels are missing a lot of critical information. If pixels in the shadow of your image are totally black, no amount of adjustment is going to bring details back because GIMP and Photoshop don’t know anything about what was actually in the shadow. It just sees a group of black pixels that you want to make lighter. Hence, the gray blob.
But a RAW file is totally different. It’s literally the raw information about the light that your camera recorded with very little interpretation imposed.
The RAW file also contains information about the settings in your camera when you took the photo, so when you open it in a RAW editor you can see the way the photo would look as you shot it. But all of the information the camera had about the light hitting the sensor in that moment is in there too. What that means for you is that you can open that same photo in a RAW editor and literally change the white balance of the photo after you’ve taken it.
Taking pictures in the RAW format opens up a lot of opportunities. You can change white balance after you take the picture to make colors more accurate, and you can adjust the exposure of the image really easily. The best part is, these changes are non-destructive. You can go back to the original at any time.
The original RAW file itself is never really edited. Instead, the changes you make in a RAW editor (like UFRAW, Adobe Camera RAW, or RAWTherapee) are stored in a ‘side car’ file. This file tells the RAW editing program what settings to apply every time you open the RAW file, but it doesn’t permanently apply the settings until you export the file to a format like JPG. Even then, the original RAW file is still untouched.
In fact, if you delete the RAW Sidecar file, the RAW image will go back to its original state when you open it in the RAW editor, because there’s nothing to tell the RAW editor which settings should be applied. Because changes to RAW images are only stored in a side car file, you can go back and re-edit the original RAW file at any time without loss of image quality.
Can GIMP handle RAW photos? How GIMP users can take advantage of RAW.
Can you use RAW files as a GIMP user? Yes.
Can you work with RAW files directly in GIMP? No.
In order to work with images you shot in a RAW format in GIMP, you’ll need a RAW converter to first change them to something that GIMP can read, like TIFF or JPG.
That’s not a GIMP quirk, it’s a RAW quirk. Even if you were using Photoshop, you would have to first work with the file in something like Adobe Camera RAW, and then convert the file to something like a JPEG or a TIFF that Photoshop can recognize to continue working on it.
Adobe has been busy making its whole ecosystem more connected, so it really feels like you can just open a RAW file in Photoshop. You’re going to miss out on that seamless experience in GIMP. But you definitely still can use RAW files if you’re a GIMP user. You just have to process them first with a RAW processor/converter program.
Once you convert the RAW file to a JPG or TIFF, those settings from the sidecar are permanently applied to that JPEG or TIFF file. When you open the photo in GIMP, it will recognize the image just like any other JPG or TIFF. You can’t exactly undo the changes you locked into the JPG or TIFF, but the original RAW file and sidecar file will still be on your system just in case you want to tweak the settings, or even start over.
Free RAW converters to use with GIMP
If your camera can shoot RAW photos, it may have come with RAW conversion software. If it did, I recommend using that software for your RAW editing process. But, if your camera didn’t come with this software, there are some free options available. One of these options is called UFRAW, and it’s designed to work with GIMP.
How to install a free RAW converter
The UFRAW Window. Click to see a larger version of this image.
For Mac
Good news everyone! If you downloaded GIMP from this site UFRAW may have come with your GIMP installation. If that’s the case, you won’t have to do anything. To check if you’ve already got UFRAW installed on your computer, follow these steps:
Open GIMP.
Go to File > Open in the Main Menu. The Open window will pop up.
Navigate to any RAW image file you have, highlight it, and click Open.
If a funky looking window opens up with your picture in it (looks like the image above), you already have UFRAW installed.
If you get a warning that you can’t open the RAW file with GIMP, you will need to install a separate RAW converter.
Once you download RAWTherapee, double click the ZIP file to open it, then open the DMG file to run the automatic installer. You can drag the RawTherapee icon into your Applications folder to keep RAWTherapee handy when you need it.
Open the package, and follow the instillation instructions.
Now, open GIMP, and go to File > Open in the Main Menu.
Navigate to any RAW file, highlight it, and click Open.
Your RAW image will open in a new, funky looking window. That’s UFRAW. Now you can start editing!
How to Use UFRAW
There are a ton of options and controls in this UFRAW window. It’s such a powerful tool, I could easily write a book on just UFRAW! Thankfully, there’s already some pretty good documentation available. So, instead of re-writing all of it here, I’ll send you to the UFRAW Users Guide for more information on how to use it.
Have Fun! And let me know if you have any issues. I can’t offer official support for UFRAW, but I can try to help in some cases, or direct you to someone else who can help more.
