After completing a couple of other articles I have been asked to create one for a tutorial using GIMP.

GIMP is free editing software and once you know how to use it, it can be just as good as photoshop.

In this tutorial I will show you the basic tools in GIMP.

 

First you will need to open your image. This can be done one of two ways. The first is to go to File  - Open.

The second way is to simply drag and drop your image onto the blank opening screen.

Once your image is open you will see a Tool Box down the right hand side of the screen. 

These are what the tools do. I am going left to right.

1. Rectangle Select Tool - Select a  rectangular shape

2. Ellipse Select Tool - Select a circular shape

3. Free Select Tool - Used when you want to select an odd shape

4. Fuzzy Select Tool  - Used when you want to select an area of the same colour 

5. Select By Colour tool - Used To select an area of similar colour

6. Scissors Select Tool - Used to select difficult shapes

7. Foreground Selection Tool - Used to select the foreground 

8. Path Tool - Use to select and edit paths

9. Colour Picker - Use to select a certain colour and then use it to paint

10. Magnifying Tool - Used to magnify an area to work on in detail

11. Measuring Tool  - Used to measure lengths an angles

12. Move Tool - Used to move a layer or selected area 

13. Alignment Tool - Used to align layers or shapes 

14. Crop Tool - Used to remove unwanted edges to your image

15. Rotate Tool - Rotate an image, layer or selection

16. Scale Tool  - Used to change the size of a selection or layer

17. Shear Tool - Used to change the angle of your image

18. Perspective Tool - Used to change the perspective 

19. Flip Tool - Used to flip an image, layer or selection

20. Text Tool - Used to add text to an image 

21. Fill Bucket Tool - Used to fill a selection with colour

22. Gradient Fill Tool - Used to fill a selection with a gradient colour

23. Pencil Tool - Draw using a hard brush

24. Paint Brush Tool - Draw using Different sized brushes, colours and effects

25. Eraser Tool - Erase areas of unwanted work

26. Airbrush Tool - Used to paint with a variable amount of pressure 

27. Ink Tool - Used for calligraphy style painting 

28. Clone Tool - Used to replace part of your image with another 

29. Healing Tool - Improve image irregularities 

30. Perspective Clone Tool - Used to clone an image after apply perspective tool

31. Blur/Sharpen Tool - Used to blur or sharpen part of your image 

32. Smudge Tool - Use to blend part of our image 

33. Dodge/Burn Tool - Used to lighten or darken part of your image.

 

Then there is the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Here are what each of the options do;

File  - Save and open your images. Print and edit page setup

Edit - Undo and redo the history. Cut, copy and paste objects.

Select - When you make a selection you can go here and invert the selection, select you entire image and deselect your selection. You can also feather, sharpen and add a border to the edges of the selection.

View - This is where you adjust the screen options. So you can ad gridlines, rulers and selections. You can also ad or take away menus and tool bars.

Image  - Here you can change the size of your image and canvas. You can also rotate and flip your image.

Layer - Here you can edit the layer options. You can duplicate a layer or merge layers together. You can also change the layer colour and transparency. To see the current layers click Ctrl - L.

Colours - This is the option I use most. Here you can change the colour, contrast, hue, and saturation of you image or selection. You can also adjust the curves and levels of your image to create more dimension.

Tools  - These are the tools which are on the tool bar. They are just repeated.

Filters  - Here you can add various effects and objects. You can add lighting effects, blur, sharpen or reduce noise in your image.

Here is how the selection tools may be used.

 

Once you have selected the area you can do various things such as; 

- Change the size of the object 

- rotate the object 

 - or by using the Colours option, at on the menu bar, you can adjust the colour.

 

Thanks for looking at my Tutorial.

Thanks 

Jack