![]() ![]() ![]() They’re more or less the same when it comes to the settings available in the Tools Options panel, except the Pencil tool draws with sharp jagged edges no matter what brush hardness setting you use because it specifically doesn’t allow antialiasing (presumably in a misguided attempt to look more like a pencil). When working with brushes, selections, and in several other places throughout GIMP, you’ll often see a checkbox marked “Antialiasing”, which will ensure that any actions you take already create smooth edges and lines.Īntialiasing is a very complex technical process, but for our purposes, it’s enough to know that it’s a technique used to create the appearance of smooth edges while drawing angles using a display made entirely out of square pixels.įor a perfect demonstration, look at the difference between the Pencil tool and the Paintbrush tool. The best method for getting smooth edges and lines in GIMP is to make sure that they start out that way from the beginning. The Best Option: Antialiased Lines And Edges Blurring rough edges can’t add new detail, although it can still be useful in some situations. It must be said that you won’t be able to produce perfect results with all of these techniques, but you might be able to create a result that you’re happy with, depending on the specific image that you’re working on. However, there are some basic fundamentals of how digital images work that should make you stop and think about whether what you want to achieve is really possible. It was updated for GIMP 2.0 by Raphaël Quinet.GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and simple adjustments like this are a great example of the kind of difficult-to-describe image editing task that GIMP is usually great at. Click on the Paths tab to manage your paths. The default GIMP installation creates a dock containing the tabs “Layers, Channels, Paths, Undo”.When you are satisfied with the shape, you can use Stroke Path or Create Selection from Path.If you want to create several components without closing them, press Shift and click where you want to start a new one.If you have closed a path, you can create a new component by clicking where you want to place the first point of the new component. Press Shift while dragging a handle to ensure that the other one remains aligned. To have a smooth curve, both handles should be aligned at each point.You can also use paths to create geometrical figures. You can edit your curve, you can paint with your curve, or even save, import, and export the curve. Always before modifying any points or handles, click the handle or a point to make it active. Paths tool The Paths tool allows to create complex selections called Bzier Curves, a bit like Lasso but with all the adaptability of vectorial curves.You can control the shapes by dragging the handles around. You notice the curves between the points are not straight anymore. ![]() drag the handles out with the mousebutton still pressed down. while pressing the Ctrl key, click again on the same point and 3. The handles are not visible by default, you must drag them ‘out’ from a point. ‘What handles?’ you say… See the image above? The small circles are those familiar points we used with the box in the previous section. The curves can be modified quite flexibly by adjusting the ‘handles’ of the nearest points. Straight lines alone are a useful thing, but it’s not all. You can also use the button “Create Selection from Path” if you want to have a selection that you can fill or stroke. Of course you can have as many points as you need.įinally, click the “Stroke Path” button (in the Path Options dialog) or use the menu Edit->Stroke Path… to draw the new shape. So after creating the fourth point, press and hold the Ctrl key and click on the first point to close the path. This is not necessary anymore in 2.0 and later versions, but this is still useful to create closed shapes such as a box. In older GIMP versions (1.2.x), you had to close all paths by joining the last point of the path to the first one. The great thing is the corners don’t have to be 90 degrees. So to make a box you would specify four points, one for each corner of the box. The Path tool can make complex selections by specifying certain points that are connected together with a curve. Paths are also very useful when used with gradient fills, see Drawing Shapes with Bezier for more information on this great tool. The paths can solve the problem by using smooth mathematical curves instead your own shaky mouse trail. And since many of us GIMPers don’t have a graphics tablet, it’s not so easy to make the mouse pointer move the way you want. The rectangle- and ellipse-selections are not very flexible if you happen to need something more special. The Path tool (previously known as Bezier Selection) is a powerful tool in GIMP. Text and images Copyright (C) 2002 Tuomas Kuosmanen and may not be used without permission of the author. ![]()
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