luke@chipcity.com.au wrote:

I'm trying to draw a flowchart in Gimp.

Use the right tool for the job: Dia

HTH, Michael

On Sat, Jul 02, 2005 at 03:36:18PM +0930, luke@chipcity.com.au wrote:

Hi,

I'm new to this list.
I'll start off by saying that I've used adobe and macromedia products extensively.

you are forgiven for this.

the best thing to understand from the beginning is that many of the things that gimp does, adobe and macromedia products will do the same things for you, they just keep many of the intermediate steps invisible from you.

the other thing that should be understood is that gimp works primarily with pixels; there is slowly being added some vector type functionality... the word "slowly" is the operative word there.

gimp is very much more functional, especially on pixels than photoshop5 was. probably more than photoshop6 which had to steal functionality from illustrator to be better than gimp.

and, all this information i share with you now is based on rumor and inuendo on my part. now is your chance to forgive me.

I'm trying to draw a flowchart in Gimp. The first problem I have is that there is no rectangle 'draw' tool. So I used the selection tool, then set the line to solid, however in order to move the rectangle I have to select the area around it and move that. That can't be the way :-(

the nicest way to draw shapes with gimp (right now) is to use the selection tools (shift will constrain them to be circles or squares) and with the Paths dialog, convert the selection to a path and then stroke the path.

Secondly I'd like to create a rectangle and put text in there and group the two objects or layers.
Is there a way to do this?

in the layers dialog, you can lock layers together.

I'm pretty sure these are basic questions and I tried searching the archives, however the search tool didn't work,

the making shapes question was answered very recently in a much more concise way than i did here.

following some of or all of the tutorials found on http://www.gimp.org will probably be the best approach to take when first becoming friendly with gimp.

your help would be welcome :-)

feel free to ask questions. it will be easier to answer them if you describe what you want to do in terms of a process instead of describing them in terms of other software applications.

and no, we do not have layer effects yet.

welcome, carol

On Sat, 2 Jul 2005 luke@chipcity.com.au wrote:

Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 15:36:18 +0930 From: luke@chipcity.com.au
To: gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Subject: [Gimp-user] drawing a simple rectangle

Hi,

I'm new to this list.

I'll start off by saying that I've used adobe and macromedia products extensively.

Ah, exploring alternatives before Adobe kills them off entirely.

I'm trying to draw a flowchart in Gimp.

There are other more appropriate tools for this but if you are determined to use the GIMP I'll try and suggest some ways you might do it.

If you want to draw Flowcharts Dia is probably the best choice. http://gnome.org/projects/dia/

You might also be interested to try Inkscape which is a mulitpurpose vector graphics editor. http://inkscape.org

You could say Inkscape is closer to Macromedia Freehand and the GNU Image Manipulation program is closer to Macromedia Fireworks although that is a terrible generalisation and although they are intended for similar purposes both do things quite differently from what you might be used to with Macromedia products.

(If you like KDE then Kivio might be worth looking at. Kivio is the KDE answer to Microsoft Visio and part of their koffice suite. OpenOffice.org Draw might also be worth trying.)

For drawing a Flowchart I would certainly recommend you try using a different application but I hope you will find other reasons to use the GNU Image Manipulation Program.

The first problem I have is that there is no rectangle 'draw' tool.

Me too when I first started. The standard workaround is to create a selection and then choose "Edit, Stroke" to colour it in.

There is some interest in adding standard drawing tools but it is not a top priority. (There should be a bug report tracking this issue but I spent a few minutes and didn't manage to find the appropriate report.)

So I used the selection tool, then set the line to solid, however in order to move the rectangle I have to select the area around it and move that. That can't be the way :-(

Also Gfig is another vector graphics tool built into the gimp and can be found under "Filters, Render, Gfig"

It might be worth your while to explore the Path Tools (it looks like a Pen nib pointing upwards).

Secondly I'd like to create a rectangle and put text in there and group the two objects or layers.
Is there a way to do this?

Grouping of objects and Layers is more something you should expect in a vector graphics application. I expect you will find either Dia or Inkscape more suitable choices.

I'm pretty sure these are basic questions and I tried searching the archives, however the search tool didn't work,

Rather than using the onsite tools I will often use a search engine.

your help would be welcome :-)

Hoped that helps. Thanks for giving something else a try instead of Macromedia.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape http://inkscape.org Abiword http://www.abisource.com
Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/
Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org

Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/