I'm a GIMP noobie and so have been following the Simple Floating Logo tutorial on the web site and struggling to apply it to my GIMP 2.2.6.

As a learning exercise, I set out to create a banner. After having created a background layer I set up a text layer.

A secondary question is how to anchor it. When I do C-h, nothing changes. Is anchoring necessary in a simple project like this, and how do I know one layer is anchored upon another. One text seems to iply that in the Layers Dialog, to the right of the eye icon, the button acquires an anchor symbol. If I click tha button, I get a link symbol. I mention this only because it may be relevant to my primary question.

After having created the text layer (and anchored it?), I want to do a color inversion. First I select the layer in the Layers Dialog (don't know how to do it yet from keyboard), and with the image frame focused, I type C-i. All this does is to give the background a dotted outline and the text layer a mobile wavy outline.

If instead I use the menu and do Layer,Colors,Invert, the black text turns the color of its background (white) and so disappears because the area around the text does not turn black. I should be getting white text on a black ground.

Sorry for such an elementary question.

Haines Brown

On 7/6/05, Haines Brown wrote:

As a learning exercise, I set out to create a banner. After having created a background layer I set up a text layer.

A secondary question is how to anchor it. When I do C-h, nothing

If memory serves me right, the latest versions no longer need text layers to be anchored. They will be stored as separate layers, so that the text can be re-edited. Normally, this serves most purposes, except for what you're about to do...

After having created the text layer (and anchored it?), I want to do a color inversion. First I select the layer in the Layers Dialog (don't

If instead I use the menu and do Layer,Colors,Invert, the black text turns the color of its background (white) and so disappears because the area around the text does not turn black. I should be getting white text on a black ground.

Said filter works only on the selected layer (text). Select the background layer and repeat, to invert that, too. This way, you have the option of inverting only a certain part of a picture.

Your tutorial is outdated, and doesn't accommodate for new features introduced in the 2.x series. [That said, I think I was using the anchor method of adding text but a year ago for a grade school project, and when I came back in the fall and reinstalled The GIMP, text had been implemented as seprate editable layers. Also, moving, resizing, scaling, skewing, or otherwise editing a text layer turns it into a graphic layer.]

If you really want to "anchor" the layer, make sure that the text and background layers are the only visible ones (if they're the only ones you're working with, this is irrelivant, but in more advanced editing this becomes important), then right click the image, search around in the menus and click "Merge Visible Layers".

If you _really_ want to lose all the transparency data, and make e.g. inversion of the whole image easy, then you can simply flatten the image -- but you'll lose any invisible layers and you won't e.g. be able to move around various components.

Also, for your tutorial: It may be easier to invert your background, then change your foreground/pen color into the inverted of what you would have chosen above, and then create text that is already inverted. Works for anything that you know how to find the inverted colour of (e.g. white for black, and vice versa).

It may be worth reading the Changelog between 1.x and 2.x series, and/or the 2.x documentation. 1.x documentation needs to have the instructions "converted" into 2.x instructions on-the-fly, so if you're good at fumbling around and figuring that kind of thing out with something new, then you can try looking at the 1.x docs also.

Good luck learning how to use the Gimp! IIRC, they say it's easier to ask then to spend days fumbling around. If you can fumble around in seconds though... *shrugs*

--
~Mike

On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 03:15:54PM -0400, Haines Brown wrote:

I'm a GIMP noobie and so have been following the Simple Floating Logo tutorial on the web site and struggling to apply it to my GIMP 2.2.6.

As a learning exercise, I set out to create a banner. After having created a background layer I set up a text layer.

it was written for gimp-1.0; i thas been ported a little forward but still reflects gimp-1.2

A secondary question is how to anchor it. When I do C-h, nothing changes. Is anchoring necessary in a simple project like this, and how do I know one layer is anchored upon another. One text seems to iply that in the Layers Dialog, to the right of the eye icon, the button acquires an anchor symbol. If I click tha button, I get a link symbol. I mention this only because it may be relevant to my primary question.

i am curious where you found the keystrokes for this?

perhaps it would be good to stick to the menu entries and try to make the layers shown match your layers. meaning, if it is a layer of blurred white text on a black background, look in the menues to see the best way to make a layer that looks like that.

the text tool has changed and makes a different type of layer now.

can you find the key that merges a layer down?

After having created the text layer (and anchored it?), I want to do a color inversion. First I select the layer in the Layers Dialog (don't know how to do it yet from keyboard), and with the image frame focused, I type C-i. All this does is to give the background a dotted outline and the text layer a mobile wavy outline.

again, you are asking questions using keystrokes.

since the tutorial was written using menu entries, it might be easier to identify where you are at in those written words if you use the menu entry and the words from the tutorial.

If instead I use the menu and do Layer,Colors,Invert, the black text turns the color of its background (white) and so disappears because the area around the text does not turn black. I should be getting white text on a black ground.

the text tool has changed since the tutorial was ported to gimp-1.2. if you write to quintet@gamers.org, you can get a long apology from him to help you to understand as much as i do about the demise of the web team.

Sorry for such an elementary question.

it would be easier if you asked a more elementary question.

i am curious where you found the need to translate the text into keystrokes?

carol