On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 17:51 +0300, John Que wrote:

Hello,

I am totally new to gimp. I am sorry if this sounds stupid-how do you draw a simple rectangle (not filled with anything) in GIMP ? how do you draw an arraow in GIMP ?

Hi,
You use the "Select rectangular regions" tool. 1st tool in the stable branch of the Gimp.

nuno

On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 18:59 +0300, John Que wrote:

Hello,
I know about the "Select rectangular regions" but the rectangle I create is with a dashed line.
Moreover, when I try to insert another rectangle the first one disappreas.
can anybody be more specific ?

John On 7/9/05, nuno alexandre wrote:

On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 17:51 +0300, John Que wrote:

Hello,

I am totally new to gimp. I am sorry if this sounds stupid-how do you draw a simple rectangle (not filled with anything) in GIMP ? how do you draw an arraow in GIMP ?

Hi,
You use the "Select rectangular regions" tool. 1st tool in the stable branch of the Gimp.

Hi,
press control+ make the selection
both control and shift to add/subtract.

PS: Please don't top post. Thanks.

nuno

John Que writes:

can anybody be more specific ?

What you're looking for is Edit->Stroke Selection.

As for arrows, I usually draw all the lines by hand (click at one end, shift-click at the other). I don't know if there's a shortcut for making good arrowheads.

...Akkana

On Saturday 09 July 2005 10:59 am, John Que wrote:

Hello,
I know about the "Select rectangular regions" but the rectangle I create is with a dashed line.
Moreover, when I try to insert another rectangle the first one disappreas.
can anybody be more specific ?

To *draw* a rectangle, rather than just *select* a rectangular region:

Step 1: Select a rectangular region.

Step 2: Under the Edit menu (you can right-click to bring up a menu), select "Stroke selection."

Step 3 (in GIMP 2.2 or later): choose stroke style and width in the dialog box that will then appear; then click "Stroke" in the dialog box. (In earlier GIMP versions, the Stroke menu item will automatically use the current settings for the brush or pencil tool, if I recall correctly).

In some future GIMP version, maybe there will be actual rectangle- and oval-drawing tools, so this clunky multi-step procedure isn't needed any more? :o) Or are there already, and I just don't know about them?

David McClamrock

wouldn't GFig? work for making rectangles easily?

- D3l'ri@@|\|

Hi,

John Que writes:

I know about the "Select rectangular regions" but the rectangle I create is with a dashed line.

Looking through the basic tutorials is asked too much?

http://gimp.org/tutorials/Borders_On_Selections/

Sven

On Sat, Jul 09, 2005 at 11:50:51AM -0500, David McClamrock wrote:

In some future GIMP version, maybe there will be actual rectangle- and oval-drawing tools, so this clunky multi-step procedure isn't needed any more? :o) Or are there already, and I just don't know about them?

since gimp-1.2 the developers have been really good about working out the best logic and such before introducing it into the gimp tree. while not an excuse, it might help to understand the reason that it still takes several more steps in gimp than it does with other software.

you can cut down on some of these steps, especially if you are using the same shapes over and over again. while the following information is starting to go off-topic for this thread, it might be useful to future development for everyone to see some of the step saving features that are already there in gimp.

if you have a shape selected that you are fairly certain you will use again, you can convert this shape into a path via Dialogs -->Paths. i have to search the tooltips on the buttons to find it. there is a button for Selection to Path and another one for Path to Selection. if you make a collection of shapes that are useful for certain uses, you can collect them on a one layered image and save them as xcf. the paths are remembered and handled much like the gimp handles layers. in the paths dialog, you can turn the view of the path on and off with the same view icon that is found in the layers dialog.

when you want to use your saved paths again, all you need to do is to make your new image and add the xcf with the saved paths as a new layer. this effectively imports all of those saved shapes into the new image.

gimp is still a little weird about stroking. some shapes are better stroked as selections, others are better stroked as paths. well, maybe i have not tried it lately to be able to confidently say this. best (as always) to try both and see which works better for you. that is one thing that gimp has historically done much better than all the rest: Edit-->Undo. if you have worked with other applications and worked with them for a very long time, you might not understand this as an option or how powerful it can be in learning the best way to work with gimp.

carol

Hi,

David McClamrock writes:

In some future GIMP version, maybe there will be actual rectangle- and oval-drawing tools, so this clunky multi-step procedure isn't needed any more?

If you see a need for these tools, feel free to scratch your itch and add them. If you need help, please ask on the gimp-developer mailing-list.

Sven

On Saturday 09 July 2005 17:42, Akkana Peck wrote:

As for arrows, I usually draw all the lines by hand (click at one end, shift-click at the other). I don't know if there's a shortcut for making good arrowheads.

not as far as i know.
a simple way to make them is to use the square selection tool. open a new image (say 100x100)
draw a square with that tool copy and paste it as a new layer and fill with colour (or gradient or whatever). rotate it by 45 degrees, select half of that square with the square selection tool (say the complete left hand side to the middle)and hit cut.

sammi