Layer Sets/Groups in GIMP 2.8! Preview Update!
Years over years GIMPusers waited for this feature - now a dream has finally become true: Layer Groups for GIMP will be available in GIMP 2.8!
Yesterday, when writing our extensive preview about GIMP's new features in version 2.8, it was still not clear if the layer groups would make it into the final release of GIMP 2.8. Our user eek then notified us of a developer comment which said that they just implemented layer groups and that they work already in a basic way. We just compiled the latest master of GIMP - and what we just saw is awesome :) You're now able to create a layer-folder - then you can create layers inside or move other layers into it. After that make the whole set of layers visible/invisible for example or move the whole group up or down in the layers dialog. This will make it possible to manage large amounts of layers in an intuitive and easy way, you can combine layers thematically.
Good examples:
* web layouts: i.e. combine all layers that are used to design a navigation/menu or make different stylings in a content area.
* photo manipulation: combine according parts of an object
Want to try it by yourself?
Follow our how-to for compiling GIMP from source for Ubuntu Linux. This howto can be used for many other linux distributions as well. Versions for Mac and Windows have to be precompiled. You maybe have to wait until someone makes it or until GIMP 2.8 is released.
Update (thanks to David Gowers - comment #2): However there is still work to be done on the layer sets. For example layer maks don't work right now and the behaviour of locking isn't perfectly clarified yet.
Yesterday, when writing our extensive preview about GIMP's new features in version 2.8, it was still not clear if the layer groups would make it into the final release of GIMP 2.8. Our user eek then notified us of a developer comment which said that they just implemented layer groups and that they work already in a basic way. We just compiled the latest master of GIMP - and what we just saw is awesome :) You're now able to create a layer-folder - then you can create layers inside or move other layers into it. After that make the whole set of layers visible/invisible for example or move the whole group up or down in the layers dialog. This will make it possible to manage large amounts of layers in an intuitive and easy way, you can combine layers thematically.
Good examples:
* web layouts: i.e. combine all layers that are used to design a navigation/menu or make different stylings in a content area.
* photo manipulation: combine according parts of an object
Want to try it by yourself?
Follow our how-to for compiling GIMP from source for Ubuntu Linux. This howto can be used for many other linux distributions as well. Versions for Mac and Windows have to be precompiled. You maybe have to wait until someone makes it or until GIMP 2.8 is released.
Update (thanks to David Gowers - comment #2): However there is still work to be done on the layer sets. For example layer maks don't work right now and the behaviour of locking isn't perfectly clarified yet.
This article is licensed under the following license: Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Austria
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