GIMP 2.8 Tutorial: Which Tool Should I Use to Crop a Photo? — Part 3

GIMP Casual User Series — The Ellipse Select Tool

Do you have minimal experience with GIMP, but would like to know more about the best tools to use for trimming photos? Are you interested in learning about the various options that make these tools easier to use? Would you like a method for making a decision about which tool is best for which type of job? If so, read on for an exploration of the third tool in this series— the Ellipse Select Tool.

Giraffes Cropping Grass

For this article, as in the previous ones, I'll be using GIMP 2.8 and a photo of some giraffes, which you can download by clicking on the picture. (When you get to the full-sized image, drag it and drop it on your desktop.) It is assumed that you have some basic knowledge about GIMP, such as how to invoke it and load an image, how to navigate the menus, and how to save a file. By the end of this article you should have a good feel for using the Ellipse Select Tool, along with all of its options that are applicable to cropping photographs.

GIMP 2.8 Tutorial: Which Tool Should I Use to Crop a Photo? — Part 2

GIMP Casual User Series — The Rectangle Select Tool

Do you have minimal experience with GIMP, but would like to know more about the best tools to use for trimming photos? Are you interested in learning about the various options that make these tools easier to use? Would you like a method for making a decision about which tool is best for which type of job? If so, read on for an exploration of the second tool in this series— the Rectangle Select Tool.

Giraffes Cropping Grass

For this article, as in the previous one, I'll be using GIMP 2.8 and a photo of some giraffes, which you can download by clicking on the picture. (When you get to the full-sized image, drag it and drop it on your desktop.) It is assumed that you have some basic knowledge about GIMP, such as how to invoke it and load an image, how to navigate the menus, and how to save a file. By the end of this article you should have a good feel for using the Rectangle Select Tool, along with all of its options that are applicable to cropping photographs.

GIMP 2.8 Tutorial: Which Tool Should I Use to Crop a Photo? — Part 1

GIMP Casual User Series — The Crop Tool

Do you have minimal experience with GIMP, but would like to know more about the best tools to use for trimming photos? Are you interested in learning about the various options that make these tools easier to use? Would you like a method for making a decision about which tool is best for which type of job? If so, read on for an exploration of the first tool in this series — the Crop Tool.

Giraffes cropping grass

For this article, I'll be using GIMP 2.8 and a photo of some giraffes, which you can download by clicking on the picture. (When you get to the full-sized image, drag it and drop it on your desktop.) It is assumed that you have some basic knowledge about GIMP, such as how to invoke it and load an image, how to navigate the menus, and how to save a file. By the end of this article you should have a good feel for using the Crop Tool, along with all of its options that are applicable to cropping photographs.

GIMP Tutorial: How to Make a Hexagonal Pattern

Introduction

I've always been fascinated by patterns. Over the past year I've been playing around with creating patterns from pieces of photographs. This is a fun exercise and can result in interesting, and sometimes beautiful, images.

In a previous tutorial I described how to make rectangular patterns. In this tutorial I'll explain how to make a hexagonal tile from a triangular cutout from a photograph and then show how to tile multiple hexagons to make a repeating pattern.

This tutorial is broken into the following sections:

• How to Create an Equilateral Triangle
• How to Create a Triangular Tile Piece
• How to Create a Hexagonal Tile
• How to Create a Hexagonal Tiled Pattern
• Examples of Hexagonal Tiled Patterns

GIMP 2.6.11 will be used for the main part of the work, but Inkscape 0.47 will be used at the beginning because it has a useful tool for quickly creating geometric objects.

See Also: If you are interested only in creating a hexagonal shape in GIMP, see How to Create Regular Polygons in GIMP.

GIMP Tutorial: How to Make a Rectangular Pattern

Introduction

One of the definitions of pattern is "an artistic or decorative design". Throughout history humans have created patterns to decorate buildings, objects, and clothing. There are many different types of and structures to patterns. I find patterns that repeat in some form and that can be tiled to cover any size area to be endlessly fascinating.

Making patterns from pieces of photographs can be lots of fun. I'm often surprised at the beautiful images that result. I'm especially fond of making patterns from feathers. In this step by step tutorial I will show you how to cut an image from a photograph and create a basic rectangular tile with it that you can then use to make a repeating pattern.

How to Create a Tile Piece

First, load the picture of your choice into GIMP. (I'm using version 2.6.11.) I've chosen a picture I took of a turkey.

How to Create a Vector Clown Fish with Inkscape

Capturing a Fish

I don't remember when or where the idea of a clown fish in clown makeup came to me, but the idea took hold of me and wouldn't let go until I created one. The first thing I did was fire up Inkscape and use the Bezier Curve tool to draw a vector object for each part of the fish that I wanted to color separately. All of the objects are closed paths. Here's the final set of objects that I came up with.

The Further Adventures of a Vector Graphics Newbie

Beyond Straight Edges — The Curvy Side of SVG

After creating my first vector design of a paper bag, which was mostly straight edges, I decided for my next Inkscape project to create a canvas bag, which would be a bit more complex due to curves on the handles and the wrinkled sides of the bag. I found a suitable canvas bag image to use as a model and got to work.