Having trouble using tools -- how to select and apply...?

[rhimbo]

Hello all,

I'm posting my question here because I inferred that a response from rich2005 on the gimpusers.com forum suggested that I do so.
:-) 

Here is the original post and comments:
http://www.gimpusers.com/forums/gimp-use...ssage86876

I can't seem to get the smudge and blur tools to do as expected.  I can't get my selected area to appear "smudged" like the samples I've seen.  

Generally, I think, as a novice, I don't understand how to select and use a tool.  I think I'm doing the steps in the wrong order (selecting an area, selecting the tool, performing the tool's function).  

Could someone give me some pointers or point me to the documentation.  I love Gimp but I must say (don't mean to offend anyone) that the documentation leaves a lot to be desired.  I often try the steps exactly as they are described in documentation and can't get the expected result.

Many thanks,

[Ofnuts]

(04-13-2017, 07:19 PM)rhimbo Wrote: Hello all,

I'm posting my question here because I inferred that a response from rich2005 on the gimpusers.com forum suggested that I do so.
:-) 

Here is the original post and comments:
http://www.gimpusers.com/forums/gimp-use...ssage86876

I can't seem to get the smudge and blur tools to do as expected.  I can't get my selected area to appear "smudged" like the samples I've seen.  

Generally, I think, as a novice, I don't understand how to select and use a tool.  I think I'm doing the steps in the wrong order (selecting an area, selecting the tool, performing the tool's function).  

Could someone give me some pointers or point me to the documentation.  I love Gimp but I must say (don't mean to offend anyone) that the documentation leaves a lot to be desired.  I often try the steps exactly as they are described in documentation and can't get the expected result.

Many thanks,

The rule is simple: Gimp acts on pixels that are 1) in the "active layer", and 2) in the selection (if there is no selection then all pixels are selected). The selection is global to the image (in other words, not associated to a specific layer). A layer can be smaller than the canvas (for instance text layers are restricted to the size necessary to contain the text). If the active layer and the selection have no intersection, nothing happens.

Smudge and blur are special animals. Their effect may not be very visible with the standard settings (try boosting the "Rate").

"(selecting an area, selecting the tool, performing the tool's function)." is the right order, but there may be a few things to check (for instance, Blur and Smudge don't seem to work in color-indexed images, so what is the image mode (see the title bar) and does "Image>Mode>RGB" fixes the problem?)

[rich2005]

Some good points that Ofnuts raises, image format etc.

It is all in the Gimp documentation..somewhere

It can be a bit daunting if you are new to Gimp.

Assuming that there is nothing out of the ordinary about your image. Rather than lots of writing and screenshots sometimes a short video how-to helps, Try this one only 2 min 30 secs. It should get you started or bring up further questions.

[rhimbo]

Ofnuts and rich2005... thank you. I got it to work. I now think it worked prior to my post. But I thought I had done something wrong as my pixelation and smudge did not look nearly as good as rich2005's samples. I believe I had the wrong pixel density (size) selected and the wrong brush selected for pixelization and smudge blurs, respectively.

---

One other question guys, on A) location of docked panels, and, B) tool de-selection...

A) I watched the video that rich2005 posted. I put my window in single-window mode as suggested. How do I get a menu to be docked where I want in the window, that is, left side, right side, top or bottom. I tried dragging, right-clicking, double-clicking, etc. I could not get it to move.

B) How to de-select ALL tools so the pointer is the one that's "active" when Gimp starts up (the simple arrow pointer).

Thanks again,

[Ofnuts]

B) you can't, there is no "pointer", so there is always some tool selected. The most innocuous is the Measure tool (). The Move tool also acts a bit like a selector tool.

[rich2005]

Quote:One other question guys, on A) location of docked panels...

The docks and tabs can be dragged around to suit. I just added a video about this bottom of the page here:

http://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Gimp-In...202#pid202


It is in Win10 but equally applicable to OSX and linux.

[rhimbo]

(04-14-2017, 06:43 AM)Ofnuts Wrote: B) you can't, there is no "pointer", so there is always some tool selected. The most innocuous is the Measure tool (). The Move tool also acts a bit like a selector tool.

OK, thanks.  Previously, I noticed that, upon starting up Gimp, the cursor was a standard pointer.  But today (and maybe I just didn't notice it recently) the pointer upon startup was the airbrush tool.

---

(04-14-2017, 09:52 AM)rich2005 Wrote:

Quote:One other question guys, on A) location of docked panels...

The docks and tabs can be dragged around to suit. I just added a video about this bottom of the page here:

http://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Gimp-In...202#pid202


It is in Win10 but equally applicable to OSX and linux.

Thank you, rich2005.  I got it.  I'm getting the hang of it, slowly but surely....
:-)

Thanks, gentlemen, for your help....

[Ofnuts]

(04-14-2017, 10:36 PM)rhimbo Wrote:

(04-14-2017, 06:43 AM)Ofnuts Wrote: B) you can't, there is no "pointer", so there is always some tool selected. The most innocuous is the Measure tool (). The Move tool also acts a bit like a selector tool.

OK, thanks.  Previously, I noticed that, upon starting up Gimp, the cursor was a standard pointer.  But today (and maybe I just didn't notice it recently) the pointer upon startup was the airbrush tool.

IIRC in the default setup the initial tool in the brush. This changes/can be changed depending on what you set in Edit>Preferences>Tool options.

[rhimbo]

(04-15-2017, 06:48 AM)Ofnuts Wrote:

(04-14-2017, 10:36 PM)rhimbo Wrote:

(04-14-2017, 06:43 AM)Ofnuts Wrote: B) you can't, there is no "pointer", so there is always some tool selected. The most innocuous is the Measure tool (). The Move tool also acts a bit like a selector tool.

OK, thanks.  Previously, I noticed that, upon starting up Gimp, the cursor was a standard pointer.  But today (and maybe I just didn't notice it recently) the pointer upon startup was the airbrush tool.

IIRC in the default setup the initial tool in the brush. This changes/can be changed depending on what you set in Edit>Preferences>Tool options.

Thanks, Ofnuts....