How To Do Very Basic Stuff?

[abrogard]

I need to make a page of traceable letters for children to trace over, you know? To learn to write.

We have a sample page but the letters are too big and too much space is taken up by unnecessary drawings.

So we just want to extract the letters and resize them and fill a page with them.

Simple?

So they're conveniently in two separate rectangles so all we have to do is select the rectangles and copy them over to a blank page.

Then we can resize them and then copy them over and  over until the page is full.

Trouble is we can't get past the beginning.

We select one rectangle of letters and copy it.

Then we have opened a new blank image and we go to it and paste the rectangle into it.

That works fine. Seems to.

But when we go to copy the next rectangle it just doesn't copy.  

A blank rectangle turns up.  Nothing in it.

And when we think ahead a bit and try moving the rectangle we've got around the page it doesn't move.

We're doing something wrong and this is presumably about the most basic of all things you can do - cut, copy and paste.  Move things around to fit together.

Can someone help with some instructions on what we should be doing to get this done?

[Blighty]

I am not sure what you want the final image to look like, so this is just general info to copy one character.
Ask again if you require more info.

1. Create new blank page. Then go back to first page.

2. Use the Rectangle Tool to draw a rectangle around A. You get marching ants to represent the selection.

3. Edit > Copy or Ctrl-C

4. Change to the blank page

5. Edit > Paste or Ctrl-V

6. In the layers dialogue you get a Floating Selection. Right click on this and select To New Layer.

7. Select the Move Tool. In layers dialogue make sure A layer is selected. Move the A into position

8. Back to first page. You now have 2 options:
a) Make a new selection around the B
or b) Select the Move Tool. In the Tool Options is an item called Move. The second option is "Selection". Use that. Move the selection from the A to the B. (NB don't forget to set it back for the next time you do step 7.)

9. Repeat above steps for the B. And so on.

[abrogard]

thank you. i'll try it. all that layers stuff sounds like it might be where we were going wrong...

what do we want it to look like? just a page filled with letters for the children to trace over, that's all.

Ah... we're getting there. We've got two rectangles copied over, comprising all the letters of the alphabet. A-M and N-Z in faint writing, leaving out those drawings and the bolt print.

But now how to copy them? We tried to put a copy rectangle over the two and only one copied.

Must we make new layers all the time?

When we got those first two rectangles copied over does that mean we then had an image comprised of two layers?

Does it matter to us about these layers or we can ignore them?

[Blighty]

(11-05-2017, 11:02 AM)abrogard Wrote: all that layers stuff sounds like it might be where we were going wrong...  

Your layers dialogue should look something like this:
(The Dotted B layers is selected in the layers dialogue)

---

Edit: You could select a whole row of letters at once, instead of doing them one at a time. Depends on what you want your final page to look like.

[rich2005]

Quote:..Then we have opened a new blank image and we go to it and paste the rectangle into it.

That works fine. Seems to.

But when we go to copy the next rectangle it just doesn't copy.

A blank rectangle turns up. Nothing in it.

That is because you are pasting into the previous pasted layer which is too small. One way, select the background first, before pasting.

I would be pasting whole columns, but up to you.

A quick video https://youtu.be/j4uq7I3QmSU 5 mins gives this:



Individual letters? There are dotted outline fonts such as http://www.fontspace.com/kids-fonts/trace

Then it becomes using the text tool.

[abrogard]

Aaah....   we don't get that layers dialogue.  

I wondered about that. I was looking for it because I once saw it on photoshop years ago and had some memories of it though I never got any expertise with it.  (I've always gotten by with Paint shop pro but we don't have it now).

Yep, columns is what we're trying to copy all the time.  That's what I mean by the two step thing.  There's only two columns on the page.  We copy one and paste and then try copy the other and paste and that'd be job done just about if we could do that successfully.

Wouldn't it?

Because though the page wouldn't be full we'd no longer need to remove anything or move between pages - all we'd want to do it fill the page up with repeats of what's already there.

Edit:

Wow...   just looked at the video.    Totally excelllent.  About the best tutorial video I've ever seen, fair dink.  No distracting music.  Pleasant easy to understand voice.  No shouting or gabbling at top speed.  Clear pictures.  Step by step explanation.   And to top it off - it is OUR job that's being demnstrated !  Totally appropriate !

Thanks very much.  Beautiful.

I especially liked that bit 'what's happend, nothing there...'  because that's exactly what happens to us and we don't know how to fix it.   Until now.

We haven't got into trying it yet.  Just seen it and came rushing to print our appreciation.

Still very uncertain about layers.  You do something and then call it a layer?  Or you make a layer and then do something on it?  Or both?

We might find out when we get busy following your directions.

Thanks again.   

[rich2005]

(11-05-2017, 07:28 PM)abrogard Wrote: Aaah....   we don't get that layers dialogue.  
...snip...
Because though the page wouldn't be full we'd no longer need to remove anything or move between pages - all we'd want to do it fill the page up with repeats of what's already there.

Some short videos on setting Gimp up https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Gimp-Installation

You want the second one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQz0zCyVFJU 4 minutes That should get you to a default single window layout with a layers dialog.

Did you watch the video on your topic?  https://youtu.be/j4uq7I3QmSU 5 mins  there is a bit at the end about merging layers, duplicating and moving to fill up the space.

[Blighty]

(11-05-2017, 07:28 PM)abrogard Wrote: Aaah....   we don't get that layers dialogue.  

Are you using single window mode? This is recommended.
Windows > Single Window Mode

For the layers dialogue:
Windows > Dockable Dialogues > Layers

[abrogard]

Thanks for the later posts.... I edited a previous one of mine to show I'd just seen the video...

Perhaps edits don't show up in notifications of responding posts, I don't know.

now I'll get busy trying to follow it and with the help of those other tips I think there's a good chance we'll get there.

[rich2005]

Quote:..thanks for the later posts.... I edited a previous one of mine to show I'd just seen the video...

Guilty of not paying attention, and posting on the forum in between cooking meal