how to select shapes with the Gimp

[TreeHugger]

I'm totally totally impressed by gimp. I'm doing a logo for my new website, or a selection of logos to see which i like best.

i see in the archives here that there's quite a few people using photoshop. is that available on linux? not that i want to pay, just surprised that's all. now i've got to know gimp, i don't need anything else, at least for what i did so far.

so what's with gimp? Why the kinky name? has it got anything to do with the gimp in pulp fiction?

the reason why i'm posting isn't actually because i fancy myself as a poet or because i want to hook up with other kinky gimp users, but actually because there's something i don't know how to do.

so far for my logos, what i am doing is going to a site like artposters.com to find an image of what I want to base my logo on. Like say a ship. I open up the image in gimp and make a layer for the hull, a layer for the fore sail, a layer for the aft sail etc.

Right now I'm doing the hull. it was simple enough to delete the rest of the image and just leave the hull. but the problem now is that the hull is actually lots of different colours, and i just want to make it black. i mean, this is a logo, not a photo.

i can't find a way of selecting the whole hull shape, which i want to fill with black. It's just a layer with a hull image on transparent.

i could do it painstakingly with a pencil or brush, pixel by pixel. but can someone tell me if there's a better way.

and anyone reckon they can do better than my gimp poetry?

[mrBen]

There is no Linux version of Photoshop.

You can run the Windows version using Codeweavers Crossover program, or you can try under WINE.

GIMP = GNU Image Manipulation Program

There are lots of selection tools in the GIMP, one of the better GIMPers here might be able to suggest the best one to use......

[BaVinic]

I have Photoshop 5.5 running under Wine, it runs fine with no problems, but now that I have started using Gimp, I never use it anymore. As far as making it all black, have you tried converting the photo to B&W? then just touch up what needs to be touched up.

BaVinic

[TreeHugger]

B&W sounds good. How would I do that?

[BaVinic]

You know what, i really don't know?!? I just tried to do it myself, and for the life of me I cannot figure it out, I can do greyscale, but not B&W odd.

I will have to check into this :D and get back to ya.

BaVinic

[Hayl]

TreeHugger,

We changed the Subject of your post. We tried to PM you but it looks like you have the PM function turned off. Please review the posting guidelines regarding posting subjects that relate to the question being asked.

The posting guidelines are in a sticky post at the top of each firum.

Next time, we will delete any non-compliant posts if they have not been replied to yet and we will lock non-compliant posts that have already had replies.

[TreeHugger]

Originally posted by Hayl
We changed the Subject of your post.

guess you didn't like my poetry. i have to admit the salacious undertones were quite out of character for my normally restrained posting behaviour :o

perhaps i should change my medication.

But back on topic again re using the 'select contiguous regions' tool, the result I get is that it picks out bizarre randomly shaped regions within the area I want, and never yet the whole region I want.
:(

[TreeHugger]

hi tanna,
it actually got to the point where 'select contiguous areas' was selecting single pixels. I'd done it a dozen times and then I gave up. :mad:

[MasonS]

Go to the 'Layers, Channels, and Paths" dialog, select the 'Paths' tab, create a new path, draw a path around the hull...then just click the 'Path to selection' button. It's a dotted circle.

(All this is in the Paths tab.)

[TreeHugger]

hi masons,
bear with me for a little, would you, because I'm having a hard time following your suggestion. I just keep ending up with new paths in the paths tab, but without any changes occurring. I'm obviously missing something here.

So I've got my hull in one of my layers, the layer is selected. Just the hull on a transparent layer.

I go to the paths tab and create a path.

Now I don't know how I should go about drawing a path around the hull. I've not used paths before, or at least not conciously. Anyway I took a guess and drew a rectangle around the hull.

That achieved nothing when I clicked on 'path to selection', so I tried it with the bezier selector. I drew a big shape around the hull. When I clicked 'path to selection', my new shape appeared in the little path thumbnail, but still I couldn't work out how to take it any further to fill the hull with black.

I was sort of hoping the shape would on command 'shrink wrap' to the outline of the hull.

I can't see any dotted circles at any point.

What am I missing?

cheers,
Adam

[MasonS]

It's not going to be as simple as shrink-wrapping the hull. When you use the 'select contiguous regions' tool that's what you're doing, but unless the edges are sharply defined and the color relatively even, this is more trouble than it's worth.

What I'm suggesting to you requires you to draw a bezier path around the hull. They're vector based and so you can get at least draw a nice smooth line and fix any rogue pixels afterwards. So:

You were right to use the bezier selection. And it appears you drew a path properly. You just can't find the button for 'path to selection' I suppose so here is a screenshot.

Actually...I see now that you can also right-click in the Paths dialog and select it from there...so do as you will.

[TreeHugger]

OK now I'm getting somewhere. Tanna, it's the situation with the 'select contiguous region' like masons said - the color just isn't even enough.

Anyway, I created a path around the hull using the bezier selector, but now i've got a problem using the bezier selector. It's great for doing straight lines, since it just joins up the previous mark with the mark you've just made. And, it's great for doing curved lines because the bezier curve can be made to fit practically any single curve in one direction.

However with my hull, it's got about 6 straight edges and about 5 curves. When I've just done a curve though and move onto the next edge, I can't figure out how to get the bezier selector to let me do a simple straight line. It always creates a curve again. Is there something I can do to tell the bezier selector to give me a simple straight line to my next point?

Would be :cool:

[MasonS]

To move the bezier handles then you're click, hold and drag; to make a corner point, just click and release. It's somewhat difficult to get a handle on it if you've never worked with them before but it's a skill you can use in many, many different programs.

Here's another screenshot.

[TreeHugger]

so the skill is in working out where exactly on the shape you should put your points, before you start?

(nice screenshot - self-portrait?)

[MasonS]

You're not going to want to plan it out like that before you start. I just meant that when you place a point you'll learn how the points react to each other and you'll be quite efficient. It's easy to change them, too! The skill is not getting frustrated and giving up...just like with Linux! :)

[TreeHugger]

hmm, it's all a bit of an art form though. I know what Spock would have to say about it.

[TreeHugger]

actually I'm getting the hang of this now. I have just discovered it's alot easier to do curves with two points instead of one - having a point in the middle of the curve. :)

thanks for your help guys.