I won't be able to get to gimp until the weekend, but I thought I'd answer my own questions, based only on two days experience. Let's see how close I come.
> What exactly is a layer? A drawing is made up of layers. Why? Each layer has attributes which are combined to produce a total visual effect. This means you can add and subtract layers, join them, etc. Some of these attributes must be the fuzzing, shadowing, smearing, etc.... the artsy stuff, which a newbie like me would not be interested in. A layer can be transparent. Perfect. When I create a text box I must also be creating a layer. > Do I move the whole layer? It looks like I can "select" the layer using the Layer dialog and move the entire layer to position the text. I'll try that tomorrow. That would be easier than cutting and pasting regions on the drawing surface, like you do with mspaint, but I got pretty good at it. What bothered me was moving the edges of the layer off screen. I don't like surprises. Hey! I couldn't find any grid. I'm used to drawing on a gridded surface. I need the grid to line up components and I can't do that using the rulers on the edges of the drawing surface, and the measuring tools have a learning curve... These learning curves are cumulative. I noticed one of the layers had a grid like background, don't know how it got there, and I couldn't make it do anything with it, so I gave up. > Do I select an object by selecting the layer? To be honest, I was expecting to be able to point at an "object" and select it by simply clicking, but it was much more complicated than that, and I wasn't sure exactly what a selection tool was or a path. There was something called a "moving selection" layer or something. I don't know how I got it, but it had something to do with the selection tools, or the "move" button, which also was highly context-sensitive, so I couldn't do much with that either. > Does it make sense to draw inside a text object? I can edit the letters in the text box. Boy was the font quality crappy, much worse than the browser. You must not be using the same font transformation the rest of the world is. I wonder if I can create layers inside a text box too, which also have graphics, like lines and circles... > Is it an object at all? I suppose, a layer is an object, but my figures do not look much like objects, I mean I cannot create them as objects, give them names, make them into components, like an arrow, with a head and tail, then instantiate the object. Of course, you'd have to do this with a svg program, but I couldn't tell what gimp was just by looking at it. There sure are alot of windows. How would I go about creating an mspaint user interface for the gimp? Can I do it with your scheme interpreter? Curious thing, AutoCad also has a Lisp interface, which none of my architect friends can use. Who inspired who? Joe http://modern-greek-verbs.tripod.com/ http://www.geocities.com/klairbab/ On 1/24/06, Joe Schaffner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Everyone, > > I have SuSE Linux 9.2 and need to do some simple line drawings I'm > doing for a book I'm translating. The site is at: > > http://www.geocities.com/klairbab/ > > I know Microsoft Paint pretty well, so you can imagine my surprise > when I opened up gimp. > > It looks like a paint program but it's not. I discovered I can draw > ellipses and rectangles by "selecting" a path then "stroking" the > path. > > Pretty neat. > > But I'm having a hell of a time selecting and moving objects around. > > It looks like each Text object is being placed its own "layer". > > What exactly is a layer? > Do I select an object by selecting the layer? > Do I move the whole layer? > Does it make sense to draw inside a text object? > Is it an object at all? > > All I need is a monocrome gif, but it would be nice if the resulting > drawing were scalable, one which would grow and shrink if the user > zooms in using the browser. > > Does gimp do that? > > I have friends who use AutoCad and are always talking about scalable, > vector graphics. AutoCad also uses layers, but I've forgotten exactly > what the were. > > Can you help? > > Thanks. > > Joe > http://modern-greek-verbs.tripod.com/ > _______________________________________________ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
