How To Use The Gimp Layers Palette
Easy Tutorial For Working With Layers In the Free Image Editor
Sep 21, 2009
Gimp is a powerful free and open source image editor that can be downloaded and used by Graphic Designers free of charge. While not having the all out power and functionality of Adobe Photoshop, it does offer a broad range of tools that can make it a viable alternative for Graphic Designers on a budget.
One of the most useful tools in Gimp's arsenal is the Layers palette, which will be a familiar concept to those with experience of Adobe Photoshop. This allows a Designer to build up an image using lots of different and separate elements.
One easy analogy for understanding how layers work is to compare each layer to a sheet of acetate. If a different image is applied to each sheet of acetate, these can then be placed one on top of another to produce a composite image with the lower layers being visible through transparent areas of the layers above.
The Gimp Layers Palette
The Gimp Layers palette will usually open by default when Gimp is launched, but if it's not visible it can be opened by going to Windows > Layers, Channels, Paths, Undo.
The palette contains tabs to allow several features to be controlled from the one place, but the focus for this article is just the Gimp Layers tab.
There is a small button situated at the top right hand side of the tab allows the palette to be configured and personalised and Graphic Designers that use Gimp may find they prefer the Gimp Layers palette to be set up in a specific way to ease their workflow.
Gimp Layers Palette Tools
The first tool is the drop down menu that controls the layers' mode and this affects how a layer interacts with layers that appear below it in the stacking order. There are a wide range of options that can produce hugely varying effects and Graphic Designers that use Gimp Layers should spend some time experimenting with these different options.
Below that is the Opacity slider which can be used to control whether lower layers can be seen through higher layers. The Lock button below the slider is used to make all the transparent pixels in a layer remain transparent even if a paint brush is applied to them. This can be useful for changing the color of part of an image without changing the shape of parts of the image.
The main part of the Gimp Layers palette is the layers themselves. This shows the current stacking order of all the layers in an image and the layer order can be changed by clicking on a layer and dragging it up or down the palette. The order can also be changed by selecting a layer and clicking the arrow buttons in the bottom bar of the palette.
A layer can be hidden by clicking on the 'eye' graphic that appears to the left of each layer and clicking at this point again will make the layer visible. The button to the right of the layer visibility control can be used to link two or more layers together so that if one is moved or scaled, linked layers also move or scale relative to the first.
A new layer can be added to the Gimp Layers palette by clicking on the button at the left of the bottom bar. The fourth button from the left can be used to duplicate a layer.
When a new element is pasted into an image, it can be merged with an existing layer by clicking the anchor button or assigned to a new layer on its own by clicking the new layer button as above.
The last control option in the Gimp Layers palette is the trash can button that can be used to delete a selected layer.
The Gimp Layers palette offers Graphic Designers a wide range of possibilities for producing exciting and striking images and time spent experimenting with these options will lead to far more professional results.
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