Rectangle Select Tool in Free Image Editor Gimp
An Introductory Look at the Features of One of Gimp's Tools
Feb 11, 2009
Gimp is a free open source image editor that can be downloaded from the Gimp website and there is some more information about Gimp at this Suite101 Overview of Gimp article. The Rectangle Select Tool is a useful multi-purpose tool that can be used to achieve a range of results.
The tool is found in the top left of the Gimp's Toolbox, the same position as the Marquee Tool in Adobe Photoshop's Toolbox. The two tools are largely equivalent.
The tool can be used to draw rectangles, but is referred to as a selection tool because the the tool produces an outline and all the pixels within the outline are selected and can be operated on in various ways.
Basic Use
The Rectangle Select Tool is used by clicking and dragging the cursor until the rectangle is as required and the mouse button is then released. The outer edge of the rectangular selection has a dashed appearance, but unlike the dashed outline of the page, the selection outline is constantly moving.
This selection can then be used to color pixels, select existing colored pixels or crop an image.
Intersection Modes
The default mode is a single rectangle that allows the drawing of rectangles that don't interact with others.
The second mode of two rectangles allows a user to draw more than one rectangle and the pixels of both selections will be combined into a single selection and these maybe combined to produce more complex shapes.
The third mode allows a user to remove part of an existing selection. If a rectangle is drawn using this mode and it overlays an existing selection, the new area will be subtracted from the existing selection.
The final mode allows a user to draw a selection over an existing selection and only those pixels that were selected by both selections will remain selected.
Other Options
Feather Edges allows users to produce selections with soft edges. These can be used in many ways, for instance on an underlying layer to produce the effect of a drop shadow. The softness of the selection's border can be adjusted by using the Radius slider. This slider only becomes visible when Feather Edges is selected.
Rounded Corners gives users the option of drawing selections with curved corners and the size of the curved corners can be adjusted using the Radius slider to produce subtle or pronounced effects.
Expand from Center does the simple job of starting the drawing of a selection at the centre point rather than from one of the corners. Drawing from a corner usually makes more sense, but there are times when the added accuracy permitted by starting a selection from the center is very useful.
The next few controls relate to pre-setting the dimensions of the selection and are accessed by clicking the Fixed check box. There are a number of options allowing different ways to constrain a selection, such as keeping the proportions of a selection constant or only up to a maximum height, width or combination of both.
Clicking the Highlight check box fades down the area outside of the selection to make it easier to focus on the content of the selection itself.
The Guides drop down allows the adding of guides within the selection, including Centre lines and Golden sections, which can be useful for placing a selection when it is being used to crop an image.
The Auto Shrink button is a useful little tool which allows users to draw a selection over part of a layer and by clicking Auto Shrink, the selection will automatically shrink so that the rectangle shrinks to the maximum dimensions of the contained colored pixels. Clicking the Shrink merged check box before using Auto Shrink means that all visible layers are included.
The Rectangle Select Tool is a bit of a multi-purpose tool and taking some time to understand the many options available can ensure that Graphic Designers get the most from this selection tool.
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