<_welcome> Welcome to The GIMP ! <_thetip> Nearly all image operations are performed by right-clicking on the image. And don't worry, you can undo most mistakes... <_thetip> You can get context-sensitive help for most of the GIMP's features by pressing the F1 key at any time. This also works inside the menus. <_thetip> The GIMP uses layers to let you organize your image. Think of them as a stack of slides or filters, such that looking through them you see a composite of their contents. <_thetip> You can perform many layer operations by right-clicking on the text label of a layer in the "Layers, Channels and Paths" dialog. <_thetip> When you save an image to work on it again later, try using XCF, the GIMP's native file format (use the file extension .xcf). This preserves the layers and every aspect of your work-in-progress. Once a project is completed, you can save it as JPEG, PNG, GIF, ... <_thetip> The layer named "Background" it special because it lacks transparency. This prevents you from adding a layer mask or moving the layer up in the stack. You may add transparency to it by right-clicking in the "Layers, Channels and Paths" dialog and selecting "Add Alpha Channel". <_thetip> Most plug-ins work on the current layer of the current image. In some cases, you will have to merge all layers (Layers->Flatten Image) if you want the plug-in to work on the whole image. <_thetip> Not all effects can be applied to all kinds of images. This is indicated by a grayed-out menu-entry. You may need to change the image mode to RGB (Image->Mode->RGB), add an alpha-channel (Layers->Add Alpha Channel) or flatten it (Layers->Flatten Image). <_thetip> You can drag and drop many things in the GIMP. For example, dragging a color from the toolbox or from a color palette and dropping it into an image will fill the current image or selection with that color. <_thetip> When using a drawing tool (Paintbrush, Airbrush, or Pencil), Shift-click will draw a straight line from your last drawing point to your current cursor position. If you also press Ctrl, the line will be constrained to 15 degree angles. <_thetip> The file selection dialog box has command-line completion with Tab, just like the shell. Type part of a filename, hit Tab, and voila! It's completed. <_thetip> You can reassign shortcut keys on any menu by bringing up the menu, selecting a menu item, and pressing the new shortcut key combination. This is dynamic and is saved when you exit GIMP. <_thetip> You can use the middle mouse button to pan around the image, if it's larger than its display window. <_thetip> Click and drag on a ruler to place a Guide on an image. All dragged selections will snap to the guides. You can remove guides by dragging them off the image with the Move tool. <_thetip> You can drag a layer from the "Layers, Channels and Paths" dialog and drop it onto the toolbox. This will create a new image containing only that layer. <_thetip> A Floating Selection must be anchored to a new layer or to the last active layer before doing other operations on the image. Click on the New Layer or Anchor Layer buttons in the "Layers, Channels and Paths" dialog, or use the menus to do the same. <_thetip> The GIMP supports gzip compression on the fly. Just add .gz (or .bz2, if you have bzip2 installed) to the filename and your image will be saved compressed. Of course loading compressed images works too. <_thetip> Pressing and holding the Shift key before making a selection allows you to add to the current selection instead of replacing it. Using Ctrl before making a selection subtracts from the current one. <_thetip> You can press or release the Shift and Ctrl keys while you are making a selection in order to constrain it to a perfect square or circle, or to have it centered on its starting point. <_thetip> Using Edit->Stroke allows you to draw simple squares or circles by painting the edge of your current selection with the active brush. More complex shapes can be drawn with Filters->Render->Gfig. <_thetip> If you stroke a path (Edit->Stroke), the current drawing tool and its settings are used. You can use the Paintbrush in gradient mode, the Clone tool with a pattern or even the Eraser or the Smudge tool. <_thetip> You can create and edit complex selections using the Bezier tool. The "Paths" tab in the "Layers, Channels and Paths" dialog allows you to work on multiple paths and to convert them to selections. <_thetip> You can use the paint tools to change the selection. Click on the Quick Mask button at the bottom left of an image window. Change your selection by painting in the image and click on the button again to convert it back to a normal selection. <_thetip> You can save a selection to a channel (Select->Save to Channel) and then modify this channel with any paint tools. Using the buttons in the "Channels" tab of the "Layers, Channels and Paths" dialog, you can toggle the visibility of this new channel or convert it to a selection. <_thetip> If your screen is too cluttered, you can press Tab multiple times in an image window to hide or show the toolbox and other dialogs. <_thetip> You can adjust the selection range for fuzzy select by clicking and dragging left and right. <_thetip> Shift-click on the eye icon in the Layers dialog to hide all layers but that one. Shift-click again to show all layers. <_thetip> Ctrl-click on the layer mask's preview in the Layers dialog toggles the effect of the layer mask. <_thetip> Alt-click on the layer mask's preview in the Layers dialog toggles viewing the mask directly. <_thetip> You can use Alt-Tab to cycle through all layers in an image (if your window manager doesn't trap those keys...). <_thetip> Shift-click with the Bucket Fill tool to have it use the background color instead of the foreground color. <_thetip> Ctrl-drag with the Transform tool in rotation mode will constrain the rotation to 15 degree angles. <_thetip> You can adjust and re-place a selection by using Alt-drag. <_thetip> If your fonts turn out blocky, that's because they're not scalable fonts. Most X servers support scalable Type 1 Postscript fonts. Download and install them. Some font servers allow you to use TrueType (.ttf) fonts, which are also scalable. <_thetip> To create a perfect circle, hold Shift while doing an ellipse select. To place a circle precisely, drag horizontal and vertical guides tangent to the circle you want to select, place your cursor at the intersection of the guides, and the resulting selection will just touch the guides. <_thetip> If some of your scanned photos do not look colorful enough, you can easily improve their tonal range with the "Auto" button in the Levels tool (Image->Colors->Levels). If there are any color casts, you can correct them with the Curves tool (Image->Colors->Curves).