Archive for August, 2007

130 CHAPTER 4 DRAWING The (Web design seattle) Airbrush Tool

Friday, August 31st, 2007

130 CHAPTER 4 DRAWING The Airbrush Tool The GIMP offers two more tools for drawing lines. One of them is the Airbrush tool (Figure 4-11). Figure 4-11. The Airbrush tool, using a large, hard-edged brush (top) and the slanted calligraphic brush (below) The Airbrush almost always draws fuzzy edges, even if you use a hard-edged brush. It s also time sensitive. The slower you drag across the page, the darker the line will be, just as if you were using a real airbrush or a can of spray paint. Hover over one spot holding the mouse button down, and the spot will get darker and darker until it s completely opaque. (That means that if you stay in one place with a hard-edged brush, eventually the edges will become sharp. That s how the Airbrush can draw non-fuzzy edges.) Painting with the Airbrush takes some practice and a deft touch . . . just like a real airbrush! The Airbrush adds two additional options to the normal set: Rate controls how sensitive the Airbrush tool is to movement, i.e., how fast things get darker if you slow down. Pressure controls the darkness. Think of it as the amount of paint the airbrush is spraying.
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CHAPTER 4 DRAWING 129 The Paintbrush tool

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

CHAPTER 4 DRAWING 129 The Paintbrush tool differs from the Pencil tool in two important ways. First, it can use fuzzy-edged brushes. Second, it can use the hard-edged brushes too, but it uses them in a different way from the Pencil tool. Figure 4-10 shows some of the differences. In 4-10A, each tool is used with a large, hard-edged brush. The results look similar until you look closely. Figure 4-10. Differences between the Pencil and Paintbrush tools The Paintbrush uses a technique known as antialiasing on the edges of diagonal lines: pixels along the edges are made semi-transparent, or blended into the background color, to fool the eye into seeing a smooth diagonal line. The Pencil tool does not use antialiasing, so the edges look jagged. Then why would you ever want to use the Pencil tool? 4-10B shows you one reason. Antialiasing on a thin line can make it fade into the background. The lower Paintbrush line in B was drawn in the same black color as the upper Pencil line. Notice the Pencil line is sharp, black, and distinct as compared to the fuzzy gray Paintbrush line. For small, fine artwork, the Pencil tool is often best. The other reason is indexed images. It takes more colors to draw an antialiased line. This means that the eventual file size will be larger. It also means the final image might not be usable for processes such as T-shirt or business-card printing, which can only handle a small fixed number of colors. 4-10C shows the tools when used with a fuzzy-edged brush. Obviously, the Paintbrush tool wins here. The Pencil tool ignores any fuzzy edges in the brush, and paints a wide, fat line. 4-10D shows how the choice of tool can make a difference with some of the more elaborate brushes. The Pencil preserves all the details of the vine leaves, while the Paintbrush creates an interesting sponge-art effect.
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128 CHAPTER 4 DRAWING Dissolve adds (Make my own web site)

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

128 CHAPTER 4 DRAWING Dissolve adds randomness to the drawing. Wherever GIMP would have drawn partial transparency, instead it will draw a random pattern of dots. (Dissolve is also available as a layer mode, but it s more often useful for drawing.) Behind draws behind anything that s already drawn in the layer. This only works when drawing onto a layer that has transparency. (On an opaque layer, such as a background layer filled with white, it would make no sense. You wouldn t be able to see something drawn behind an opaque background!) Color erase seeks out the current foreground color and erases it, replacing it with transparency. It doesn t erase any other colors; only the current foreground color. Of course, like Behind, this only works if the layer allows transparency. In Figure 4-8, the foreground color was changed to red before drawing the color-erase sample; it would have had no visible effect when the foreground color is black, since it doesn t match the red box. Drawing Fuzzy or Smooth Lines: The Paintbrush Tool The Pencil tool is okay when you re using hard-edged brushes. But what if you want to use one of those fuzzy brushes? Or what if you want a line without those jaggy edges that the Pencil tool makes? In that case, use the Paintbrush tool (Figure 4-9). Figure 4-9. The Paintbrush tool
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CHAPTER 4 DRAWING 127 Drawing Tool Options (Domain and web hosting)

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

CHAPTER 4 DRAWING 127 Drawing Tool Options All the line-drawing tools have similar options. The basics shared by all tools include the following: Opacity makes the tool s line more transparent. It s a percentage, from 0 to 100. Mode offers the same list of modes as the Layers dialog (which will be discussed in Chapters 9 and 10), plus a few that are special (see below, Special Drawing Tool Modes ). Fade out makes the line fade out after a specified distance, even if you keep dragging. Incremental only makes a difference if Opacity is less than 100%. Using a tool with no spacing, or drawing on top of a previous line, will make the line darker (more opaque). Without incremental mode, the line won t get darker. Use color from gradient uses the gradient (displayed below the current brush in the Toolbox window) instead of the current foreground color. Click on the gradient in the Toolbox to see some examples; you ll learn more about gradients later. In addition to these options, the drawing tools can respond to pressure and tilt if you have a drawing tablet that can send these signals. Special Drawing Tool Modes In addition to the normal layer modes (which will be discussed in Chapters 9 and 10), the drawing tools offer three modes that are special (Figure 4-8). Figure 4-8. The three special drawing modes
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Web hosting unlimited bandwidth - 126 CHAPTER 4 DRAWING Figure 4-7. Creating

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

126 CHAPTER 4 DRAWING Figure 4-7. Creating a parametric brush with the Brush Editor Duplicate brush makes a copy of a parametric brush which you can change, and then save as a different brush. Delete brush deletes a brush. You can t delete any of the built-in brushes, only those that you saved in your personal collection. Refresh brushes re-reads your brushes directory, to see if you ve installed any new brushes while GIMP was running. Tip There are lots of excellent GIMP brushes available for free downloading. Try a web search for gimp brushes. Parametric Brushes vs. Image Brushes Most brushes are images. But a brush you create with the Brushes dialog s Edit or New buttons is a different type, as mentioned previously, called a parametric brush. You can choose from a few simple shapes (round, square, diamond), and then specify the size (Radius), Hardness (how fuzzy the edge is), Aspect ratio (whether it s long and thin or basically square), Angle (which rotates it), and Spacing (which makes it draw discrete blobs as you drag across the window, instead of placing the images close together so that they appear to be a continuous line). Since parametric brushes and image brushes are specified differently, you can t change one into the other. You can t click Edit brush on an image brush, and you can t click Open brush as image on a parametric brush. You don t need to remember which is which, since GIMP will gray out the buttons that don t apply to the current brush. In the Brushes dialog, each parametric brush shows a blue triangle at its lower-right corner, while animated brushes have a red corner.
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CHAPTER 4 DRAWING 125 Note Like a (Free web design)

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

CHAPTER 4 DRAWING 125 Note Like a few other colored brushes, the Vine brush has another weird property: a fixed color that ignores GIMP s current foreground and background colors. The Brushes dialog has a few options, shown in Figure 4-5. Spacing can make the brush s patterns look more spread out as you drag across the screen. Try it with the Vine brush to see the effect, but you can use it on non-animated brushes as well. Most of the buttons at the bottom of the Brushes dialog help with changing brushes or adding new ones. Edit brush brings up a Brush Editor dialog. On most existing brushes, everything in this dialog will be grayed-out because built-in brushes cannot be edited: they re read-only. Open brush as image (new for GIMP 2.4) does, well, the obvious. You can edit the image, and then save it as type GIMP brush (with the extension .gbr ) or GIMP brush (animated) ( .gih ) in the Brushes folder of your GIMP profile. In the case of animated brushes, you ll be able to see each frame as a layer, just like the animation you made in Chapter 3. You ll see a more detailed example of making an animated brush in Chapter 9. Tip Because a brush is just an image, you can create a brush image yourself in GIMP, starting from scratch. You don t have to start by editing an existing brush. New brush opens the Brush Editor dialog and lets you create a parametric brush (Figure 4-7). You can specify shape, size, hardness, and related parameters. The button at the lower-left lets you save your brush by the name chosen at the top of the Brush Editor. Your new brush will then appear in the Brushes dialog every time you start the GIMP, unless you delete it. Note When you save a parametric brush, the file will appear with a .vbr extension in your GIMP brushes folder.
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124 CHAPTER 4 DRAWING Clicking on a

Monday, August 27th, 2007

124 CHAPTER 4 DRAWING Clicking on a new brush in either the menu or the dialog changes the active brush imme diately. You can try one, draw with it, undo it if you don t like it, and try another brush, all without dismissing the dialog. Tip You can also get to the Brushes dialog using File . Dialogs . Brushes from the Toolbox, Dialogs . Brushes from an image window, or from various docking menus, since it s a dockable dialog. Brushes are like very small images. When you use a paint tool such as the Pencil, it s as though you dipped the brush image in ink and then dragged it across the screen. In addition to the normal hard-edged circles, some brushes have fuzzy edges. The Pencil tool will ignore the fuzzy edge; I ll talk about how to use those brushes in a moment. Some brushes, such as the diagonal slashes, are asymmetric. They yield different patterns depending on the direction in which you drag. (You can use this effect for calligraphy, as if you were using a classic quill pen.) A few brushes are actually animated images. Why would you ever want an animated brush? Since it changes as you drag it across the screen, you get a line that s varied or random. A fun example is the Vine brush (Figure 4-6). Figure 4-6. The Vine brush
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Web design careers - CHAPTER 4 DRAWING 123 Figure 4-4. Choosing

Sunday, August 26th, 2007

CHAPTER 4 DRAWING 123 Figure 4-4. Choosing a brush from the drop-down menu Figure 4-5. The Brushes dialog
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122 CHAPTER (Web design) 4 DRAWING Tip It s easy

Sunday, August 26th, 2007

122 CHAPTER 4 DRAWING Tip It s easy to draw straight lines with any of the line-drawing tools. Click once where you want one end of the line to be (GIMP draws a circle there). Then move (with the mouse button up you re not dragging) to where you want the other end of the line, hold down the Shift key (GIMP will show a thin line between the mouse position back to the last place that you clicked), choose your end point, and when you re happy with the line, click the mouse button. Notice the mouse cursor in Figure 4-3. In addition to the normal arrow and the pencil icon telling you which drawing tool is selected, there s a circle around the arrow s point. This shows the size of the current brush. Okay, a pencil normally has a point, not a brush. But this is a Super GIMP Pencil (see the sidebar GIMP Brush Icon Display Options for more information). GIMP BRUSH ICON DISPLAY OPTIONS You can stop GIMP from showing brush size in the cursor by turning off Show brush outline under Preferences . Image Windows. But this feature is very useful: most people, except on extremely slow machines, will want this enabled. Show paint tool cursor, in the same Preferences screen, will turn off the pencil and arrow icons and show only the brush outline. Alternately you can turn off Show brush outline, turn on Show paint tool cursor, and change the cursor mode: from Tool Icon to either Tool icon with crosshair or Crosshair only. This gives you a similar but perhaps more precise result. Your call! You can also choose Black and White instead of Fancy for Cursor Rendering, which may help performance slightly on very slow machines. Brushes Changing the brush gives you control over the width and shape of the line you draw with any of GIMP s drawing tools. There are two ways of changing the brush. You can click on the brush icon in Tool Options, which drops down a menu (Figure 4-4). Or you can click on the brush icon in the Toolbox, to the right of the color swatches, which pops up the Brushes dialog (Figure 4-5).
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CHAPTER 4 DRAWING 121 Drawing (Web hosting rating) Lines and

Saturday, August 25th, 2007

CHAPTER 4 DRAWING 121 Drawing Lines and Curves You re ready to draw! Choose a nice color (using the foreground color swatch). Or just leave it black. The GIMP has a collection of four tools for drawing lines and freehand curves. I ll start with the simplest: the Pencil. Drawing Hard Edged Lines: The Pencil Tool The Pencil tool lets you draw sharp-edged lines (Figure 4-3). Select it in the Toolbox, and then try scribbling by dragging on the image to see what it does. The Pencil tool will leave a trail everywhere you go, as long as you have the left mouse button pressed. Figure 4-3. Using the Pencil tool
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