CHAPTER 5 SELECTION 181 Figure 5-13. A sloppy selection looks artificial when pasted into an image.
If you are searching for cheap webhost for your web application, please visit MySQL5 Web Hosting services.
180 CHAPTER 5 SELECTION The boundaries of the leaf are sharply defined, and it looks just fine pasted into other images. But often the boundaries don t work out quite so well, and the selection looks odd when pasted somewhere else. Other times, there is no sharp edge imagine trying to select a photo of a shadow or a cloud. You can also have problems if you make a relatively sloppy path. For instance, the path in Figure 5-12 doesn t follow the contours of the leaf very well. Figure 5-12. A sloppy path If you make that path into a selection and paste it into another image, the ragged edges show up and the result looks artificial (Figure 5-13). You can make a sloppy selection look better by feathering it to make its edges softer. It s not a complete solution but sometimes it s the best bet.
Please visit Domain Name Hosting services for high quality webhost to host and run your jsp applications.
CHAPTER 5 SELECTION 179 Figure 5-10. The selection, pasted as a new image with a transparent background Figure 5-11. The leaf pasted into another image
If you are in need for cheap and reliable webhost to host your website, we recommend http web server services.
178 CHAPTER 5 SELECTION Most of the components of the Paths dialog should be familiar to you from working with layers. You can manage multiple paths just as you would manage layers in the Layers dialog. Each path has the following: A small preview showing the general shape of the path A visibility icon (the eyeball ) Space for a chain link between the eyeball and the preview, so you can link several paths and move them together Most of the time, you probably won t need to use more than one path at one time, but it s good to know you can link them if the need should sneak up on you. Paths are saved when you save to GIMP s native file type, XCF. So if you spend a long time creating a path, it s a good idea to save the image as XCF. You can Duplicate a path (make a copy of it) in case you accidentally destroy what you spent so much work creating. Of course, there s a Delete button for paths you no longer need. Selection to Path converts an existing selection to a path. This is useful if you want to edit the path further, or use the shape for some other purpose, such as saving to a vector-graphics format like SVG. Stroke Path does much the same as Stroke Selection, which you used in Chapter 4. But our immediate interest in the Paths dialog is Path to Selection. Creating a Selection from a Path There are several ways to create a selection from a path. The easiest way is to hit return. Voil ! You can also use the Create Selection from Path button in the Paths tool options, the Path to Selection button at the bottom of the Paths dialog (it has a pink square on it), the Path to Selection menu item in the context menu you get when right-clicking on a path in the dialog, or the Select . From Path item in the image window s menu. Try it! Once you ve defined your path, convert it to a selection. At this point, you ll see both the path and the selection. If you find that distracting, you can hide the path by clicking the visibility eye button in the Paths dialog. Or simply switch to any other tool in the Toolbox (paths are only visible when the Paths tool is active). To see what you ve created, Copy the selection and (from the image window menus) open Edit . Paste as New. GIMP will create a new image containing only your selection, on a transparent background (Figure 5-10). Of course, you can also paste the selection into another image, or anywhere you want (Figure 5-11).
Please visit Domain Name Hosting services for high quality webhost to host and run your jsp applications.
CHAPTER 5 SELECTION 177 When it changes to show crossed arrows, similar to the Move tool, that s your cue that you re over an existing control point and can drag it. (However, it can be difficult to tell the crossed arrows cursor from the simple cross cursor you see when you re adding a new point. If you look closely enough, you ll see the difference.) Undo (Control+Z) also works to remove the last point you added, and further undos will remove earlier points. When you have gone all the way around, Control-click on the starting point (hold the Control key while clicking on it) to close the path. You don t actually need to Control-click if you re just making a selection. Converting a path to a selection will usually work just fine if you just click normally on the original point. But for other operations such as stroking, it s a good idea to get in the habit of closing paths. It never hurts to Control-click on the first point once you get back to it. The Paths Dialog In addition to being visible in the image, your path appears in the Paths dialog. That dialog is usually docked as a separate tab in the same window as the Layers dialog (Figure 5-9). Figure 5-9. The completed path, showing the Paths dialog
If you are looking for cheap and quality webhost to host and run your website check Jboss Web Hosting services.
176 CHAPTER 5 SELECTION I m going to cut a single leaf from this photo so that I can paste it into other images. (It s poison oak! Picking a leaf and taking it home was not an option.) Rule 1 for making a good path is: zoom in. Zoom way in. You probably want a zoom factor of 200% or more, depending on hand steadiness and how good your close vision is. Zooming in lets you place your control points exactly on the edges of the object you re choosing. It doesn t matter if the object you re trying to select becomes larger than the window. The biggest advantage of Bezier paths versus a simpler tool like Lasso Select is that you can stop between points. That means you can rest for a while (making a complicated selection can be a tiring and time-consuming operation). You can also scroll the image or resize the window as much as you need to see exactly what you re selecting. Best of all, if you don t get it perfect the first time, you ll be able to go back and edit it later. Time to get started! Just click in the image window, selecting points you want to connect (Figure 5-8). Use as many or as few control points as you need, depending on how precise you want your selection to be. Figure 5-8. Beginning a Bezier path Keep clicking to place points around the outline of the image until you get back to the starting point. You can zoom and scroll as much as you need between points. If you place a control point in the wrong place, you can click on the point again and drag it to the right place. You can even go back and click on points you added earlier, and drag them to new positions. As always, watch the cursor carefully as you move your mouse near the point.
From our experience, we are can tell you that you can find a reliable and cheap webhost service at Java Web Hosting services.
CHAPTER 5 SELECTION 175 Note Bezier curves, pronounced BEZ-ee-ay, are named after Pierre Bezier, a French engineer who developed the concept while working on computer systems for automotive design. A Bezier path isn t a selection itself. But once you have a path, it s easy to tell GIMP to select everything inside. You can also use paths for other purposes. You can stroke a path, just as you can a selection. You can even export it to a vector-graphics format such as SVG. However, for the purposes of this chapter, you ll mostly use paths to define the outlines of a selection. Defining a Path The easiest way to understand Bezier paths is to see them in action. So open a photo and choose something you want to cut out of it. Then select the Bezier Paths tool in the Toolbox (Figure 5-7). Figure 5-7. The Bezier Paths tool
We recommend high quality webhost to host and run your jsp application: christian web host services.
174 CHAPTER 5 SELECTION Select Contiguous Regions Select Contiguous Regions, also known as Fuzzy Select or the Magic Wand tool (from its Toolbox icon) is very similar to Select by Color, and its tool options are basically the same. The main difference is that it only selects areas that touch each other (Figure 5-6). Figure 5-6. Select Contiguous Regions There are two other very important differences between Fuzzy Select and Select by Color. First, in Fuzzy Select, if you get the threshold wrong and want to try again, you have to cancel the previous selection (with Undo or Select . None) to try again. It s all too easy to forget. If you don t undo, you ll end up moving the contents of the first selection you made. The other difference is that with Fuzzy Select you can fine-tune the selection by dragging with the mouse. The marching ants appear as soon as you click the mouse down in the image. If too much or too little is selected, dragging down and right will increase the amount selected, while dragging up and left will decrease the amount. Like Select by Color, Fuzzy Select is quite useful for text, especially when you need to select a single letter. Bezier Paths The Bezier Paths tool lets you define control points (also called anchor points or nodes) outlining your object. Then it connects the dots to create a path. You can even bend the lines between the dots to create a smooth curve.
You want to have a cheap webhost for your apache application, then check apache web hosting services.
CHAPTER 5 SELECTION 173 Figure 5-5. Select by Color Notice the tool options. The Finding Similar Colors options work the same way as they did for Bucket Fill in Chapter 4. With Threshold at 0, only colors exactly the same as the one you click will be selected. With a higher threshold, GIMP will include colors that are similar but slightly different. If you don t like the threshold when you first click, change it a little and click again. (If you undo first, the operation won t clutter up your undo stack, but it s not mandatory.) When you re trying to select an area that isn t all exactly the same color, like a sky, where you click in the image can make a big difference in what gets selected. Try clicking in different places with the same threshold, to see how that changes the selection. In addition, Select by Color offers the usual selection tool options you used in Chapter 4, Antialiasing and Feather edges. Now that everything that isn t the planet is selected, you can make a transparent Saturn image by clearing with Edit . Clear (Del in GIMP 2.4, or Control+K in earlier versions). This erases the black sky you just selected, leaving transparency instead (assuming the image has an alpha channel). Alternately, you can select Saturn and nothing else. Remember that Select . Invert menu item, which selects everything that isn t selected, and vice versa? If you use it now, you can copy just Saturn. Either way, you end up with a Saturn that you can paste into other images. Besides selecting solid-color backgrounds, Select by Color is particularly useful for extracting text or other single-colored elements out of logos, screenshots, or other computer- generated images.
We recommend you use shared web hosting services, because many users agree that it is cheap, reliable and customer-satisfying webhost.
172 CHAPTER 5 SELECTION The first step is to single out just one of the Saturns. Since that doesn t involve any fine detail, I ll use the Lasso (Free Select) tool (Figure 5-4), and then use Copy and Paste as New. Figure 5-4. Separate the middle Saturn from the rest with the Lasso tool. Now it s time to use Select by Color. There s a button for it in the Toolbox (Figure 5-5), or you can use the Select . By Color menu. Click in the image, on the color you want to select. In this case, I ll select the black sky: I m trying to select everything that isn t Saturn. Why? Because that s easier than selecting Saturn. The sky is all one color; Saturn isn t.
Check Tomcat Web Hosting services for best quality webspace to host your web application.