CHAPTER 3 INTRODUCTION TO LAYERS Figure 3-2. (Disney web site)
CHAPTER 3 INTRODUCTION TO LAYERS Figure 3-2. The image created by the layers in Figure 3-1 Why bother with this? After all, you could just take a photo, put text on top of it, draw the frame directly on it, and get the same result. Right? The difference is that with layers you have much more control. If you draw text directly onto an image, you d better choose the right location for it, and the right font, size, and color. If you later decide the text would look better twice as big and over on the left instead of the right, there s no easy way to make the changes. With layers, you can edit and revise to your heart s content. Set up a text layer. If you don t like it where it is, move it somewhere else. If you want to make it bigger, or move part of it behind another layer, or turn it off to see what the image looks like without it, you can do that too. In addition, each layer contains only a specific part of the image. That can help when you apply other effects. A text layer contains only text, which means you can go back and change what it says, or try a different font or color. The frame in Figure 3-1 and Figure 3-2 was in its own layer, which made it easy to generate a drop shadow from it. Since layers are so powerful, the GIMP is designed around them. Most of GIMP s effects (beyond the basic photo manipulation methods you learned in Chapter 2) either create new layers or assume that you re working from a single layer in an image that has other layers. Therefore, some familiarity with layers is crucial to getting the most out of the GIMP.
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