I'm working on an image that has many layers, including one for outlines, fill colors, shading, etc. I want to cut and paste a particular portion of the image to another part of the image because I don't like the current placement. However, the only way I can figure out to do this is by cutting and pasting the same selection on each layer and lining up all the parts.

Is there any way to cut "through" the image, so to speak, so that all visible layers below the selection are cut at once, and then when I paste the selection somewhere else in the image, each part is pasted into its respective layer (i.e., the outline is pasted onto the outline layer, shading onto the shading layer, etc.)?

Or is there any type of script available that might help me achieve this?

Thanks!

Quoting Brian :

I'm working on an image that has many layers, including one for outlines, fill
colors, shading, etc. I want to cut and paste a particular portion of the image to another part of the image because I don't like the current placement.
However, the only way I can figure out to do this is by cutting and

pasting

the same selection on each layer and lining up all the parts.

Is there any way to cut "through" the image, so to speak, so that all

visible

layers below the selection are cut at once, and then when I paste the selection somewhere else in the image, each part is pasted into its respective
layer (i.e., the outline is pasted onto the outline layer, shading onto

the

shading layer, etc.)?

Or is there any type of script available that might help me achieve this?

I wrote a script a few years back which added a "Float Linked Layers" command that floated the selection on each linked layer, producing a new layer above each of the linked layers. This set of floated layers are all linked (the original layers are unlinked) so that you can move them all at the same time.

Once the linked layers have been repositioned, a second script called "Merge Down Linked Layers" will merge each of the floated layers back onto its original layer.

I believe the script will still work with newer version of GIMP (it was written for v2.4) but you might want to put elsewhere in the menus.

http://flashingtwelve.brickfilms.com/GIMP/Scripts/deep-float.scm

Wow, that does EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thank you so much! Do you know if there's an easy way to modify the script so that it could create a copy of the selection rather than cutting it? Then I could have one script for copying and one for cutting.

Thanks again; this was a huge help!

Quoting Brian :

That would be rather simple but I won't be able to get to it until maybe this weekend (besides, a complete re-write is called for since that old code looks embarrassingly ugly given my improved understanding of Script-fu I've attained since it was written).

One question I would ask is whether cut out portions of layers should become transparent -- even if the layer does not initially have an alpha channel. This to me would seem a reasonable assumption but it might be preferable to fill the selected region with the background color if the layer has no alpha channel.

That would be fantastic; thank you! I think it would make sense for the cut regions to be transparent. Personally, when I work, I give all layers an alpha channel and have a separate layer for just the background color, so that layer wouldn't even be linked with the others when cutting or copying, and it would show through anyway.

I should really look into learning script-fu. I'm sure it would be helpful.