On 04/10/2012 05:01 PM, theolecowboy wrote:

Well, I thought I was getting a partial hang of how to use part of GIMP, but couldn't get things to work the way I want. I'm trying to add sides to some images - for example, an image is 250 x 420...I want to make the width 420 by adding sides to the image, each added side being 85 pixels each, centering the image in the 420 x 420 image. I added a new layer, then moved the new layer so that the image was centered...seemed to work.

I then want to add my site's background color to those sides so that the centered image stands out without "interfering" with the site colorations and a "larger image" link appears centered below the total image. A "bad" image can be seen here: http://shannonwestongifts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_151_152&products_id=548. What I'm trying to achieve can be seen here ( friend of mine did this for me with a different program): http://shannonwestongifts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_151_152&products_id=525.

No matter what I've tried, I've been unable to add coloration to the added sides, and reading the layers parts of the manual hasn't provided me with an answer. Can someone tell me what I need to do after I add the new layer and center the image on top of it?

Thanks for reading...have a great evening, and God bless!

Andy The Ole Cowboy

What I did was take your starting image and enlarged the canvas to the desired dimensions of 420x420. Then, I used the "Alignment Tool" to center the layer which had the original image in it. Then, I used the eye dropper in the "Change Foreground Color" dialog window to sample the page background color of the page where the image will be displayed. Then, I clicked "Ok" on the "Change Foreground Color" dialog window to set the page background color as the foreground color. Then, I created a new layer with the foreground color as the default color. The new layer overlaid the layer with the original image. So, I moved the new layer, with the foreground color, to the bottom of the layer "stack" and voila, the background color of the page is part of the new composite image with the original layer centered.

If you send me direct e-mail, I can send you a XCF file so you can see the layers and how they fit together. :)

I'm sure others will have easier ways of doing this. :)

Peace...

Tom

On 04/11/2012 02:01 AM, theolecowboy wrote:

Well, I thought I was getting a partial hang of how to use part of GIMP, but couldn't get things to work the way I want. I'm trying to add sides to some images - for example, an image is 250 x 420...I want to make the width 420 by adding sides to the image, each added side being 85 pixels each, centering the image in the 420 x 420 image. I added a new layer, then moved the new layer so that the image was centered...seemed to work.

I then want to add my site's background color to those sides so that the centered image stands out without "interfering" with the site colorations and a "larger image" link appears centered below the total image. A "bad" image can be seen here: http://shannonwestongifts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_151_152&products_id=548. What I'm trying to achieve can be seen here ( friend of mine did this for me with a different program): http://shannonwestongifts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_151_152&products_id=525.

No matter what I've tried, I've been unable to add coloration to the added sides, and reading the layers parts of the manual hasn't provided me with an answer. Can someone tell me what I need to do after I add the new layer and center the image on top of it?

The right way:

- Image/Canvas size, and center your existing layers in it - Either use "Layer/Layer to image size" to set one or more layers to the size of the canvas or add a new background layer (and set it to the size of the canvas) (you cannot paint outside of layers...)