I'm feeling particularly useless today, I'm pretty much a total beginner with GIMP, but I can't believe this is as hard as I seem to be making it.

I want to draw a straight line. I'm using Gimp 2.2.4

I try the paintbrush, I have a color selected, and I can draw a squiggly line. The help says that holding shift down will make all these tools constrained to straight lines, but mine doensn't draw anything. It looks like it's trying to do measuement or something.

I try the path tool (which I can't claim to understand) and then try to "stroke" the path. I get polygons while I'm messing about, I can also get curves, but I don't seem to be able to get an actual line that stays on the page.

What I _want_ is a straight line, constrained to horizontal or vertical, drawn with the caligraphic brush (so it has a chiselled end) and using the "fade out" option, so it disappears smoothly over a distance.

Anyone want to tell me what's so obvious that I've missed it?

Thanks in advance, Simon

___

Did you read the actual straight line tutorial? It's here:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Straight_Line/

It details exactly what to do, step-by-step.

Marco

On May 12, 2006, at 9:02 PM, Simon Roberts wrote:

I'm feeling particularly useless today, I'm pretty much a total beginner with GIMP, but I can't believe this is as hard as I seem to be
making it.

I want to draw a straight line. I'm using Gimp 2.2.4

I try the paintbrush, I have a color selected, and I can draw a squiggly line. The help says that holding shift down will make all these tools constrained to straight lines, but mine doensn't draw anything. It looks like it's trying to do measuement or something.

I try the path tool (which I can't claim to understand) and then try to
"stroke" the path. I get polygons while I'm messing about, I can also get curves, but I don't seem to be able to get an actual line that stays on the page.

What I _want_ is a straight line, constrained to horizontal or vertical, drawn with the caligraphic brush (so it has a chiselled end) and using the "fade out" option, so it disappears smoothly over a distance.

Anyone want to tell me what's so obvious that I've missed it?

Thanks in advance, Simon

___

Gach, hit reply, instead of reply to all.

Nutshell version: no, I'd not seen this, yes, so far as I can make out, I'm doing what the tutorial says, but no, I don't get any line.

I get two crosshairs and a line joining the two as I move the mouse while holding shift (I can constrain the line to certain angles with control too) but when I release shift, the whole thing goes away.

Foreground and background are both set to contrasting colors compared to the current image color.

Any thoughts?

TIA Simon

--- Marco Wessel wrote:

Did you read the actual straight line tutorial? It's here:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Straight_Line/

It details exactly what to do, step-by-step.

Marco

On May 12, 2006, at 9:02 PM, Simon Roberts wrote:

I'm feeling particularly useless today, I'm pretty much a total beginner with GIMP, but I can't believe this is as hard as I seem to be
making it.

I want to draw a straight line. I'm using Gimp 2.2.4

I try the paintbrush, I have a color selected, and I can draw a squiggly line. The help says that holding shift down will make all these tools constrained to straight lines, but mine doensn't draw anything. It looks like it's trying to do measuement or something.

I try the path tool (which I can't claim to understand) and then try to
"stroke" the path. I get polygons while I'm messing about, I can

also

get curves, but I don't seem to be able to get an actual line that stays on the page.

What I _want_ is a straight line, constrained to horizontal or vertical, drawn with the caligraphic brush (so it has a chiselled

end)

and using the "fade out" option, so it disappears smoothly over a distance.

Anyone want to tell me what's so obvious that I've missed it?

Thanks in advance, Simon

___

Simon Roberts wrote:

Gach, hit reply, instead of reply to all.

Nutshell version: no, I'd not seen this, yes, so far as I can make out, I'm doing what the tutorial says, but no, I don't get any line.

I get two crosshairs and a line joining the two as I move the mouse while holding shift (I can constrain the line to certain angles with control too) but when I release shift, the whole thing goes away.

Did you press the left mouse button before releasing the shift-key, as the tutorial specifies?

Foreground and background are both set to contrasting colors compared to the current image color.

Any thoughts?

TIA Simon

Hi Andy,

On 5/13/06, gimp-user-request@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu wrote:

Message: 5
Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 13:18:44 -0500 From: andy.x.johnson@Cummins.com
Is there anyway to draw a line in gimp and put arrows at the end of the line. Photoshop's line tool can apparently do this with ease...

1) Select Brush tool with the desired brush size. 2) Click with the brush tool somewhere on the canvas. That will, for example
make the start of the line. 3) With SHIFT pressed, click with the brush tool somewhere else where you want
the arrow line to end. This will draw a straight line with your brush type. Release
the SHIFT key then.
4) Now draw the arrow-head (two tiny lines jutting out from one end of the line) the
same way. You can draw a filled arrow-head the same way - just draw one more
tiny line joining the two other tiny lines going angularly outwards from the end of
the main line and then FILL it with the bucket tool with the color you used to draw
the arrow.

Now, for example, if you do it on a flat-color background then you can
easily select it and convert it to path so that you can shape it to your liking.

OR, save it as a brush.

Hope that sounds easy.

Did you press the left mouse button before releasing the shift-key, as the tutorial specifies

aside from the fact that I feel like I'm learning to use stardard car shifting...3 or 4 actions to coodinate ;^).;if you hold the shift button down TOO long you get the slow curser dog & pony show, plus NO line!!

Did you read the actual straight line tutorial? It's here:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Straight_Line/

Simon Roberts wrote:

Nutshell version: no, I'd not seen this, yes, so far as I can make out, I'm doing what the tutorial says, but no, I don't get any line.

I get two crosshairs and a line joining the two as I move the mouse while holding shift (I can constrain the line to certain angles with control too) but when I release shift, the whole thing goes away.

I'm using 2.3.8. I must admit I did not find that tutorial explicit enough, or perhaps the method has changed. I had to do this:

1. One left click and release of the mouse at the point you want the start of the line.
2. Hold shift down. Hold control down as well if you want constrained angles.
3. Move the mouse - a guide line will be drawn - without clicking, to where you want the end of the line.
4. Click and release the mouse button. The line will be drawn. 5. Release the shift key.

Hi,

I'm trying to get the lighting effect plugin to work. Even when I follow the various tutorials around teh net I cant seem to get it to 'see' the environment map and the bump map. I found one post that said that teh bump map had to be grayscale and I tried that with no luck. Does anyone have a good idea?
I'm using version 2.2.11

Jim

thanks, yes, It's behaving now.

It takes a mouse click to indicate the starting point, and a shift-click to indicate the end. Holding shift in advance of the final click shows you where it will draw. Makes perfect sense now, but I was so expecting it to be a drag operation to draw the line (like it is when it's a freehand line) that I couldn't see the wood for the trees.

Thanks all, especially Marco for such prompt and persistent help.

Now I can just quietly put it behind me and slowly stop feeling really dumb!

Cheers,
Simon

--- Bob Long wrote:

Did you read the actual straight line tutorial? It's here:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Straight_Line/

Simon Roberts wrote:

Nutshell version: no, I'd not seen this, yes, so far as I can make

out,

I'm doing what the tutorial says, but no, I don't get any line.

I get two crosshairs and a line joining the two as I move the mouse while holding shift (I can constrain the line to certain angles

with

control too) but when I release shift, the whole thing goes away.

I'm using 2.3.8. I must admit I did not find that tutorial explicit enough,
or perhaps the method has changed. I had to do this:

1. One left click and release of the mouse at the point you want the start
of the line.
2. Hold shift down. Hold control down as well if you want constrained

angles. 3. Move the mouse - a guide line will be drawn - without clicking, to where
you want the end of the line.
4. Click and release the mouse button. The line will be drawn. 5. Release the shift key.