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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
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<title>4.6. Grids and Guides</title>
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<th colspan="3" align="center" id="chaptername">4.6. Grids and Guides</th>
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<td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ch02s04s05.html">Prev</a> </td>
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<div class="sect2" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title"><a id="gimp-image-grid"></a>4.6. Grids and Guides</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<a id="id3309696" class="indexterm"></a>
<a id="id3310051" class="indexterm"></a>
<div class="simplesect" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h4 class="title"><a id="id3310158"></a>The Image Grid</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="informalfigure">
<div class="mediaobject">
<img src="../images/using/wilber-simple-nogrid.png" />
<div class="caption">
<p>
Image used for examples below
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="informalfigure">
<div class="mediaobject">
<img src="../images/using/wilber-simple-defaultgrid.png" />
<div class="caption">
<p>
Image with default grid
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
You will probably have it happen many times that you need to
place something in an image very precisely, and find that it is
not easy to do using a mouse. Often you can get better results by
using the arrow keys on the keyboard (which move the affected
object one pixel at a time, or 25 pixels if you hold down the
Shift key), but GIMP also provides you with two other aids to make
positioning easier: grids and guides.
</p>
<p>
Each image has a grid. It is always present, but by default it is
not visible until you activate it by toggling
<span class="guimenu">View</span>-><span class="guimenuitem">Show Grid</span>
in the image menu. If you want grids to be present more often
than not, you can change the default behavior by checking "Show
grid" in the <a href="ch04s18s10.html" title="18.10. Image Window Appearance">Image Window
Appearance</a> page of the Preferences dialog. (Note that
there are separate settings for Normal Mode and Fullscreen Mode.)
</p>
<p>
The default grid appearance, set up when you install GIMP,
consists of plus-shaped black crosshairs at the grid line
intersections, with grid lines spaced every 10 pixels both
vertically and horizontally. You can customize the default grid
using the <a href="ch04s18s03.html" title="18.3. Default Image Grid">Default Image
Grid</a> page of the Preferences dialog. If you only want to
change the grid appearance for the current image, you can do so by
choosing
<span class="guimenu">Image</span>-><span class="guimenuitem">Configure Grid</span>
from the image menu: this brings up the <a href="ch05s06s10.html#gimp-configure-grid-dialog">Configure Grid</a> dialog.
</p>
<div class="informalfigure">
<div class="mediaobject">
<img src="../images/using/wilber-simple-othergrid.png" />
<div class="caption">
<p>
A different grid style
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Only rectangular Cartesian grids are provided. You can choose the
color of the grid lines, and the spacing and offsets from the
image origin, independently for horizontal and vertical grid
lines. You have a choice of five grid styles:
</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term">Intersections (dots)</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
This style, the least obtrusive, shows a simple dot at each
intersection of grid lines.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="term">Intersections (crosshairs)</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
This style, the default, shows a plus-shaped crosshair at each
intersection of grid lines.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="term">Dashed</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
This style shows dashed lines in the designated foreground
color. It probably won't look good if the grid line spacing
is small.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="term">Double dashed</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
This style shows dashed lines alternating the designated
foreground and background colors.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="term">Solid</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
This style shows solid grid lines in the designated foreground
color.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<p>
Not only can a grid be helpful for judging distances and spatial
relationships, it can also permit you to align things exactly with
the grid, if you toggle
<span class="guimenu">View</span>-><span class="guimenuitem">Snap to Grid</span>
in the image menu: this causes the pointer to "warp" perfectly to
any grid line located within a certain distance. You can
customize the snap distance threshold by setting "Snap distance"
in the <a href="ch04s18s07.html" title="18.7. Tool Options">Tool Options</a>
page of the Preferences dialog, but most people seem to be happy
with the default value of 8 pixels. (Note that it is perfectly
possible to snap to the grid even if the grid is not visible. It
isn't easy to imagine why you might want to do this, though.)
</p>
</div>
<div class="simplesect" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h4 class="title"><a id="id3310326"></a>Guides</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="informalfigure">
<div class="mediaobject">
<img src="../images/using/wilber-simple-guides.png" />
<div class="caption">
<p>
Image with four guides
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
In addition to the image grid, GIMP also gives you a more
flexible type of positioning aid: <span class="emphasis"><em>guides</em></span>.
These are horizontal or vertical lines that you create by
clicking on one of the rulers and dragging into the image. You
can create as many guides as you like, positioned whereever you
like. To move a guide after you have created it, activate the
Move tool in the Toolbox (or press the <span><b class="keycap">M</b></span> key);
hold down the Shift key; you can then click and drag a guide.
To delete a guide, simply drag it outside the image.
</p>
<p>
As with the grid, you can cause the pointer to snap to nearby
guides, by toggling
<span class="guimenu">View</span>-><span class="guimenuitem">Snap to Guides</span>
in the image menu. If you have a number of guides and they are
making it difficult for you to judge the image properly, you can
hide them by toggling
<span class="guimenu">View</span>-><span class="guimenuitem">Show Guides</span>.
It is suggested that you only do this momentarily, otherwise you
may get confused the next time you try to create a guide and
don't see anything happening.
</p>
<p>
If it makes things easier for you, you can change the default
behavior for guides in the <a href="ch04s18s10.html" title="18.10. Image Window Appearance">Image Window
Appearance</a> page of the Preferences dialog. Disabling
"Show guides" is probably a bad idea, though, for the reason
just given.
</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25">
<img alt="[Note]" src="../images/note.png" />
</td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top">
<p>
Another use for guides: the <a href="ch05s06s03.html#plug-in-guillotine">Guillotine</a> plugin can use
guides to slice an image into a set of sub-images.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25">
<img alt="[Note]" src="../images/note.png" />
</td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top">
<p>
See also <a href="go01.html#glossary-guides">Guides</a> in Glossary.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="simplesect" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h4 class="title"><a id="id3310558"></a>Rendering a Grid</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
What if you want to create a grid that is actually part of the
image? You can't do this using the image grid: it is only an
aid, and only visible on the monitor or in a screenshot. You can,
however, use the <a href="ch06s12s07.html" title="12.7. Grid">Grid</a> plugin to
render a grid very similar to the image grid (actually the plugin
has substantially more options).
</p>
</div>
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<td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ch02s04s07.html">Next</a></td>
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<tr>
<td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">4.5. Undoing </td>
<td width="20%" align="center">
<a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a>
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