Gimp is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It has a lot of the same features as Photoshop, but unlike Photoshop, it's FREE. It's an open source application, which means there is no support except from dedicated community members. If you have trouble using the software, you'll have to research the problem and reach out to community members on forums. Other than that, you are on your own.
GIMP doesn't have proper printer drivers. If you're a programmer type you can install
Gutenprint here. If you're not, you will need to install another program from which to do your printing - such as
IrfranView (also free).
Natively GIMP doesn't come with installers. You can read more about this on the official
GIMP website. Most people are going to need installers, so you should download GIMP from the following site:
Download GIMP here (Windows users only. Gimp is available for Mac too, but the installation process is pretty involved. I'll be posting another blog about Gimp for Mac at a later time.)
Button Templates for GIMP:1 inch1-1/4 inch1-1/2 inch1-3/4 inch2 inch2-1/4 inch2-1/2 inch3 inch3-1/2 inch1. Download and install GIMP.
2. Download the template file for your size (links above) and save it to the folder of your choice on your hard drive. I saved mine to the My Pictures folder. The template file is a layered .xcf file that can only be opened in Gimp.
3. Launch GIMP. GIMP looks a little different from most application windows you might be used to. Each component of Gimp is it's own window with it's own menu bar at the top. There is not one single program window as you might normally see. Take a moment to get a feel for this. If you're a computer novice, you might have trouble with everything 'disappearing' because you clicked outside one of the Gimp element windows. If this is happening to you, just close all other applications before starting Gimp.
As shown in the example photo, when you first launch Gimp you will see a tools dialog, and that's it.
4. Click on "File" at the top of the tools dialog and select "Open." In the dialog box that appears navigate to the location on your hard drive where you saved your template file. Once you locate the template file you downloaded earlier, click on it and then click "Open".
5. When you successfully open the template file, you will see a white "canvas" area with two black circles. The outer one is your "cut line" and the inner one is the "face line". You should keep your important design elements inside the inner circle.
6. Next we need to view the "layers" of the file. On the "canvas" window select "Dialogs" and click "Layers". This will open the "layers" dialog box.
You should now be able to see the separate components of the file. You can make a new layer by clicking the sheet of paper icon on the bottom left of the dialog. You can turn the layers on and off using the eyeball icon next to them. You can drag them to the little trash can icon on the bottom right of the dialog if you want to delete a layer. You can drag the layers up or down to change how they are arranged on your canvas. For example, you could make your designs on a new layer, but you would need to place it underneath the face line layer, so you can see the line you need to stay within.
7. Design your graphic. For this example, I am dropping a photo into the layout and adding some text on top. So my next step is to open the photo.
Click on "File" and select "Open" navigate to the area on your hard drive where the image is stored. Select the image and click the "Open" button.
8. Resize the photo. Now that I have my photo open, I need to scale it down. Usually photos are very high resolution so they can be printed very large. Buttons are relatively small and don't require as much resolution. If I were to paste this image on to my button template without scaling it first, it would be enormous and difficult to work with.
On the photo window menu bar click on "Image" and select "Scale Image". In my example, I'm using the 1 inch template. At 300 DPI, the
printable area on a 1 inch button is only 300x300 pixels. For some safety and wiggle room, I decide to scale my photo down to 400 pixels on the short side - making my image 400x600 pixels.
Enter the pixel dimensions for your size into the "Scale Image" dialog box and click the "Scale" button.
9. Now that the photo is a manageable size, I can paste it into the button layout. But first we have to add a new layer to the button template. Click on the button template to bring it to the foreground. Then click on the piece of paper icon at the bottom left of the layers dialog.
Now we're ready to paste the photo into the template.
On the photo window click on "Edit" and select "Copy".
Next click on the button layout window to bring it to the foreground. On
the button layout window click on the new the new layer in the "layers" dialog to select it. Then click on "Edit" and select "Paste".
Use the Move tool
to move the photo around until it is positioned where you want it. (The move tool is the cross arrows located on the far right side, second row of the tools dialog).
10. Close the photo, and DO NOT save it.
11. Next, we'll add some text. In the "tools" dialog select the Text tool (the big black A button.) Click anywhere on the template and start typing. You can change the color and font using the options that appear at the bottom of the "tools" dialog.
Move the text around with the move tool until you have it properly positioned.
12. Save your work. Click "File" and select "Save As" select a location on your hard drive and give the file a new name. It's always a good idea to keep your files in their layered state in case you want to make changes later.
13. Get rid of extraneous layers and prepare for printing. You don't want the face line to print, so you once you have a version with the face line in tact saved, you can go ahead and drag that layer to the small trash can icon at the bottom of the layers dialog. We then need to merge the remaining layers. Click on the top layer to select it. Then click "Layer" and select "Merge Down." Repeat the merging until you have only one layer total.
14. Get rid of excess image. In my case, some of the image goes outside my circular template lines. This really isn't a problem except for the wasted ink that will occur when it goes to print. So I'm going to go ahead and turn the corners white. To do this, I select the "Ellipse Select" tool (the oval shaped tool). Click on the top left corner of the canvas, then hold down your shift key (to maintain a perfect circle) and drag to the bottom right corner. This should make a perfect circular selection. Then we need to invert it. Click "Select" on the tool bar and select "Invert"
Finally, fill the selection with white. Make sure your foreground color is white. (The foreground and background color boxes are located under the tools in the tools dialog. If the foreground is not set to white, double click on it and select white.) Then click "Edit" and select "Fill with FG color. (FG stands for foreground).
15. Crop the image to size. In this case, there is some extra image that flows over my canvas area. This will show up when I paste it onto a bigger canvas, so I have to crop it out. Select the crop tool (the knife icon). Click and drag from the top right corner of the canvas to the bottom left. Then double click in the middle.
16. Click on "File" and select "New". When the Create New Image dialog box comes up, change "pixels" to "inches" using the drop down menu. Enter 8.5 in the width field and 11 in the height. This will open a new, blank 8.5 x 11 page on which we will paste our button graphics and print.
17. Click the button layout window to bring it forward. Then click on "Edit" and select "Copy". Click on the page window to bring it forward and select "Edit" then "Paste". Select the Move tool and drag the pasted image to the top right corner. Then select "Edit" - "Paste" (or CTRL-V on your keyboard) again. It will paste the second image directly on top of the one you just pasted. With the move tool, click on the button graphic and drag it down. Keep pasting and dragging until you've filled the page with button graphics.
18. Merge all of the layers together. Select "Layer" then "Merge Down." Repeat this step until you have no more layers. Then select "File" - "Save As". Select JPEG from the drop down menu and change the file name to something you can remember. Make sure to add the .jpg file extension to the end.
19. Open IrfanView. Select "File" - "Open" locate the file you just saved in Gimp and select "File" - "Print"
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please feel free to post them here.
