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5.
How to Draw Straight Lines
This tutorial is based on Text and images Copyright © 2002 Seth Burgess.
The original tutorial can be found in the internet
[TUT01].
This tutorial shows you how you can do straight lines with GIMP, using a
feature called the Shift Key. Straight lines are a convenient way to
make things that aren't so terribly affected by the imprecision of a
mouse or tablet, and to take advantage of the power of a computer to
make things look neat and orderly. This tutorial doesn't use Straight
Lines for complex tasks; its intended to show how you can use it to
create quick and easy line effects.
-
Preparations
The invention called the typewriter introduced the
Shift
Key. You generally have 2 of them on your keyboard. They look
something like the picture on the left. They are located on the left
and right sides of your keyboard. The other invention, called the
Mouse, was invented by Douglas C. Engelbart in 1970. These come in
different varieties, but always have at least one button located on
them. They are located on your desk, or sometimes on a mouse pad.
-
Creating a Blank Drawable
First, create a new image. Any size will do. You can do so by
selecting
+
from the menu in the toolbox window.
-
Choose a Tool
Then click on the paintbrush. Any of the red-highlighted tools on
the above toolbox can do lines.
-
Create a Starting Point
After you click the paintbrush tool, you can click the image. A
single dot will appear on the screen. The size of this dot
represents the current brush size, which you can change in the Brush
Dialog (see Section 3.2, ““Brushes” Dialog”). Now, lets start
drawing a line. Hold down the Shift button, and
keep it down.
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Drawing the Line
After you have a starting point, and have held down the
Shift
Key, you'll see a line like above if you're running GIMP version
1.2.x or later. Press the first button on the Mouse (the leftmost
one usually) and then let it go. During that whole
“click” of the Mouse button,
you need to keep the Shift Key held down.
-
Final
See how the line is drawn on top of the preview? This is a powerful
feature of the Paint Brush. You can use it with any of the tools shown
in step 3, or even draw more lines at the end of this one. Our last step
is to let go of the Shift
key. And there you have it. Some more examples are shown below.
Questions? Comments? Let us know. Happy GIMPing!
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