How To Copy and Paste in Gimp 2.8

Tammy asked this question:

I am an absolute beginner, and I am SCOURING the web just trying to find how to do a SIMPLE CUT AND PASTE — cutting something out of a photo and just moving it to another part of the SAME photo. Do you have a tutorial on how to do this?? I’d also like to know how to enlarge it once I move it.

Thanks so much in advance,

Tammy

Well Tammy, I always recommend that any new Gimp user watches my how to use Gimp for beginners video tutorials before they get too far into Gimp. Those lessons will help you a lot.

From what I’ve read, it sounds like you need to learn a bit about layers. Layers are the 3′rd lesson in the series, so once you watch that one, you can probably come back and what I say below will make a lot more sense if it doesn’t already.

Floating Selections in Gimp 2.8

To copy and paste something in Gimp, create your selection and then hit edit>>>copy.  Once you do that, move to the file that you want to paste and hit edit>>>paste.  Simple, right?  Well this is where people usually get hung up.  When you click edit>>>paste, Gimp creates something called a floating selection.  A floating selection is exactly what the name suggests – it’s a layer that is floating around, without a layer to be anchored to.  Since everything in Gimp is on some sort of layer, you have to tell Gimp where you want this selection to go.  If you want this selection on it’s own layer, right-click on the floating selection in the layers dockable dialog and click “to new layer.”  If you want the selection to merge with your currently selected layer, click “anchor layer.”

Scaling a layer in Gimp 2.8

Gimp has a collection of different transformation tools that will let you change the size, shape, direction, and orientation of a layer.  Each of these tools work by clicking on their respective tool in the tool box, and then clicking on your canvas, and they will modify whatever layer you currently have active.  When you start any of these tools up they will have various boxes, or handles that can be clicked on and dragged around to modify the layer.

Scale

The scale tool will take your layer, and make it larger or smaller by scaling it up or down.  This is probably the tool that you will want to use to make your pasted layer smaller or larger.  The tool is located on your toolbox, and it looks like this:

Tip – Never Scale Up:

As with any raster-based photo program, scaling an image up will make the image larger, but you will ultimately lose quality.  Try to get into the habit of using large images and scaling them down instead.

Related posts

What You Need to Know about Gimp 2.8′s Layer Groups

How to use Gimp for Beginners lesson 3 – Layers and Selections

  Tammy asked this question: I am an absolute beginner, and I am SCOURING the web just trying to find how to do a SIMPLE CUT AND PASTE — cutting...