5.1. Intention

Figure 3.45. Example of straight lines

This tutorial shows you how to draw straight lines with GIMP. Forcing a line to be straight is a convenient way to deal with 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 straight lines.

1. Preparations

   Figure 3.46. Introducing the Shift-key

   

   

   The invention called the typewriter introduced the Shift Key. You generally have 2 of them on your keyboard. They look something like the figure above. The keys are located on the left and right sides of your keyboard. The mouse was invented by Douglas C. Engelbart in 1970. These come in different varieties, but always have at least one button.

2. Creating a Blank Drawable

   Figure 3.47. New image

   

   First, create a new image. Any size will do. Use File → New to create a new image.

3. Choose a Tool

   Figure 3.48. Paint tools in the toolbox

   

   Any of the red-highlighted tools on the above toolbox can do lines.

4. Create a Starting Point

   Figure 3.49. Starting point

   

   Click on the paintbrush in the toolbox. Click in the image where you want a line to start or end. 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, let’s start drawing a line. Hold down the Shift key, and keep it down.

5. Drawing the Line

   Figure 3.50. Drawing the line

   

   After you have a starting point and while pressing the Shift key, you will see a straight line that follows the cursor. Press the first button on the mouse (the leftmost one usually) and let it go. During that whole “click” of the mouse button, you need to keep the Shift key held down.

6. Final

   Figure 3.51. Final Image

   

   This is a powerful feature. You can draw straight lines with any of the draw tools. You can even draw more lines at the end of this one. Our last step is to let go of the Shift key, and we are finished. Some examples are shown in the next section. Happy GIMPing!