Foreground Select tool

[JackOats]

Quote:The g'mic plugin is included.
You need an open image otherwise it is grayed-out. 

O.K. Found it - but, as you said, it is greyed out.

Quote:You need an open image

How does one do this, please?

[rich2005]

(05-12-2017, 08:02 AM)JackOats Wrote:

Quote:You need an open image

How does one do this, please?

File -> Open (some existing image)
or
File -> New for a blank canvas. (not much you can do straight away with a blank canvas)

[JackOats]

O.K. Got it. Many thanks.

[Espermaschine]

According to my experience, these tools are pretty useless. Same with the G'MIC extract foreground filter.
I hardly ever use them.

Hopefully these tools will be improved in a future version of Gimp because from my experience the quick selection tool in Photoshop works really well.

For quick jobs i always use the lasso tool.
Sometimes a layermask works well, or a a channel as the base for a layermask.
For example with a blue sky, you can make use of the Hue and decompose the image.
In the end, you will get the best results with the paths tool and a layermask.

[rich2005]

Quote:According to my experience, these tools are pretty useless. Same with the G'MIC extract foreground filter.
I hardly ever use them.

It is a matter of use and as you say you hardly ever use them

For a quick and very reasonable foreground extract g'mic is useful. This from a couple of years ago, using g'mic. The default settings have changed since then, from single layer to 2 layers (FG/BG) but the basics are the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKSflRIaKIo about 5 minutes

Quote:Hopefully these tools will be improved in a future version of Gimp because from my experience the quick selection tool in Photoshop works really well.

Not everyone uses Photoshop.

Quote:For quick jobs i always use the lasso tool.
Sometimes a layermask works well, or a a channel as the base for a layermask.
For example with a blue sky, you can make use of the Hue and decompose the image.
In the end, you will get the best results with the paths tool and a layermask.

Again, it depends on the image which tool to use. A path, then path-to-selection will produce a very clean cut-out but can be very time consuming and for a beginner a real PITA.

However I usually end up with a layer mask since this is a non-destructive form of editing.

Some thoughts here: https://youtu.be/rOjClRu2sy0 about 5 minutes.

[Espermaschine]

(05-12-2017, 06:50 PM)rich2005 Wrote: For a quick and very reasonable foreground extract g'mic is useful.

Trust me, i have tried it many times and never got a good result. Setting the markers can take ages and then the filter still doesnt get it right.
Its also not very intuitive to use.
On top of that, it crashed a lot.

Quote:Not everyone uses Photoshop.

Its not about photoshop, its about the technology.
You could think from working with the rendering tools Gimp is offering, that it just doesnt work very well.
But it does. Gimp just needs a little bit more development for these tools.
And im sure it will happen, as soon as the developers are ready with the next generation of Gimp.

Im not saying use photoshop. Its hardly a good program in my opinion. Especially for the price.
Im saying there are working tools to select and extract, and Gimp will have them in time.
I mean the Scissor tool is already there, it just needs a better edge detection.

[wdr89113]

I have Gimp 2.10.14 and running on Mac OSX Catalina

I am having an issue with the foreground select tool as well.  I am new to Gimp but fairly experienced with selections and masks, etc from Photoshop.  If I use a simple drawing, by simple I mean a square with a circle in the middle, two different colors, I can get the tool to work beautiful....IE rough select around the circle, enter to display the the rough background make, paint the foreground roughly, preview the proposed mask then enter or select to apply.  The circle has the little crawling ant, just as it is supposed to.  

When I try to do this on an opened jpg file, the result is not the same.  I have added an alpha channel, etc.  This image shows the mask (light green) after the final steps prior to applying the mask and with Preview selected.  It is a little rough I know but shows what I have done.  
   



If I select ENTER (Return on the MAC) or Click on Select in the Mask Preview Window, this is the result:
   


Any help is greatly appreciated.  I have tried this multiple times. (many multiple times on different png and jpeg ) and the result is the same.

[rich2005]

I recall some problems with selections involving MacOS display. Not able to locate any references easily.

Just to confirm your usage of the tool is like this: https://i.imgur.com/VZA5msw.mp4 It does take more than the single stroke across the area these days (at least that is what I find)

You can report bugs here: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues

[wdr89113]

Yes it is exactly like the steps you showed up to the point after you click on select. At that point I get the result shown on my last image. I can't go beyond that because the foreground select , with the crawling ants, does not appear. I will report this a a possible bug. Thank you very much for responding.

---

I downloaded GIMP on my other computer which is running an older version of MAC OSX and it worked correctly.  I assume it has something to do with OSX Catalina on my computer.  I will report it as a bug.  

Thanks for your help.