Blending colors to fill in white cut-out lines?

[Pier]

Hi all,

I've used GIMP in the past and have re-installed it to use it for creating a single photo where i inserted 1 cut-out image (as a layer) onto another image. The smaller image i have cut out has these white lines around it, which i would just like to blend in with the surrounding colors. I'm not really interested in making a better cut out, because the image that is cut out is very complex in shape. I would really just want to 'brush' the white line away. Is such a thing possible? I tried making a selection and using the feather tool, but this only makes the white marginally darker. I really just wanna extend the surrounding color into the white line if possible, or whatever solution. The image will just be used for a thumbnail, so doesn't have to be razor sharp at all in these details. 

Thanks in advance!

attached is a zoomed-in shot of the inserted image and white line

[rich2005]

The white border is due to left over pixels from your original selection. Depends how the selection is made but there are procedures to avoid that when making the selection.

From your screenshot: The layer in question is '000 aquila goed' make sure that is active.

Try first: 
Layer -> Transparency -> Alpha-to-Selection. Selection -> Invert (to select the background)
Then Edit -> Selection -> Grow and depending on image size grow the selection by 2 or 3 pixels. Next Edit -> Cut to delete those selected pixels.

Second try: (this is what I usually do, but it is time consuming)
Layer -> Mask -> Add Layer Mask and choose the Transfer layers alpha channel
Then with the layer mask active you can paint out the border pixels using foreground color black or when you make a mistake use white to correct. If you use a fuzzy brush say Hardness (25) you get a bit of semi-transparency and avoid hard edges.

[sallyanne]

can you paste the xcf? (Not sure if you are able here or not)
I would try to select the white area around the picture with the magic wand then delete. Some of the pixels are probably different colours so you may have to put the threshold up a little or select a few times.

[Pier]

thanks Rich, i was getting super impatient since i spent like 5 hours already on this silly image, so right after posting this i ended up just opening paint 3D and using the 'spraycan' tool to manually fill in the white spaces. It took me an hour but the result is near perfect actually. I really find GIMP so counter-intuitive. Like when you insert a new image you actually have to select the tool to move and resize it, while doing exactly that is the first step for anyone inserting an image onto another you would think. And 'escape' doesn't actually cancel a selection, you have to enter a menu to cancel a simple selection. It's really a shame if you ask me, things could be so much user friendly . Thanks anyway rich, i will save your advice for next time (which will come)

[rich2005]

Quote:... i ended up just opening paint 3D and using the 'spraycan' tool to manually fill in the white spaces. ...

Believe me, If I used Paint 3D I would have equal difficulties. It is all a learning curve and practice.

Cancel a selection - not ESC but shift-ctrl-A reverse of the standard select-all ctrl-A that many applications use.