Editing Shapes

[jsin44]

I'm trying to edit two existing shapes on my project and can't figure out how to do that (first time using the software). On the attached image I want to add a coloured border to the large black circle and adjust the size & dimensions of the white box that the red text is in. I am trying to select the layer and use the rectangle /ellipse tool to start editing but that only makes a new shape as far as I can tell. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[rickk]

(01-28-2021, 06:41 PM)jsin44 Wrote: I'm trying to edit two existing shapes on my project and can't figure out how to do that (first time using the software). On the attached image I want to add a coloured border to the large black circle and adjust the size & dimensions of the white box that the red text is in. I am trying to select the layer and use the rectangle /ellipse tool to start editing but that only makes a new shape as far as I can tell. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Use the "select/all", then the "edit/copy" and then the "edit/paste as/new image" functionality to create 3 identical copies.

In  any one of those, use the color picker to get the black color  of your circle, and then with a brush paint out the white box and gold text entirely, leaving you  with just the black circle.

Select the color border you want, and use floodfill to paint the circle the color of your choice.

Using the "magic wand"  tool, select your newly colored circle, and then in the "select" menu choose "Grow". A small dialog window will pop up allowing you to specify the number of pixels you want to symmetrically enlarge the circle. ( I chose "25" in the example that follows)

Now, your border background circle is ready to "Copy"  .....and then moving over to one of the other original copies you made, select "paste as/new layer".   Once that has been done you'll  probably have to go over into the "layers"dialog on the far right side of the gimp application where you will see  two layers depicted, and you'll have to switch their top-to-bottom order, to get the smaller circle in front of the big one.  Doing a "click drag" to place one above the other should do the trick.. ultimately you  want your black circle above the colored circle you made for the border.    then  right click on the top listing (the black circle in the list), and select "Merge Down" from the menu, combining both images into one. 

Then, with black once again selected as your color, "paint out" the white box, making it invisible.

Go over the the 3rd copy you made of the original picture, and use your rectangle select tool to select  as much of the white box with red text as you plan to use in your final picture. You might want to include a slice of black all the way around to make blending-in easier....or not,...it's up to you. But after your selection, select "copy", and then move back over to the picture that we just finished restacking the layers,

Select "paste as/ new layer"   and then you can use your move tool  to place that smaller, white box  layer anywhere you want. 

You can also use "layer/scale layer" to make the white box however big or small you want it to be,  and then do the "merge down" operation again to combine it with the base layer.

Then, if need be, use your pencil tool with black as your color, to do any final "trimming"  needed for the white box

example:

[tmanni]

A fast way to add a colored border to the large black circle :
1) click on the layer in the layers list to make it the active layer ("Matter Background" in your image)
2) menu Filters > Light and Shadow > Drop Shadow...
- set X and Y to 0.0
- Blur radius to 0.0 (or a small value if you want a bit of smoothing)
- Grow radius to whatever you want ; it will be the thickness of the border
- Color to the desired color
- Opacity to 1.0

To adjust the size & dimensions of the white box :
1) click on the layer in the layers list to make it the active layer ("a" in your image)
2) menu Layer > Crop to content ; it will make the layer size equal to the white box (currently in your image, the layer size is the same as the image canvas, denoted by the yellow/black outline)
3) menu Tools > Transform Tools > Scale
- click-and-drag the anchors around the layer to change its size