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Cut, Copy, and Paste

These three commands are so common that they hardly need a presentation. As with ordinary word processing, cutting and copying a part of an image places that selection in a local buffer. When you choose "Paste", Gimp takes that selection from the buffer and turns it into a Floating Selection, which you can either anchor to a layer, or put in a layer of its own. Notice that the default shortcut keys for these commands are the same as in most other programs; Ctrl+X for Cut, Ctrl+C for Copy and Ctrl+V for Paste. I hope that you have noticed the fantastic possibility with dynamic key-bindings in Gimp. If you don't like the default settings, you can choose any shortcut key you like for a certain command by simply typing the new shortcut in the menu! Read more about it in chapter X.

Paste Into

Paste Into is a very useful command when you want to insert an image into a defined shape in another image. To use it you first need to copy or cut the image you want to paste. Then you make a selection shape in the target image (if you use a little feather, you'll get wonderfully soft edges to your selection). Choose Paste Into, and the image you copied will appear inside the selection. The initial position isn't fix, you can easily move the image with the Move tool, to place it exactly where you want it before you anchor it.

Cut, Copy and Paste Named

You're probably used to that as soon as you copy or cut something new, the old copy will be replaced by the new one. Now you don't have to worry about this anymore, because Cut, Copy and Paste Named allows you to use a buffer which can hold a great number of cut images. If you're cutting and pasting a lot of images this is great! This is how it works: When you have made a selection of an image that you want to cut or copy, choose Cut/Copy Named. A small dialog box pops up and asks you to enter a name for your selection. This will place your selection in a buffer. When you want to paste one of the selections you have named and put in the Named buffer, choose Paste Named. This command pops up a dialog where you can see a list of all the selections you have saved here. To paste a selection, just choose its name and press "Paste", and your selection will appear as a Floating Selection in the active image. The option Replace Current Selection allows you to replace a (non-floating) selection in the image with a selection from your list. Replace Current Selection unchecked gives the same result as "Paste Into", if you already have a selection in the image. If you try to do the same with a floating selection you'll just anchor the old float to the image, and make the new selection into a new float in the same place as the old one. You can also delete a selection from the list if you no longer need it. The Cut/Paste Named command is very useful, just remember that the Named buffer only exists as long as your Gimp session. If you want to save a selection more permanently, you'd better save it in a separate layer in your image.

Clear, Fill and Stroke

Clear works much like cutting, without saving what you cut away. It's a powerful command. Used in a layer, it will delete everything and leave an empty, transparant layer. Used on a selection it will delete or cut everything inside of it, leaving only the "marching ants". Used on the background it will all background information, and leave only the background color in the BG color swatch in the Tool box.

Fill is the equivalent of the Bucket Fill with a maximum fill threshold. It's not as sophisticated as the Bucket Fill, but it's quick, easy and efficient.

Stroke is a quite interesting command. It creates a color frame around the selection edge. This frame is based entirely of what brush you're using, and what brush options you have set in the Brush Selection Dialog. Try using Stroke with different brushes and different settings for Spacing, Mode and Opacity. You'll find that Stroke can be quite versatile.

Undo and Redo

These options should be self-explanatory. The only thing I'll say about them is that you use them so often that it's a good idea to learn their key shortcuts by heart. The default is Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+R.