The Glossary is in this post, the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is in the next post of this thread.

There are many GIMP questions that come up all the time. This is an attempt to get help from the community to gather those common questions. Post glossary terms and possible FAQ entries in this thread and try your hand at describing them. Be as brief as possible. If possible, give links to longer descriptions. Hopefully we can create a good resource for people to refer to.


GIMPtalk Glossary of Common Terms

Alpha channel
A channel, much like the channels for red, green, and blue (see "RGB"), but measures the opacity of each pixel in a layer. A pixel with low opacity will show underlying layers beneath it. You can add an alpha channel to your layer by right-clicking on it in the Layer dialogue and choosing Add alpha channel. You can adjust opacity in many ways, most commonly from the layer's opacity slider. Opacity ranges from 0 to 255 (0 to 100%) where 0 is fully transparent and 255 is fully opaque. See also "Opacity" and "Layer".

Avatar
An image, maximum 100x100 pixels of size here on GimpTalk, that is placed below the user's display name.

C4D
An abbreviation for the 3D graphics program Cinema4D. It is also used to describe abstract 3D-gendered graphics often used as special effects in signature making, regardless of if it it was done in Cinema4D or not. Many download such graphics ready-made from the web. Common places to look are planetrenders.net and deviantart.com.

Concept Art
Art used to show a concept or idea for some particular purpose. It is often produced as a digital painting (see "Ditigal painting"). Professional uses of Concept art are images and ideas for models and scenes for movies, computer games, architecture and city planning. The term applies to anything from rather quick and rough-looking concepts (to show and test several ideas to see if they "work") to full-blown masterpieces like the oil paintings done for the movie "Ran".

Digital painting
A term usually applied to computer-made art done from scratch using only the basic brush tools. It is produced in a similar way to how 'natural' media, like oil paintings or pencil drawings, is done but because of the unique possibilities with a computer, it need to mimic the look of real media at all.

Dithering
Dithering is a concept borrowed from newspaper printing. In computer graphics, it consists of placing pixels of two or more different colors close together so as to make it look like another, blended colour at a distance. The classic example is to alternate black and white pixels to emulate gray. This technique is often used to get more color shades out of a limited palette.

Fps
The number of frames rendered per second (stands for "frames per second"). Used in the context of animations. To trick the eye, an animation requires at least 16 fps, often more depending on subject.

Frame
A frame is still image that makes up an animation or video. Commonly referred to in GIMP's layer-based animation as well as in GAP (see "GAP").

File formats
BMP (BitMaP) - A file format supporting 1, 4, 8, or 24-bit color, and RLE compression (except for 24-bit color images).
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) - a file format, common on the internet, that uses a palette and supports up to 8-bit color and monochromatic transparency (either fully opaque or fully transparent). GIFs can also be animated.
JPG - a file format, common on the internet and with digital photographs, that uses lossy compression.
PNG - a file format, common on the internet, that uses lossless compression and supports transparency and up to 64-bit color.
TGA - a file format, often used with games, that supports RLE compression and transparency (32-bit color).
XCF - GIMP's native file format, which preserves almost everything (all layers, channels, selections - only undo history is not preserved).

GAP
Short for GIMP Animation Package, an optional module for GIMP allowing for the creation of advanced animation and effects.

GimpTalk CEO
This is a unique title held by user Ali Imran, the creator and owner of GimpTalk, who also controls the server and coding of the board, next to Ali Roman (see ("GimpTalk Technical officer").

GimpTalk Technical officer
Another unique title held by user Ali Roman, involved in the technical management of the server and coding of the board.

Grayscale mode
A GIMP image mode where only shades of gray are used.

GT
Short for GimpTalk. If you don't know what GimpTalk is, you'd better look around on the place where you found this glossary.

GTK+
Short for Gimp Tool Kit +. This is the custom library that supplies GIMP:s Graphical user interface, i.e. all windows, icons, tabs and so on. GTK has later come to be used in many other large open-source Linux software, like Gnome. Windows users used to have to install GTK+ separately, but beginning with GIMP 2.4 it comes included with the installer.

Indexed mode
A GIMP image mode that uses a palette for colors. Only the colours of this palette will be used. This is a useful mode for many form of iconic images and emoticons.

Layer
An image buffer that separates parts of your image from other parts. Layers can be of any size and form and can cover different parts of an image. They are always applied in a similar way to "glass plates" being stacked on top of each other. You can add, merge and hide layers, as well as choose which one to work on. You cannot affect or change the content of any other layer than the one you are working on, but the image will be a combination of all your layers in the stack. This makes for a good division of work, as well as helps avoid mistakes. Many GIMP filters are applied to whole layers only.

LP
Common abbreviation meaning "Large Piece". This is usually meant to mean a larger-size signature graphic, but tends to be used also for all forms of large non-signature graphics like digital paintings and photomanipulations.

Manager
One of GimpTalk's Senior moderators (see "Moderator") with some more privileges and access beyond a normal moderator.

Manuals
Gimp's manuals describe all aspects of the program and is available from the documentation secion of gimp.org. The latest english version is [here]. There are also many different languages [here]. PDFs of the manual can be downloaded [here].

Moderator
A user with special privileges such as editing or deleting anyone's posts, moving or splitting threads, and various other things normal users can't or are restricted to (users can edit their own posts, but not others' posts). They help keep the forums in good shape by removing spam, illegal content, and other things that don't obey the forum rules.

Opacity
Opacity is the opposite to Transparency, i.e. how hard it is to see through something. Only layers with an alpha channel can be tranparent (see "Alpha Channel"). Also all paint tools have separate levels of opacity to change how strongly they are applied to the canvas.

Perl
One of the scripting languages supported by GIMP. Perl is strongly influenced by C, Awk and Lisp programming languages. Perl is commonly used in industry, science and all sorts of situations requiring automation. See also "Scheme" and "Python", as well as "Scripting".

Python
One of the scripting languages supported by GIMP. Python is similar to Perl in some ways, but is generally considered to be easier to read and maintain. The language is fully object oriented and Python is widely used in a wide range of situations from science and industry to games like the MMORPG EVE online. Website is http://www.python.org/. See also, "Scheme", "Perl" and "Scripting".

Render
In 3D-graphics, a "render" is the result of rendering a 3D scene. In signature-making, a "render" is a foreground cut-out of a stock image (see "Stock"). By removing background that would otherwise disturb the image, the render can be applied on a new background with any choice of effects. The art of cutting out the render ("rendering") is a skill to master all of its own. http://planetrenders.net/ is a common source of pre-made renders for this purpose. Always be careful about copyright when using stocks and renders. Make sure the owner really allows you to use it.

RGB mode
A colour image mode, named after the three channels it uses: Red, Green, and Blue. The amount of possible values each channels can contain decides how smoothly a colour will blend into another. With enough possible values, "True colour" is achieved. Many of GIMPs filters and effects can only be applied while in RGB mode.

Scripting
Scripting is a way to automate repetetive tasks as well as enhance and customize GIMP beyond the normal setup. An example would be a script to save an image into several different formats and sizes, using different filenames, all in one go, without you having to manually resize and save each version. More complex scripts create new functionality, such as adding new filter effects or automates animation.
All operations in GIMP is really handled by a set of commands accepting text input. The fancy buttons in the toolbox and the choices in the menus only ease your communication with those functions by sending those text commands for you, with good defaults. Using any of the supported scripting languages you can bypass the graphical interface and talk to these functions directly. This requires more knowledge, but also offers vastly more power. The way you write commands to Gimp's functions (the API, the Application Programming Interface) depends on the scripting language you choose, and is different for e.g. Scheme and Python.

Scheme
A function-based programming language traditionally used in GIMP scripting, to automate tasks and enhance GIMP's functionality. Scheme is famous for the ease of creating recursive algorithms. With later editions of GIMP, scripting is no longer restricted to scheme, but can also be done in Perl and Python. See also "Scripting".

Sig, Signature
A signature graphic appearing after each post you do. You define your signature in the Gimptalk Account settings, by giving a web address to it enclosed in IMG tags (see FAQ on publishing images). A sig graphic is commonly of the order of 400x150 pixels (although it varies), and too large sigs that stretch the page are not allowed on Gimptalk. Creating sigs is a separate and popular art form with many unique expressions and measure of quality. The majority of graphics created at GimpTalk are signatures, and there is a wealth of tutorials dedicated to creating interesting signature graphics. Since there is lots of help to be had, making sigs is considered a good way to learn GIMP and graphics in general.

Stock
From "Stock picture", a photography term for an image meant to be used as a basis to create other images. Stocks are often cropped and manipulated to fit the current image, sometimes with considerable modification (See "render"). Often used in signature graphics. Always be careful about copyright when using stocks and renders. Make sure the owner really allows you to use it. http://stockart.deviantart.com/ has a large collection of free-to use stocks.

Tablet
A piece of hardware that allows you to draw using a special pen on a sensitive surface. The lines you draw on the tablet appears on the screen. In the simplest mode, tablets can act like a mouse, tapping the pen tip on the surface equals the left mouse button while buttons on the pen or possibly the back tip acts as the other mouse buttons. Tablets give several advantages when used with graphics programs like GIMP. They are often pressure sensitive, meaning that the pressure you apply affects what comes out in GIMP (you can set this yourself in each tool's tool options). More advanced tablets can also be sensitive to which angle the pen is held or how it is rotated, allowing it to act and feel much like a real drawing tool. Commonly used tablets are of the Wacom brand, which are also the only ones that are known to work well with Linux.

Gimptalk FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

The forum
Q: Who are in the staff on GIMPtalk?
Q: I'm new to GIMP and Gfx in general! Where should I start?
Q: Where do I turn for help?
Q: How do I post images on GIMPtalk?
Q: How do I post clickable thumbnails on GIMPtalk?
Q: How do I get an avatar below my name?
Q: I've uploaded an image, but linking to it I get some sort of replacement image. Why?

Using the program and its tools
Q: Which format should I choose to save my images in?
Q: I accidentally closed one of GIMP:s windows! How do I get them back?
Q: I "pulled out" a dock window from the main dock and now it's a separate window! How do I get it back?
Q: How do I customize which docks and buttons to see?
Q: I downloaded some neat brushes/fonts/patterns/etc, now how do I use them with GIMP?
Q: I try to erase something, but instead the eraser paints with my background colour! What to do?
Q: How do I move the contents of a selection by clicking in it (as I could do in GIMP2.2)?
Q: How can I remove the empty bar on top of the tool box (gimp2.6+)
Q: Text Tool: how to use special characters ...i cannot type or even paste them from the notepad

Performance, hardware and troubleshooting
Q: Gimp crash often i use Windows xp (or Vista)...how to fix?
Q: How do I do a clean install of GIMP?
Q: Gimp is not too responsive for me in Windows. Is there a way to speed it up?
Q: I want to buy a tablet for GIMP, which one should I use?
Q: My graphics tablet does not function right under GIMP?



The Forum

Q: Who are in the staff on GIMPtalk?
A: This is the crew:
Chief Executive Officers: Ali Imran, Ali Roman
Managers: PhotoComix, Griatch
Moderators: curly haired boy, greentunic, Ben9190, Cyrilshark, Frank34443

Q: I'm new to GIMP and Gfx in general! Where should I start?
A: Reading this FAQ is a good start. Also take a look at the Glossary in the post above for commonly-used terms you will often see in the forum. If you are new you could also do our Beginning GIMP tutorial.

Q: Where do I turn for help?
First you should read this FAQ and the Glossary to see if that helps you. After that, the place to turn here on GIMPtalk is the General Help forum. Before posting, make sure to read Posting guidelines & how to get a better help response.

Q: How do I post images on GIMPtalk?
A: You need to have the image stored somewhere on the web, so you have an address to it (if it is, for example, a jpg-image, the address will most likely end in .jpg). Paste that address into your post, mark it with the mouse and click the "Image" button above the text editor. Your address will be surrounded by IMG,/IMG tags in square brackets. Make sure "Disable BBCode" is not checked and click "Submit". Done, your image should show up.

Q: How do I post clickable thumbnails on GIMPtalk?
A: Easiest is to upload your image to an image host like http://www.imagehost.org/, http://www.pictiger.com/, http://imageshack.us/ or http://photobucket.com/. When you do you will get offered "Code for Forums". Just paste that code into your post, make sure "Disable BBCode" is not checked below the input window, and you're done.
Otherwise you need to manually supply what the imagehost does automatically for you: A web adress to your thumbnail (small image) and the address to your big image (the one you want to load when clicking thumbnail). You then wrap it in command 'tags' in your post. Wrap it like this (look at the output from an imagehost if you're still confused):

Q: How do I get an avatar below my name?
A: First, upload your image to some image-hosting area like imageshack, photobucket, etc.. The image needs to be 100x100 pixels and can be of the GIF, JPG, or PNG format. Then, once uploaded, copy the URL you get, click on "account settings" at the top, insert your password where indicated in order to update the profile, then scroll about halfway down to where you see "avatar". Paste the URL into here and click the "update information" button. To check the image, view one of your own posts and you should see it (refresh the page if needed).

Q: I've uploaded an image, but when linking to it I get some sort of replacement image. Why?
A: Some webhosts and image-hosting services, such as Angelfire, do not support hotlinking to images. Hotlinking is directly linking to non-webpage files, usually images, from another unrelated site. To resolve this, you must upload it to a site or service that supports hotlinking, such as your own paid webhost or image-hosting sites like imageshack or photobucket. With the URL now available, you should be able to display the image.


Using the program and its tools

Q: Which format should I choose to save my images in?
A: The native format of gimp is .xcf, this retains all layer information etc about your image but is not widely readable except in GIMP. A recommendation is to always work on your image in .xcf and use File->Save to save as you go. This way you can always go back to your image in GIMP and adjust any aspect of it. To present it to the world, use the File->Save a Copy function to export to (for example) .png, .jpg or .gif (see the Glossary entry File formats for more info about each format).

Q: I accidentally closed one or more of GIMP:s windows! How do I get them back?
A: Beginning with GIMP2.6 you can use the menu Windows->Recently closed docks to get your window(s) back. In that same menu you can also find and open all possible docks. In older GIMP versions, use File->Dialogues instead.

Q: I "pulled out" a dock window from the main dock and now it's a separate window! How do I get it back?
A: Click and hold in the window just below the menu bar (next to the small arrow in a square). Drag the window and drop it either in the same area of another window to add it as a tab, or at the bottom bar of another window to attach it to the bottom. The area you can drop to will change colour when you are in the right place. This is also shown with images in the Beginning GIMP tutorial.

Q: How do I customize which docks and buttons I see?
A: To add several tools to one dialogue, choose the little tab arrow at the top right of the dock and select the window you want. To "move" a tab from one dialogue to another, just click and drag the tab over to the other window. To attach the upper and lower edges of two windows together instead (so they move as one large dock), locate the area in the dialogue just below the regular window decorations (the empty area next to eventual tabs). Click and drag away from this area and you should get a little icon attached to your cursor. All dock windows have what looks like a thin horizontal bar at their lower edge (in the case of the toolbox, this is an area part of the window that says "drop cockable dialogues here" if you have nothing attached to it). Drag your icon onto this bar (it will shift colour). Release and your two dialogues will be connected together. This is all explained with pictures in our Beginning GIMP tutorial.

Q: I downloaded some neat brushes/fonts/patterns/etc, now how do I use them with GIMP?
A: First make sure that the things you downloaded really works with GIMP. Look at the GIMP manual on http://www.gimp.org/docs/ to see which formats are supported. Many Photoshop brushes are supported for example, but not all.
Second, open Preferences->Folders and locate the setting for the kind of resource you downloaded (e.g. Brushes). You will get a list of folders. Let's take brushes for an example. The folders listed in this section are all the places on your hard drive where GIMP looks for brush files. You have two choices:
1) Look for an existing folder in the list; find that on your harddrive and put all your new brush files in there. Click the reload button in the brush list and you should see the new brushes.
2) (recommended) Create a new folder somewhere on your harddrive and add this new folder to GIMP's list. Now put all your new brush files in that new folder. You need to restart GIMP for the new folder to be recognized. This is a good way to keep things orderly.

Q: I try to erase something, but instead the eraser paints with my background colour! What to do?
A: Your layer does not have an Alpha Channel (see the glossary entry 'Alpha Channel'), so the eraser cannot use transparency. Right-click your layer in the layer-list and select "Add alpha channel". The eraser should now work as you expect.

Q: How do I move the contents of a selection by clicking in it (as I could do in GIMP2.2)?
A: This changed in GIMP from version 2.4 and later. After having finalized the selection (which, in the case of rectangular or circular selections, requires clicking in it or pressing Return to get rid of the "fine-tune" handles), you can now click inside the selection while holding the keys Ctrl + Alt. This will allow you to move the contents. Note that you can do this only as the first operation after finalizing the selection. After that dragging the contents is done by applying cut&paste (Ctrl-x,Ctrl-p) or copy&paste (Ctrl-c,Ctrl-p) on your selection. This creates a floating layer which you can move around with the Move tool.

Q: How can I remove the empty bar on top of the tool box (gimp2.6+)
A:Locate your gimprc file. Linux users find it under ~/.gimp2.6/, Windows users usually find it in C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\etc\gimp\2.0. Edit the gimprc file in a text editor and add the line (toolbox-wilber no) to it. Restart GIMP and the empty row should be gone.

Q:Text Tool: how to use special characters ...i cannot type or even paste them from the notepad
A : try this
Ctrl+Shift+U+<unicode>
This is how you do enter any Unicode character in a GTK+-based application.





Performance, hardware and troubeshooting

Q: Gimp crash often i use Windows xp (or Vista)...how to fix?
A: look at Start|My Computer|View System Information|System Properties|Advanced|Performance Settings|Advanced|Virtual Memory|
Note what value is set for "Total paging file size for all drives"
If you click on Change , It should tell you a recommended size as set by windows. Set that (recommended ) value in the Initial Size box and set double that value in the Maximum Size box.
Generally the paging file size should be about 1.5 times the available ram . You can find this value by going to Windows Task Manager on the performance tab. There you will find the Total in Physical Memory in Kbytes (eg 3406252 if you have 4 GB installed). The difference in available and installed storage is because Windows uses that storage for address translation (real to virtual) and other essential housekeeping tasks.
Q: How do I do a clean install of GIMP?
A: A clean install is an installation made as if the program was never installed before, even though it was. This is useful for troubleshooting or reverting back to an older, otherwise more stable version. The method depends on the operating system, but most trouble has been reported with the Windows version. The steps marked as optional don't have to be done, but a cleaner install is possible when all optional steps are done. Don't do a clean install unless you have tried everything else! Most issues have a simple solution, ask in the Help forum first.

For Windows:
1. Close GIMP completely (use Windows Task Manager (press control+alt+delete to bring it up) to terminate any gimp-2.2.exe and scriptfu.exe processes you find.
2. Access the Windows control panel and go to add/remove programs.
3. Remove The GIMP following the dialogs and the typical uninstall procedure.
4. Open Windows Explorer and go to where you installed GIMP. This is usually "C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.x\" (where x is the version of gimp you have). If you downloaded/added any new scripts, brushes, etc. here you may want to back these up (copy them to another temporary folder). Once you have backed up, delete this entire folder. (Note, to avoid having to backup your custom files like this, it's better to put your custom brushes/patterns etc in a separate user-defined folder. See our beginner tutorial or the relevant help entry in this FAQ for more info).
5. (Optional) Browse to your user settings folder (usually C:\Documents and Settings\##username##\gimp-2.x\) and back-up any content, put it in a different place as you put your backups (if any) from step 4. Then delete all files in this folder.
6. (Optional) Restart your computer.
7. Download the latest GIMP and install it in in the normal way.
8. If you backed up any data files in step 4, put these back in their corresponding folders for the new gimp version.
9. (Optional) Put back the back-upped files you saved in step 5, if any. Note that these are the settings of the program, so if you really want to start fresh, you should accept the default ones that came with your new install instead.

For Linux
Normally you should use your distribution's package manager to revert back to an older gimp version if you are having trouble with the latest one. Only if the automatic installation fails should the below be attempted.
1a. Use your distribution's package manager to remove or purge gimp.
1b. ... Or, if you compiled from sources, remove the install directory.
2. Make sure to remove/rename the gimp config files in ~/.gimp2.x.x (these end in *rc, like for example 'menurc')
3. Use 'whereis gimp' at a terminal to locate remaining gimp support files, if any. Rename or delete these directories.
4. Reinstall GIMP by your chosen method.


Q: Gimp is not too responsive for me in Windows. Is there a way to speed it up?
A:Some antivirus programs will slow down Gimp if it is not included in the list of of their "trusted applications". So putting the gimp in your virus scanner's trusted applications list may speed things up drastically.

Q: I want to buy a tablet for GIMP, which one should I get?
A: There are many brands to choose from, in various price classes. They can often be found in or ordered from your local computer outlet. [Wacom] tablets are often recommended even though they are a bit more expensive than many other brands. They are also the only ones to be well supported in Linux. Wacom tablet pens also don't use batteries at all, which cheaper brands often do. When choosing a surface size of tablet, do not be seduced into buying a large-size one (which is much more expensive): The resolution of tablets is so high that you do not need a large physical size to do detail work, instead it can become more straining to have to move your hand further. If you want to paint over the entire canvas in one stroke, that's what GIMP's zoom function is for anyway. The only time you want a larger tablet is if you are an avid painter and is used to be moving your hand in large wide strokes. In the case of Wacom tablets, the general recommendation is to go for the smallest and cheapest Bamboo or Bamboo Fun (A6 drawing surface). The difference between those and more expensive models are far, far less than the step up from mouse to tablet. Help to set up Wacom tablets with GIMP can be found [here]). Ask in the forums for help with other brands.

Q: My graphics tablet does not function right under GIMP?
A: Is it a Wacom tablet? You're lucky, because then you can read the Getting Wacom tablets to work thread. Don't forget to check out the comments to that thread too if you have trouble. Otherwise you'd better post a question in the general help forum. Describe your problem as well as possible.

Stock: A piece that still has a background of something
Render: An image that has no background and is saved as a .png to preserve it from not having a background.

Forum-related:
Sig - an image that is displayed a user's signature area, the content added at the end of each post from that user
Avatar - an image, usually around 80x80 pixels on most forums, that is placed below the user's display name.
Post - a message on the forums.
Thread - a group of messages on a forum usually with a specific topic.
Category - a group of threads with a specific topic, such as "GIMP General Help", used to get help with using GIMP.
Moderator - a user with special privileges such as editing or deleting anyone's posts, moving or splitting threads, and various other things normal users can't or are restricted to (users can edit their own posts, but not others' posts). They help keep the forums in good shape (removing spam, illegal content, and other things that don't obey the forum rules).
Administrator - a user with more privileges than a moderator in that they have full control over the forums, such as the creation of new categories, assigning moderators.

General image-creation:
RGB - an image mode, named after the 3 channels it uses, red, green, and blue, that is often called "true color".
grayscale - an image mode where only shades of gray are used.
indexed - an image mode that uses a palette for colors.
alpha channel - a channel, much like red, green, and blue, which is often used for transparency. It ranges from 0 to 255 (0 to 100%) where 0 is fully transparent and 255 is fully opaque.
layer - a separate image that makes up a larger image, drawn bottom up (higher layers are drawn on top of the next lower layer).
palette - a group of colors, often used for indexed mode or frequently used colors.
channel - a group of 8-bit values used to compose an image. RGB mode uses 3 main channels - red, green, and blue, but sometimes alpha. Channels can also be of selections.
gradient - a blend of multiple colors from one color to another. The basic gradient involves the foreground color fading to the background color. That is, red fading to yellow would have orange about halfway between and golden-yellow close to the yellow.
canvas size - the size of the image, usually in pixels.
physical size - the size of the image in physical units such as inches or centimeters, dependent on the image resolution.

Animation-related:
frame - a still image that makes up an animation or video.
fps - the number of frames rendered per second (stands for "frames per second").

File formats:
BMP (BitMaP) - a file format supporting 1, 4, 8, or 24-bit color, and RLE compression (except for 24-bit color images).
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) - a file format, common on the internet, that uses a palette and supports up to 8-bit color and monochromatic transparency (either fully opaque or fully transparent). GIFs can also be animated.
JPG - a file format, common on the internet and with digital photographs, that uses lossy compression.
PNG - a file format, common on the internet, that uses lossless compression and supports transparency and up to 64-bit color.
TGA - a file format, often used with games, that supports RLE compression and transparency (32-bit color).
XCF - GIMP's native file format, which preserves almost everything (all layers, channels, selections - only undo history is not preserved).

General image-related content:
RLE compression - RLE, standing for "run-length encoded", is a lossless file compression method which involves repeating a set amount of data. For example, the notation "2D 01 20 40 80 FF" means that the HTML color 804020 (a brownish color) at full opacity is repeated 300 times. The first part is the number of times to repeat something (0 for special things) and that after it is what is repeated.
lossy compression - a compression method that alters the data, such as with JPG or MP3 (or almost all video codecs), where the alterations are minimal to maximize compression. Repeatedly saving a lossy compressed image gradually deteriorates the quality.
lossless compression - a compression method that does not modify the data to enhance compression, such as GIF and PNG.
dithering - the concept of blending two different colors together to simulate another color, often used to get more colors for a smaller palette.

Other GIMP-related content:
Scheme - the programming language that GIMP uses to automate specific tasks, whether loading a series of files for an animation, or creating a random-stone texture. (please clarify)
Histogram - a graph that shows the amount of values over the entire layer.

For FAQ questions:

Q. How do I get an avatar below my name?
A. First, upload your image to some image-hosting area like imageshack, photobucket, etc.. The image needs to be 100x100 pixels and can be of the GIF, JPG, or PNG format. Then, once uploaded, copy the URL you get, click on "account settings" at the top, insert your password where indicated in order to update the profile, then scroll about halfway down to where you see "avatar". Paste the URL into here and click the "update information" button. To check the image, view one of your own posts and you should see it (refresh the page if needed).

Q. I've uploaded an image, but I get something else instead of it. Why?
A. Some webhosts and image-hosting services, such as Angelfire, do not support hotlinking to images. Hotlinking is directly linking to non-webpage files, usually images, from another unrelated site. To resolve this, you must upload it to a site or service that supports hotlinking, such as your own paid webhost or image-hosting sites like imageshack or photobucket. With the URL now available, you should be able to display the image.

Q. How do I do a clean install of GIMP?
A. A clean install is an installation made as if the program was never installed before, even though it was. This is useful for troubleshooting or reverting back to an older, otherwise more stable version. The method depends on the operating system. The steps marked as optional don't have to be done, but a cleaner install is possible when all optional steps are done.

For Windows:
1. Close GIMP completely (use Windows Task Manager (press control+alt+delete to bring it up) to terminate any gimp-2.2.exe and scriptfu.exe processes you find.
2. Access the Windows control panel and go to add/remove programs.
3. (Optional) Download the version you want, usually the newest version (accessible here).
4. Remove The GIMP following the dialogs and the typical uninstall procedure.
5. Open Windows Explorer and go to where you installed GIMP. This is usually "C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.2\". If you added any scripts, brushes, etc. here instead of the dedicated user folder, you may want to back these up (copy them to another temporary folder). Delete this entire folder after having backed up what you wanted.
6. (Optional) Browse to your user folder (usually C:\Documents and Settings\##username##\gimp-2.2\) and back up any content, as done in step 4 (though a different folder would be better). Delete all files here.
7. (Optional) Restart your computer.
8. Install GIMP following the dialogs.

For Linux:
(please expand on this - it should be somewhat similar to the Windows method involving the deleting and uninstalling but I have no experience with Linux)

For Macintosh:
(see the above for Linux)

Q. How do I do a clean install of the GTK+?
A. Repeat the same procedure for a clean install of The GIMP, except the install folder to be deleted is located at C:\Program Files\common files\GTK\ and there shouldn't be any user-related files to backup and delete.

Q. What is the GTK+ for?
A. The GTK+ (sometimes referred to as just "GTK") is used for Windows as it contains Windows-related functions such as those for the menus or the displaying of the image in the image window. (clarification and accuracy should be verified, I'm only 90% certain)





As a suggestion, for the glossary anyway, perhaps a dictionary-like format can be used, and arranged alphabetically? My site does that for my commonly used terms. For the FAQ, I would think they could be arranged based first on subject (such as one subject for tools, another for animation, etc.), likely arranged alphabetically, then by topic, which then contains the information. For tutorials, something similar can be done as with the FAQ except that it contains the difficulty (beginner, advanced, expert, and master).

Edit: added two FAQ questions, created "categories" for my glossary entries, added many other forum-related glossary entries.

Edit #2: Scheme, palette, channel, histogram, gradient, canvas size, and physical size added to glossary.

Edit #3: Added 3 new FAQ questions - 2 for clean installs and one for what the GTK+ is.

Thanks. Grouping is a good idea. Let's wait until we have a little more until doing that though. For now it's all in alphabetical order. And as for tutorial, there are already massive indices of those to be found in the tutorial forums (as for adding difficulty levels, it's all a matter of putting down a lot of work to do it. Plus that the current forum posts seem to have a character limit if you squeeze in too much at a time).

A more formal system to store a glossary would be nice, but that's up to the Admins. I'm just setting this up to gather data.
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Griatch

Grouping for the FAQ would be decent, but until more are added (such as another for how to become a moderator (that I don't know)). Here's some proposed categories (importance from 1 to 3 with 1 being of maximum importance for creating the category):

Forum-related - FAQ involving the forums. Importance: 1
Common image-creation tasks - tasks that are commonly used such as removing backgrounds from images. Importance: 1
GIMP user interface - FAQ involving the user interface of GIMP such as the usage of GIMP's tools or bringing up lost dialogs. Importance: 3
GIMP Troubleshooting - FAQ that cover tips on how to troubleshoot various problems with the GIMP. Importance: 1
Forum Troubleshooting - FAQ that cover tips on how to troubleshoot various problems involving the forums (such as using ping to tell if the server is having problems or something is going on with your network or ISP). Importance: 2

By the difficulty, I mean by the degree of skill the user already has with GIMP. A user just starting or learning the basics of GIMP (such as how to use the path tool or create layers) would look into the beginner tutorials. An advanced-level tutorial would be used to accomplish something of an easy difficulty using GIMP's tools and features. Expert involves complex tutorials that are a bit tricky to do or involve advanced things with GIMP, things that are more advanced than the "advanced" difficulty. I don't think there should be a "master". My animation creation tutorial is more toward the "advanced" zone as a comparison.

Edit: GT should be placed below "grayscale mode" - T comes after R (20 > 18 as I see it). This would make it easier to find for those who don't know what GT stands for. A user checking the glossary would look for "GT", but seeing that the alphabetical order is wrong, they may get confused which is why I'm suggesting this. This should apply to all abbreviations.

Edit #2: as to the fps, I've seen, on one TV show (Understanding Television) that it's 16 fps rather than 12 to make it seem like it was in motion, or, at least, that's the average anyway.

As said, the grouping is a good idea, but will have to wait until more additions are in.



We used to have a system like this for the tutoruals (1-4 wilburs if I recall correctly), but as I said, it's a matter of workload, going through it all and manually giving them ratings, with several new ones being added every day. There's also a practical size limit to posts that were an issue if I remember correctly. (As a side note, judging from your homepage, I'd personally say your procedure of animating using with external aides (spreadsheets etc) would probably class as master-level when it comes to GIF-making).



Lol, no need to motivate your suggestion. The alphabetical order was off. Fixed. Thanks for the pointer.



Wikipedia confirms that value, so I've changed it.
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Griatchh

In animation, would "Layers" be the same as "Frames"??

pretty much, in the process of making it theres no difference because you can either optomise the image or type in the timing and anim method, example (100ms)(combine)

I just saw this


:


there is , a difference between TV and Video from one side , and traditional Cinema on the other

In Cinema values UNDER 16 fps were used at beginning of the Cinema and that made old movies "jumpy".. but that is for cinema

Television screen are more progressive in apply the changes from one frame to another
in other words in Cinema there is a sudden change from a frame to the next, but video screen have more progressive changes , that is something connected to the way pixels are displayed on a screen.

So basically you can risk less frame, but only if you are not interested in a analogical version...well that is the most usual case but will work good only in digital media, not for analogical movie (so you will be not able to convert for projection a Film with less then 16fps...except of course VIDEO projection) :w:

where do i get help on how to use gimp

@mimmik

This forum (The Help forum) sounds like a good place to start, I would think.
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Griatch

Updated some of the things and added to the FAQ.
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Griatch

Added help about save formats to the FAQ.
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Griatch

Added info about tablets to both Glossary and FAQ.
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Griatch

added a faq on how speed up gimp on windows (by adding Gimp to the antivirus, antimalware list of "trusted processes" )
simple but often quite effective

What's a clipping mask and how do I use it? If someone knows, please PM me.

I am a newbie here.
Thanks for your grouping.

Restructured the FAQ a bit, adding a few more tidbits. Added some more entries to the Glossary.
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Griatch

Griatch, I use a Mac so I probably know how to clean install or whatever you call it lol.
But I'm not exactly sure what it is? Just totally deleting everything gimp-related to gimp (except xcfs or whatever)?

edit: nvm I got it. I'll work on it asap.

Added a new FAQ entry on re-adding windows in the interface.

@Cyrilshark

Thanks, we really need more information for/from mac users.
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Griatch

Added a new FAQ "Text Tool: how to use special characters ...i cannot type or even paste them from the notepad"

Solution was apparently impossible to find since is not reported in the gimp manual or as far i know anywhere else...i just stumbled over the answer for pure luck
a bit to late for me, i had to use other SW to finish a Logo, but i hope may be useful to others

Hey I'm new here,but I have a problem on Gimp,you know were you access all the brush's,below all the tool options,like the scale,opacites,all that stuff,when I was making a wallpaper,I double clicked by accident on the tools section or somewhere near there and all the stuff is gone,the tools are still there,but all the other stuff were you find the Brush's and fonts are gone,I really need them back,it makes my work much more harder so I please tell me how to fix it,thanks in advance.

Sorry if this is the wrong place,but Graitch told me to come here.

PLEASE help,I uninstalled GIMP and reinstalled it,and the settings still stayed,PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help,why isn't anyone responding.

Under the Windows Menu, select "Dockable Dialogs->Tool Options". A new window should appear that displays the name of currently active tool at the top (for example, "Paintbrush"). When you hover the mouse pointer over that name, the pointer will change to a hand. Click and drag that window over to the area under the Toolbox where it says "You can drop dockable dialogs here."

To add other dialogs, the procedure is quite similar: open the window using "Windows->Dockable Dialog->...", hover the mouse over the dialog's name, and drag-n-drop the window over the name in the dialog that is under the Toolbox.