[CALUG] gimp : layers and text boxes

[Dave Dodge]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 09:40:19PM -0700, Walt Smith wrote:
> I want each text object (each is now a layer ) to have the same
> attributes ( font ) and same size and rescale rates, except I'd like
> to edit the text in each object occasionally, and perhaps resize or
> move the text object.

If you want to be able to edit and adjust the pieces of text
individually, then I believe each has to remain in its own layer.

> Think of the whole bmp as a tree; lines and text.

Gimp is really centered around working with bitmaps.  Text layers are
a special-case convenience with limited functionality.  Many
operations, such as scaling and rotation, will result in a text layer
being implicitly converted to a bitmap, losing the ability to treat it
as text.

If your drawing is primarily composed of lines and text then you might
be better off with a vector-based drawing tool such as Inkscape.  It
will let you adjust the line endpoints, group objects, change the
font/size of all of the text boxes at once, and so on.

> I see there is "merge layer" and "merge down" and "flatten".
> Don't quite know what they really mean.

"Merge Down" simply means that the current layer is merged with the
one directly below it in the list.  Their pixels are combined into a
single bitmap and they can no longer be edited independently.  "Merge
Visible" is a quick way of merging all of the actively visible layers
at once, and "Flatten" merges the entire image into a single layer.

> I tried merge layers one time and it appeared as though all the text
> became just bits on the canvas,

Merging only works on bitmaps, so it's another one of those operations
that converts text layers into bitmaps along the way.

> but still separate as a layer from background.

"Merge Down" only merges two layers at a time.

                                        -Dave Dodge/dododge at dodoge.net