How to Use Krita?!?!? PLEASE EXPLAIN & HELP

[Boudewijn Rempt]

On Sunday 24 June 2007, you wrote:
> Please help.  I have an asinine school project to do which requires
> fancy graphics.  Here's what I want to figure out to do on Krita
> (or gimp for that matter).  These programs seem to full of bells
> and whistles, but I cannot figure out how to use them.  Here's
> what I want to do.
>
> Put images a, b, c, & d on top of another image in the image of
> a graph.
>
>       Background is a Velocity v. Time graph
>
>       At each of the (v,t) points on my graph I want to place
>       funny clip-arts having to deal with Physics (cannon firing,
>       guy falling out of plane, etc.)
>
> So, stupid me, I put the big graph on layer 1.  Then I put
> the other pictures on layers 2, 3, 5, etc.  But, HOW IN THE
> WORLD do you move the pictures (layers,2-4)into the right place
> because when you import a picture into a new layer, that layer
> is only as big as that picture, not the whole BIG picture.
> Truly, this should be incredibly simple to do.  I can't even
> figure out how to move the image.  Surely it should be as
> simple as selecting it and then clicking on the selection and
> moving it, right?? Both Gimp and Krita seem make it so incredibly
> cryptic, nay impossible, that I'm about ready to shoot my computer!
> My project is due on Monday (tomorrow).
>
> Sorry to be angry, but it's this total lack of usability which
> makes it hard for me to laud Linux v. Microsoft. 

Actually, if you'd use Photoshop you'd have the same problem. What you need if 
you to do if you want to use Krita or Gimp is to use select the move tool (in 
Krita it's a cross with four arrows in the toolbox), select the layer you 
want to move click and move. That's because no matter how big or small the 
area covered by visible pixels in a layer is, the layer extends to the whole 
image (and beyond) -- which means that if you have a stack of layers, like

1
2
3
4
5

you cannot move 3 by clicking on some visible part of layer 3, because 1 and 2 
are on top of it.

So, what you do is:

1) open your background image
2) open the other images (layer/new/insert image as layer)
3) select the move tool (it says "move" in a tooltip if you hover over it, it 
looks like a cross with arrow ends)
4) select the layer of one of the inserted images in the layer box
5) click with the move tool and move the layer to the desired position
6) go back to 4 and select a different layer

The way you want to work (have different objects in your image and click on 
one of the objects and move it) is supported by applicatins like Karbon and 
Inkscape. There, you have a hierarchy of objects, and as long as an object is 
not completely obscured by another object, you can click on it and "grab" it.

This has nothing to do with linux vs windows or free vs proprietary software; 
gimp and krita follow the example set by one type of application (layered 
raster graphics applications) and karbon and inkscape the example by another 
type of application: vector graphics applications.

> Actually, 
> my dad thinks that he might be able to figure out how to do
> this on Amipro under Windows 95 (go figure, an ancient program!).

Yes, you could do it with KWord, too -- which is, like Ami Pro, a word 
processor. There you've got different frames with content stacked onto each 
other.

> Still, it would be nice to know how to do something as simple as
> this because this is the whole point of having GUIs right??
> (Perhaps, if it can be done, you could put THIS in the manual?)
> It's called a "desktop" because you're supposed to be able to move
> things around on it and place things on top of other things.  Surely
> any real image manipulation program will be able to do this.

All I can say is -- try to work the way you propose with Photoshop. You'll 
find it doesn't work the way you assumed.

> Alas, all I can get Gimp and Krita to do is make silly gradients
> and such.  Hey, I could do that with "Display/Image Magick".
>
> Sorry to be acerbic, but this school project is moronic and
> if I don't get it done this week I'll fail this class and
> lose thousands of dollars in my university investment.

Well, given your tone you'll perhaps forgive me if I'm a bit acerbic to you 
too: waiting until Sunday night to prepare a school project of such 
importance and one that you need tools you don't have experience with for is, 
well, not very clever, no matter your OS or preferred application.

-- 
Boudewijn Rempt 
http://www.valdyas.org/fading/index.cgi
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