Use GIMP Tool Presets for setting multiple crop aspect ratios (Shallow Thoughts)

Use GIMP Tool Presets for setting multiple crop aspect ratios

Making desktop backgrounds in GIMP is a bit tedious if you have several machines with screens of different sizes. The workflow goes something like this:

First, choose Crop tool and turn on Fixed: Aspect Ratio. Then loop over images:

1. Load an image
2. Go to Tool Options
3. Type in the aspect ratio: 4:3, 8:5, 5:4, 1366:768 etc.
4. Go to the image and crop.
5. Image->Scale (I have this on Shift-S, can't remember whether that was a default binding or not).
6. Ctrl-K to delete the current width (Ctrl-U also works, but beeps; I'm not sure why)
7. Type in the desired width (1024 or 1680 or 1366 or whatever) (I always hit Tab here, though it's probably not necessary)
8. Click Scale or type Alt-S (unfortunately, Return doesn't work in this dialog).
9. Save As to the appropriate name and path for the current resolution
10. Undo (the Scale), Undo (the Crop)
11. Load a new image (continue loop)

But you can use Save Options (Tool Presets) to avoid step 3, typing in the aspect ratio. Here's how:

• Set up the aspect ratio you want in the Crop tool, with Fixed checked
• Click on Save Options (the floppy disk icon in the lower left of Tool Options)
• Choose a name (choose New Entry first if you've already saved options).

Repeat, for each aspect ratio you might want to use.

Now clicking on Restore Options gives you a menu of all your commonly used aspect ratios -- much faster than typing them in every time. Too bad there's no way to use this shortcut for the Scale step, or to do Crop and Scale in one operation.

Nice shortcut! But having done that, I realized I could shorten it even more: I could make a selection (not a crop) with one of my preset aspect ratios, then run a script that would figure out from the aspect ratio which absolute size I wanted, crop and scale, and either save it to the right place, or make a new image so I could save without needing to Redo or Save a Copy. That was an easy script to write, so here it is: wallpaper.py.

Tags: gimp, tips, programming, hack
[ 23:45 Feb 05, 2009    More gimp | permalink to this entry | ]