How to Render an Image in GIMP

http://www.arg.com/mileycyrus/photos/001/

To Render images or "Cut out" images in Gimp 2.0(A Open source photo manipulation tool) is easy, all it takes is a few simple steps, some patience and you're good to go. so let's get started:

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• 1. Gimp 2.0 or later
• 2. A good sized picture that you wish to render.
• 3. moderate knowledge of GIMP and it's tool bars
• 3. A little patience

1. The main GIMP window/File/Open and my Miley Cyrus picture

   If you have not already done this, install Gimp 2.0 or higher here: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
   I recommend version 2.4.6 because it has most or all of the bugs worked out of it and works really well; When I used a higher version I had many problems with crashing or freezing.

   After Installing and loading Gimp, open the image you wish to cut out by going to the main Gimp window and going file/open/then browse for your image. For this "How To" I will use a picture of Miley Cyrus.

2. 

   After you have opened your image, from the main Gimp window, select the "Paths Tool" and start clicking around the part of the image you wish to cut out, creating little "connect the dots" type paths along where you click. GIMP calls these "Anchors", Basically what this means is that you are hand selecting the area or region you wish to cut out; this method is very useful when you wish to make professional looking backgrounds or Avatars using your picture or a picture of your favorite movie star. TIP: To get a better cut out of an image, zoom in to the image to get a closer view.

3. 

   After fully selecting the area in the image,and connecting the two meeting endpoints; on the top of the image's window is a button that says "Select" click that and a drop down menu will come down. From there, on the "select" drop down menu is a button named "From Path" click that, and your image should now have what looks like a "walking ants" path around it.

4. 

   Now in the picture's window at the top of the window is a button named "Layer" when you click this button a drop down menu will appear, from there go down on the menu till you find the button named "Transparency" from there a sub-menu will open and the first button on that sub-menu is "Add Alpha channel" click that. This step is VITAL if you do not add an Alpha Channel, then you will not have a transparent background in the next step which you will need to complete rendering the image.

5. 

   Now back to the "Select" drop down menu is a button named "Invert" click that Note:doing this will not change the look of the image.

6. 

   Now that you have Selected the image, Added an Alpha Channel and Inverted the image, now it's time to make the background transparent leaving your rendered image the only thing left in the image box. To do this go to the top of the image's window where the button named "Edit" is, then go down on the the "Edit button's" drop down menu till you find the button named "clear", click on "clear" and the entire background or everything that is not within the paths you have selected will be cleared from the image and replaced with transparency. If this step does not work backtrack and make sure you followed every step, Gimp has a very nice Undo and Redo button located at Edit/Undo or Edit/Redo which you can use to go back and look at what you have done. If this step worked then the image should have little Grey and dark Grey boxes surrounding your selected image (it looks some what like a checker board with really tiny boxes), this is what "Transparency" looks like in GIMP, virtually it is not really there so when you save the image the only thing in the picture will be your selected image.

7. What you should get in the end.

   Finally Save the image as a .PNG, because a .JPG Will not handle transparency and turn your background white, making you have to start all over again. When you save your image at File/Save as, there will be a pop up window in which are a bunch of pre-set settings for .PNG's , the pre-set settings are fine so leave them alone and click Save.
   when you are done saving your image, you may wish to look over your work and make sure all the edges are smooth and there is no trace of the background left, if there is, then just get the "eraser tool" from the main GIMP window and erase the leftovers from the background and smooth the edges.

   Well that's all there is to it, it's easy, I hope you enjoyed the "how to" you are now on your way to becoming a GIMP master!
   Good Luck and Happy Gimping.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure to look at the Images I have provided, they will help you in locating certain buttons and effects for each step.

• To get a better cut out of your image zoom into the picture to get a closer look.

• I have found that versions higher than 2.4.6 have many bugs or problems, but the GIMP website does have updates and bug fixes for each version of gimp, so be sure to check them out here: http://www.gimp.org/