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With the items in the View menu, control the display of the image and the image window. New View
opens a second display window of the current image. Changes made in one view are reflected in all
other views of that image. Alternate views are useful for magnifying a part of an image for
manipulation while seeing the complete image in another view. Adjust the magnification level of the
current window with Zoom. When Shrink Wrap is selected, the image window is resized to fit the
current image display exactly.
14.4 Saving Images
No image function is as important as File > Save. It is better to save too often than too rarely. Use
File > Save as to save the image with a new filename. It is a good idea to save image stages under
different names or make backups in another directory so you can easily restore a previous state.
When saving for the first time or using Save as, a dialog opens in which to specify the filename and
type. Enter the filename in the field at the top. For Save in folder, select the directory in which to
save the file from a list of commonly used directories. To use a different directory or create a new
one, open Browse for other folders. It is recommended to leave Select File Type set to By Extension.
With that setting, The GIMP determines the file type based on the extension appended to the
filename. The following file types are frequently useful:
XCF
PAT
JPG
GIF
PNG
206 SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1 GNOME User Guide
This is the native format of the application. It saves all layer and path information along with
the image itself. Even if you need an image in another format, it is usually a good idea to save a
copy as XCF to simplify future modifications. Information about layers is available in
on page
211.
This is the format used for The GIMP patterns. Saving an image in this format enables using
the image as a fill pattern in The GIMP.
JPG or JPEG is a common format for photographs and Web page graphics without
transparency. Its compression method enables reduction of file sizes, but information is lost
when compressing. It may be a good idea to use the preview option when adjusting the
compression level. Levels of 85% to 75% often result in an acceptable image quality with
reasonable compression. Saving a backup in a lossless format, like XCF, is also recommended.
If editing an image, save only the finished image as JPG. Repeatedly loading a JPG then saving
can quickly result in poor image quality.
Although very popular in the past for graphics with transparency, GIF is less often used now
because of license issues. GIF is also used for animated images. The format can only save
indexed images. See
"Image Modes" on page 212
file size can often be quite small if only a few colors are used.
With its support for transparency, lossless compression, free availability, and increasing
browser support, PNG is replacing GIF as the preferred format for Web graphics with
transparency. An added advantage is that PNG offers partial transparency, which is not offered
by GIF. This enables smoother transitions from colored areas to transparent areas
(antialiasing).
for information about indexed images. The
"Layers"
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