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LightningIsMyName — GIMP PathTool-PenTool Tut
Published: 2010-08-08 10:25:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 7563; Favourites: 120; Downloads: 0
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Description
The path tool (aka Pentool) in GIMP is a tool for drawing complex shapes with fine control. It's often considered as one of the most intimidating tools for newbies, so this tut was created to show how easy in fact this tool is.So here it is: GIMP Path Tool (aka Pentool) Tutorial (this is an external link to my site with the page of the tutorial)
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As far as I know, this is The most extensive path tool tutorial for GIMP on the web. When it was on my old site, it was the second hit on google for "GIMP path tool". Since I moved it to my new site, I thought also to share it on deviantart for some people to enjoy
Here is the link again: GIMP Path Tool (aka Pentool) Tutorial
I'd really appreciate feedback/corrections/suggestions!
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Comments: 31
I actually found this tutorial even before I found deviantART, and it has really helped me a lot. A belated thank you!!
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Ironic, because it is the first tool i used when i started using GIMP
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I just got done taking a photoshop class I really fucking hate it how it's like 500$ and i dion't want to risk downloading it from pirate ay.com nd getting some trojan worm virus (or whatever) so i was all like scew it i'll go with gimp despite how much it glitches.
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TY for link..I just downloaded Gimp and want to learn all that I can.I'm very new at this but eager to soak up the knowledge.
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I saw the blog, very articulate. Thank you for sharing!
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This was really helpful, thank you so much~!
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Thank you for the tutorial!! Maybe I can start using the pen tool better. : )
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Epic! 
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Thanks for the tutorial link.I'm something of a amateur cartoonist and I'm learning gimp on my own and through tutorials.I've found the path tool quite useful for inking my projects and found your tutorial quite helpful at teaching me additional path tool techniques.
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First of all, thanks a lot 
If you are doing cartoons and inking, you might benefit from using a program called Inkscape . This program is for vector graphics - meaning that you work with shapes with colors/fills which are resolution independant. It heavily uses the paths tool (it works in a similar way there) and it's probably better for most of the cartoon workflow
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Thanks for the ideas - I'll add them to the guide when I have some more time.
I didn't think about it originally since this is a guide about the path tool itself, but if I already spoke about stroking and selections then you are right that it makes sense to add these (text tool interaction, svg export/import, transformation, selection2path).
BTW, you can resize/scale/shear/transform a path using the right transformation tool on the "paths" mode - no need to do this to the entire image.
Thanks again for the suggestions
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Wow, now that's what I call detailed. Good job ;D
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You're welcome ;D
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This is very good, thank you. I see a lot of people out there who use the pen tool incorrectly; making paths by clicking really close together. I say that if you need more than two points to make a circle, you're doing it wrong. xD
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Thanks
Btw, a fun fact: you can't create an exact circle with bezier curves (you can make an approximation which is close enough, but you can't create an exact circle mathematically).
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Haha, they get it close enough for me. xD If I need an absolute perfect circle, there's the ellipse selection tool and shift button. xD
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great one
highly needed
post it up on AEF too, eh?
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Thanks and thanks for the 
AEF? Wow - I visited it a few weeks ago (and only since I had to reset my password to everything), and the previous time was several years ago
Who is still around? I might give it a visit if some of the "old" guys are still there
Feel free to post the link there, I might also jump in to "the gallery" sometime soon
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tbh there's very few left
but you should poke your head in
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I posted that I'm back.
You haven't told me you became an archknight! You with your funny cat avatar
My Google-Fu discovered that I already posted the guide, so I just edited it. Am I allowed to rebump it (I don't remember the rules 
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Indeed - It tooks several hours, and it was updated recently
Thanks for commenting - this is really important to me!
also thanks for
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you are very welcome
and i am happy that it was a good decision to chose gimp as my drawing prog despite of many people say that photoshop would be better.
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"PS is better than every other XXX" - I heard this so many times
I joined the GIMP team as a developer since a free tool will become better only if people will contribute to it
Glad you also decided to use GIMP
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I feel good with gimp
Your are right: PS costs money and I dont have it.
I think that its good that u help to improve GIMP.
What should be done in order to improve GIMP?
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Thanks
There are many ways to contribute, including:
- You can submit bug reports [link]
- You can participate in the GIMP chat networks (including the developer one) [link]
- You can develop GIMP itself if you have some programming expirience (see the chat above)
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