4.4.
Templates Dialog
Figure 15.71. The Templates dialog
Templates are templates for an image format to be created. GIMP offers you a lot of
templates and you can create your owns. When you create a New image, you can
access to the list of existing templates but you can't manage them.
The “Templates” dialog allows you to manage all these templates.
4.4.1. Activating the dialog
The “Templates” dialog is a dockable dialog; see the section Section 2.3, “Dialogs and
Docking” for help on manipulating it.
You can access it:
from the image menu: Windows → Dockable Dialogs → Templates.
from the Tab menu in any dockable dialog by clicking on and selecting Add
Tab → Templates.
4.4.2. Using the Templates dialog
You select a template by clicking on its icon. Right clicking reveals a local menu that
offers the same functions as buttons.
4.4.2.1. Grid/List modes
In the Tab menu for the “Templates” dialog, you can choose between View as
Grid and View as List. In Grid mode, templates are laid out in a rectangular array of
identical icons (unless you gave them a particular icon, as we will see later). Only the
name of the selected template is displayed. In List mode, they are lined up vertically;
icons are identical too; all names are displayed.
In this Tab menu, the Preview Size option allows you to change the size of thumbnails.
Tip
Ctrl + F in a list view opens a search field. See View as List; View as Grid
4.4.2.2. Buttons at the bottom
The buttons at the bottom of the dialog allow you to operate on templates in several
ways:
Create a new image from the selected template
Clicking on this button opens the dialog Create a new image on the model of the
selected template.
Create a new template
Clicking on this button opens the New template dialog, identical to the Edit
Template dialog, that we will see below.
Duplicate the selected template
Clicking on this button opens the Edit Template dialog that we are going to study
now.
Edit the selected template
Clicking on this button opens the Edit Template dialog.
Delete the selected template
Guess what?
Tip
Every template is stored in a templaterc file at your personal GIMPdirectory. If you
want to restore some deleted templates, you can copy or append template entries to your
file from the master templaterc file at theetc/gimp/2.0 directory of the GIMP's system
folder.
4.4.3. Edit Template
Figure 15.72. The Edit Template dialog
The dialog allows you to set the specifications of the
selected template.
You can access this editor by clicking on the Edit
Template button at the bottom of the dialog.
Options
Name
In this text box, you can modify the displayed template name.
Icon
By clicking on this icon, you open a list of icons. You can choose one of them to
illustrate the selected template name.
Image size
Here you set the width and height of the new image. The default units are pixels,
but you can switch to some other unit if you prefer, using the adjoining menu. If
you do, note that the resulting pixel size will be determined by the X and Y
resolution (which you can change in the Advanced Options), and by the setting
of “Dot for Dot”, which you can change in the View menu.
Note
Please keep in mind, that every Pixel of an image is stored in the memory. If you're
creating large files with a high density of pixels, GIMP will need some time for every
function you're applying to the image.
Portrait/Landscape buttons
These buttons toggle between Portrait and Landscape mode. Concretely, their
effect is to exchange the values for Width and Height. If the X and Y resolutions
are different (in Advanced Options), then these values are exchanged also. On
the right, image size, image resolution and color space are displayed.
Advanced Options
Figure 15.73. The “Adva
nced Options” dialog
These are options that will mainly
be of interest to more advanced
users.
X and Y resolution
These values come into play mainly in relation to printing: they do not affect the
size of the image in pixels, but they determine its size on paper when printed.
They can also affect the way the image is displayed on the monitor: if “Dot for
Dot” is switched off in the View menu, then at 100% zoom, GIMP attempts to
display the image on the monitor at the correct physical size, as calculated from
the pixel dimensions and the resolution. The display may not be accurate,
however, unless the monitor has been calibrated. This can be done either when
GIMP is installed, or from the Display tab of the Preferences dialog.
Colorspace
You can create the new image as either an RGB image or a grayscale image.
You cannot create an indexed image directly in this way, but of course nothing
prevents you from converting the image to indexed mode after it has been
created.
Fill
You have four choices for the solid color that will fill the new image's background
layer:
Foreground color, as shown in the Main Toolbox.
Background color, as shown in the Main Toolbox.
White, the more often used.
Transparent. If this option is chosen, then the Background layer in the new
image will be created with an alpha channel; otherwise not.
Comment
You can write a descriptive comment here. The text will be attached to the image
as a “parasite”, and will be saved along with the image by some file formats (but
not all of them).
