Interface Settings

Interface

General

Preview Size

Set the size of the preview thumbnails present in e.g. the Layers, Channels & Paths dialog.

Note

That setting the size to "None" will disable the preview function.

Nav Preview Size

Will affect the size of the Navigation Window present from the bottom right corner of the image widow or as right-click|View|Nav Window

Recent Documents List Size

Will set the amount of previously opened or saved documents that you can direct access in the Toolbox|File menu.

Toolbox

Display Brush, Pattern and Gradient Indicators

In the ToolBox you have a area displaying the currently active brush, pattern and gradient. If you don't want the area to be present in the ToolBox you can disable it here.

Dialog Behaviour

Navigation Window per Display

If you check disable this feature the Navigation Window will behave like the Layers, Channels & Paths dialog with "Auto" enabled. I.e. it will switch as you switch images.

Info Window Follows Mouse

If you check enable this feature the Info Window will behave like the Layers, Channels & Paths dialog with "Auto" enabled. I.e. it will switch as you switch images.

Help System

General

Show Tool Tips

Lets you enable or disable tool tips in The GIMP.

Context Sensitive Help with "F1"

Lets you enable or disable the Shift-F1 way of enabling context sensitive help. It can sometimes interfere with the window manager. You can still access the context help in the Toolbox|Help menu.

Help Browser

Help Browser to Use

Lets you choose which Help Browser GIMP uses: it's internal one or Netscape (mozilla-remote).

Image Windows

Appearance

Resize Window on Zoom

Lets you enable (disable) window resize on zoom. Normally when you zoom the window size will not be affected. If you enable this function the size of the window will be fitted to the size of the image when you zoom in our out. I.e zoom in will enlarge the window and zoom out will shrink the window.

Show Rulers

Controls what ever you want to show the rulers or not by default.

Show Statusbar

Controls what ever you want to show the statusbar or not by default.

Marching Ants Speed

When you make a selection in Gimp you will the will be a "blinking" boundary of the selection. This "blinking" boundary is refered as marching ants. This options controls how fast the ants will march.

Image Title Format

Lets you set the window title of the image window. The default custom value is reasonably sane but you are able to choose form Standard, Show zoom percentage, Show zoom ratio, Show reversed zoom ratio and Custom. To build a custom image title can you use some macros along with ordinary characters.

Table 12-1. Title Format Codes

CodeMeaning
%%literal percent sign
%fbare filename, or "Untitled"
%Ffull path to file
%pPDB image id
%iview instance number
%timage type (RGB, indexed, grayscale)
%zzoom factor as a percentage
%ssource scale factor
%ddestination scale factor
%D*expands to * if the image is dirty

Pointer Movement Feedback

Perfect-but-slow Pointer Tracking

When you are drawing in GIMP, GIMP will not catch your pointer every moment. Instead GIMP catch it a certain time interval. This means if you draw a circle very fast GIMP will not draw a circle but lines between each pointer grab. However if you turn on Perfect-but-slow Pointer Tracking GIMP will record every single movement and make a perfect circe even if you draw it very fast. You will however not be able to draw in real time instead that drawing will "played" with a time delay since you "recorded" every movement. (Well this is not exactly what's happens but it makes it easier to explain it this way).

Disable Cursor Updating

Normally when you e.g. paint with some tool, you will have a little image of the tool as mouse cursor. If you disable cursor updating the cursor will always be a little pencil even if you shift tool. I.e. the cursor will always be the same shape as the last tool you used before you disabled updating.

Tool Options

Paint Options

Use Global Paint Options

Normally when you paint in GIMP you set the opacity and paint mode in the Brush Selection dialog. If you disable "Use Global Paint Options" you will have the opportunity to set both Opacity and Paint Mode separately for each tool (the Tool Options dialog will change and you will have new controls for Oacity and Paint Mode).