Environment

In GIMP, we have the option of choosing our default settings.

Just click the “Edit” button in the menu bar of the window, and select “Preferences” from the drop-down menu.
This opens the dialog, “Preferences”.
On the left side of the dialog we have a number of categories (A), and options for the selected category (B) on the right.
I will not discuss all the different options for all these categories here, but I will go over some of them.

For example, under the category, “Environment” we have “Minimal number of undo levels.” This refers to the number of possible “Undo” actions.
The default is set to 5, but if you wish you can set it to 20, without any problem, but then in the box below that you have “Maximum undo memory” which specifies the maximum limit the RAM can support, or in other words, you need to have more space in the memory, in order to set a higher limit, for example, 128 MB or higher.
If your computer is fast enough, you can increase it without any problem. If you’re working with an old computer, you’d better stick with the default values.

 

Control

Under the category, “Interface” we find the box “Enable layer and channel previews”.
Using this we can determine the size of the preview icon and the name of the channel.
Some people want a clear example of what is happening in that particular layer, but others may not want it.
If you want to set “Medium” as the default parameter, click the arrow pointing downwards, and take your pick from the drop-down menu.

For the keyboard shortcut fanatics among us, click the “Configure Keyboard Shortcuts” button, and set the keyboard shortcuts which you wish to use, in the dialog box that appears.

 

Theme

The only thing in this category that can change is the size of the icons in the toolbox.

They can either be Standard or Small.

 

Tool Options

The only thing that is important to remember is when you change options in tools, this affect the other tools also.

 

Default Image

In the “Default Image” dialog box we set the standard dimensions and standard resolution which will be applied when you open a new file.

 

Standard grid

In this category you specify the default grid settings for the grid.
If you prefer a different color for your grid, or you wish to change the spacing, you can do all of that in this category.
If you do not know what a grid is, don’t worry, after going through this course, you’d be clear about it.

 

The rest of the preference settings is up to you.
I like all of them.
If you not sure of any of their functionalities, leave the default setting as they are.

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