In any photo editing application, the crop tool is the most useful tool for removing unnecessary parts from a photo. All simple and powerful photo editors provide a basic cropping tool. However, when it comes to cropping to shape, very few of them have anything to offer.
GIMP is a free image manipulation tool available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Although it’s been around for a while, it lacks the shape cropping feature. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve the same in there. All you need to do is follow a workaround. Then you can crop the image to any shape.
In this tutorial, we will show you how to crop an image into a circle in GIMP. You can also use the same method for other shapes, such as ovals, alphabets, etc. Let’s get started.
How to do circular cropping in GIMP
Here are the steps:
Step 1: Launch GIMP and open the image in it that you want to crop.
Step 2: Since GIMP doesn’t provide a built-in way to crop an image into a circle, we’ll take the help of the Ellipse selection tool. For that, click on the Ellipse tool on the toolbar, the one with the oval shape. Alternatively, press the E key on your keyboard to activate that tool.
Step 3: Use the mouse to draw a circle on the desired area of the image. By default, the circle will not have a fixed shape. To keep the size fixed, select the Fixed option from the Tool Options available in the left sidebar. Then draw a circle.
Step 4: Click and drag the mouse on the selected area to change its position. To increase or decrease the size of the selection, use the four corners of the selection.
Step 5: Now, there are three methods to create a circle. Let’s check them out individually.
Method 1: Paste in another image
If you want to paste a circular image directly onto another image without saving it, here’s how.
Step 1: Right click on the area selected in step 4 above and go to Edit > Copy.
Step 2: Open the second image in GIMP using File > Open.
Step 3: Right click on the new image and go to Edit > Paste. Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + V (Windows) and Command + V (Mac).
Use the Scale and Move tools to adjust your pasted image.
Step 4: Under Layers in the sidebar, right click on this floating selection Layer and select Go to a new layer.
Step 5: Save the image with File > Export as.
Method 2: Remove the background
Another way to create a circular image is to remove the background. You will also get an image with a transparent background using this method.
To do so, follow these steps:
Step 1: Once you have selected the desired circular area with the Ellipse tool, right-click the selection and choose Select > Invert. Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + I. You should see the outside area selected now.
Step 2: To have a transparent background, you need to add an alpha channel to your image. For that, right click on your image layer in the Layers tab in the sidebar and click Add Alpha Channel.
Tip:
Step 3: Again, right-click on the main image and select Edit > Clear. You can also press the Delete key. Doing so will remove the background, leaving you with just the circular image.
Step 4: If you save the image now, there will be an extra background around. To make your image size the same as the size of a circle, use auto-cropping. That is, go to Image > Crop to Content. You can also right-click and click Image > Crop to Content.
Step 5: This step is very important. You need to save your image in PNG format to keep the transparency. Saving it in JPG or other formats will add a background color to your image. Once you have an image with a transparent background, you can use it on any image. It will be as if it were part of the image.
To save in PNG format, go to File > Export As. Keep the extension .png.
Method 3: Paste as new image
If the above method sounds tedious, there is also a simple way to keep the background transparent of the circle.
Here are the steps:
Step 1: After you select your area with the Ellipse tool, right click on the area and go to Edit > Copy.
Step 2: Right-click again on the same image and select Edit > Paste as > New Image. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts Shift + Ctrl + V (Windows) and Shift + Command + V (Mac).
This will open your circular image with a transparent background. Now all you need to do is save it in PNG format using Export > Save As.
Go round
Round images have several benefits. They can be used on social networks as avatars. With transparent backgrounds, you can place them on top of any image to give it a special look. In GIMP, you can also delete the cropped circle and replace it with a new image.
Next up: Layers form an important part of image manipulation in GIMP. Here’s how to use them in GIMP.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
