Sometimes, powerful image editors like GIMP and Photoshop make a simple task difficult or bury options in an overwhelming interface. For instance, take the case of cropping an image to a specific shape. Similarly, although GIMP provides a dedicated button for flipping images, its usage is not clear.
Flipping an image means rotating it 180 degrees horizontally or vertically. The final image is a mirror image of the original image. Things are a little different when flipping images, layers, or selections in GIMP.
If you want to use the flip tool in GIMP, you’ll find everything about it in this post. Here is a tutorial on how to flip an image in GIMP.
There are two methods to do that. Let’s check them out.
1. Use the Built-in Flip Tool
The native flip tool can be used to invert layers, selections, and paths. You can flip in two directions — landscape and portrait. The former changes the orientation of the image from left to right while the latter from top to bottom. Other than that, nothing else is changed. Be it size or pixel information.
Flip images in GIMP
Here’s how to go about it.
Step 1: Launch GIMP and open the image that you want to flip.
Step 2: Click the Flip tool included in the toolbox. The icon has two arrows inside a box.
Tip:
Step 3: By default, the horizontal flip feature is enabled. If you click anywhere on the image, it will flip horizontally.
To change the orientation to portrait, select Vertical under Orientation in the Flip Tool Options. Then click the image again to flip it.
Tips
Flip Layers in GIMP
In case you want to flip an image layer, select it by clicking on it in the Layers box. Then click the Flip tool and flip it by clicking anywhere on the image.
Flip Selection in GIMP
Flipping the selection is useful if you only want to flip a certain part of the layer. It can be used to flip alphabets, objects, etc.
So once you’ve opened the image in GIMP, click on any of the selection tools. Use the translucent selection tool for the text. Mark your selection on the image. For example, in the following image, I have selected d and g from the Tutorial layer.
Next, activate the Flip tool and click anywhere on the image. You will get the desired result.
2. Using the Transform Tool
Another way to achieve the same result is to use the Transform option. Unlike the Flip tool which allows you to mirror the selection, in this case you can only flip a layer or the entire image.
Flip a layer
To do so, follow these steps:
Step 1: Open the image in GIMP.
Step 2: Click on the Layer option in the top bar and choose Transform from it.
Step 3: Choose your desired flip direction by clicking Flip Horizontally or Flip Vertically. That will flip the currently selected layer.
Flip all layers in GIMP
To flip the contents of all layers you need to use another Transform option. For that, click on the Image option present in the top bar and select Transform then your flip choice.
Extra Tip: Create a Mirror Effect in GIMP
To do so, we need to first duplicate the image, then increase the size of the image, then we have to flip it.
Here are the detailed steps for the same.
Step 1: Open the image you want to create a mirror effect on in GIMP.
Step 2: Right click on the layer in the Layers box and choose Duplicate Layer from it.
Step 3: Now we have to increase the size of the canvas. For that, click on Image in the top bar and select Canvas Size from it.
Step 4: If you want to create a horizontal mirror effect, you need to increase the width of the canvas and for a vertical mirror effect, increase the height. To do that, you need to enter *2 (yes, it’s an asterisk in front of 2) next to the given dimension in the corresponding box. For example, if I want to create a vertical mirror effect, I will write *2 in the Height box. Then click the Resize box.
Doing so will create an area the same size as your image.
Step 5: Click the Move tool and drag this layer to the empty area below.
Step 6: With the bottom layer selected, click on the Flip tool and choose Portrait Direction. In case you have increased the width, you need to select Horizontal here.
Step 7: Click anywhere on the image to flip the bottom layer. That will create your image with a mirror effect.
The magic of the mirror
Flipping images produces dramatic results. You can use it to change the orientation of objects inside the image to suit your needs. For example, if the man in the subject is looking to the right, you can use the flip tool to make him look left. Similarly, the mirror effect creates interesting images.
Next: Images with transparent backgrounds make it easier to manipulate images. Know how to make image background transparent in GIMP.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
