Re: [Gimp-user] layer positioning

["Joao S. O. Bueno" <gwidion mpc com br>]

Hi Gary -

IMHO, there are two options to achieve this with less pain:

1) Enable "snap to canvas edges" on the view menu. If needed,
fiddle with the snap distance in edit->preferences->Tool options.

2) Script it.
it would not be a complicated script-fu or python-fu script,
and it would allow precise positioning as an optional thing.

3) Use the align tool.
Hey wait---didn't I mention "2 painless methods".
Indeed, still IMHO, GIMP's align tool is arcane enough
I can't consider its use painless. It _should_ enable you
to do what you want - just don't ask me how. :-)

   js
 -><-


On 2 January 2014 21:38, Gary Aitken <gimp dreamchaser org> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> Either I am blind or incompetent, maybe both... a hint would be much appreciated:
>
> I wanted to set up a template for dealing with printing four images on a sheet.
>
> I created an image the size of the sheet and then added four layers, each of the
> desired image size which needed to be positioned appropriately.
>
> When I went to position the images, I could not find any reasonable way with the
> move command or with any of the layer operations to position each layer precisely.
> By that I mean simply type in the coordinates of the upper left corner, or move
> with the mouse where I see a text version of the upper left coordinate of the new
> layer position as I move.
>
> If trying to position using the mouse, the lower left of the status line shows
> the position of the pointer itself, so that is useless in positioning the layer
> as a whole; and the numbers to the right of the per-cent size display show how
> much the layer has moved relative to its starting position, not the absolute
> position of the upper left corner.  (I'll grant that the latter is useful, but
> in this case one needs something else, particularly if a layer has been moved
> and needs to be repositioned to a fixed location.)
>
> The only way I could get what I wanted was to expand to 800%, and at that
> magnification I could grab the upper left corner with the mouse so the mouse
> position was itself the upper left corner position.
> Surely there's a better way?
>
> Layer/Layer to Boundary Size... does not appear to work as advertised.  The offset appears
> to be relative to the original size of the layer, not the original size of the image.
> The panner image is limited to the size of the layer, not the image.
> When you first bring up the dialog, you are unable to reposition the layer unless you change
> the layer size to make the layer smaller.  If you make the layer half the size of its original
> size and then click "Center", the offset is set to - 1/2 the size of the original image,
> not + 1/2, which seems bizarre.  The layer is scaled properly, and ends up where you
> would expect (based on the center command given, but not based on the offsets indicated),
> but the values in the Offset boxes seem to have the wrong sign.  It works by
> moving the original layer relative to the desired new layer, rather than position the new
> layer size relative to the image.  Which means you can't move the layer relative to the image
> if the layer is smaller than the image, and the graphic panner doesn't show you the layer
> position relative to the image as a whole.  It is not at all intuitive and is not useful
> for quite a few common cases.
>
> Layer/Transform/Offset shifts the contents, but not the layer itself.  Which is what it
> is supposed to do, so that's ok; it's just not usable for this operation.
>
> Thanks for any clues,
>
> Gary
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