Text Tool
Desktop Apps Training - GIMP

The Text Tool


The Text Tool, located in the Gimp Toolbox, is very common in most image manipulation programs.

This tool allows the insertion of text onto canvas or right into the image that is under construction. All that is needed is to select the Text Tool and choose between some of the standard text options and finally click in the image and start typing.

In the Text Options Box, a user can choose Font, Font Size, Color, Justification, Indention, and Line Spacing.

Users also have the option to allow Hinting, which is a function that remembers words that you type and fills in the word as you start to type it.

As soon as you click inside the image to insert text into it, the Gimp program automatically prompts the Gimp Text Editor to appear.

This dialog box is used to import text into an image from a file, clear all text, advance text from left to right (which is standard), or advance text from right to left. Along with all of those options, the Gimp Text Editor is where you type and edit your text. Once you are done with the editor, click Close.

Here in the example, the phrase “Green Pasture” appears on the image because that is what I had typed in the Gimp Text Editor Box.

Notice that I have changed the Font Size and the Font Color in the Text Options Box.

One thing to remember about inserting text into an image is that Gimp automatically thinks of the text as another layer on top of the original image.

Since the text is its own layer now, it is able to be edited and manipulated.