Crawling ants in GIMP - how do I switch them off?

[Mouse]

Having used Corel for many years, I am used to the facility to switch off the crawling ants around a selected area, even though the selection is still there, how do I do that in GIMP?

The ants are very off-putting if you are used to being able to toggle them on and off at will.

For instance - never mind that I hate having to draw anything defined by a box of them (there are always ants around the outside edge that I'd rather weren't there), I can hardly see what I'm doing here on this map while I'm trying to work out the ocean currents, having masked out the land so I don't paint the ocean temperatures over the edge.

[ChickPea]

Look on the View menu. You can hide the marching ants there (uncheck Show Selection) and I think the other thing you're talking about is the Layer Boundary. That can be turned off from the View menu too. You can turn it off permanently in Preferences. One of the first things I do in a new install is turn off that Layer Boundary. I hate it!

[Mouse]

Ants! Everywhere!

Its almost enough to make a person feel itchy!

Thanks ChickPea

Now I will be able to concentrate on what I'm doing a lot better

EDIT: for anyone else suffering allergic hives at the thought of it all, the shortcut to toggle the selection ants on and off appears to be CTRL+T.

[Azélor]

''crawling ants'' that's a funny expresion

[Mouse]

Oh I'm probably as out-of-date with my terminology as my Corel software! LOL!

Back in the day.... er...um... oh - many years ago now... everyone used to call them crawling ants

[jfrazierjr]

Having used Corel for many years, I am used to the facility to switch off the crawling ants around a selected area, even though the selection is still there, how do I do that in GIMP?

The ants are very off-putting if you are used to being able to toggle them on and off at will.

For instance - never mind that I hate having to draw anything defined by a box of them (there are always ants around the outside edge that I'd rather weren't there), I can hardly see what I'm doing here on this map while I'm trying to work out the ocean currents, having masked out the land so I don't paint the ocean temperatures over the edge.

You said you already created a mask? If so, you no longer need the selection at all, so Select->None. Personally, I suggest always turning a selection you even remotely think you might need again into a Channel first and then use the Channel for the layer mask. This a GREAT help and time saver if you need to apply the same mask to multiple layers(possibly inverting the mask on some layers).

As for the outer image border marching ants, View->Show Layer Boundary is what you want.

[Mouse]

Thanks jfrazierjr

I have no crawling ants left at all, which pleases me very much.

When you start talking in channels and masks I get a bit lost, since the context of these words in your comment suggests that they mean completely different things to you than they do to me. I can blame Corel for that.

A lot of my trouble with GIMP relates to the fact that the terminology is almost completely the same as the Corel terminology I have been using for the last 20 years, but the terms themselves seem to mean completely different things. Its difficult to explain, but its a bit like suddenly discovering that what you have always known as a chair all your life is really called a table, and the thing that you have always thought of as a table is actually called a chair

[jfrazierjr]

Thanks jfrazierjr

I have no crawling ants left at all, which pleases me very much.

When you start talking in channels and masks I get a bit lost, since the context of these words in your comment suggests that they mean completely different things to you than they do to me. I can blame Corel for that.

A lot of my trouble with GIMP relates to the fact that the terminology is almost completely the same as the Corel terminology I have been using for the last 20 years, but the terms themselves seem to mean completely different things. Its difficult to explain, but its a bit like suddenly discovering that what you have always known as a chair all your life is really called a table, and the thing that you have always thought of as a table is actually called a chair

My one issue with turning off the show of selections is trying to figure out why my "painting" is not happening(selection inverted to where I am zoomed into).

Channel = saved selection(there is a tab you can add from the Dialog menu IIRC and you can name them just like layers). It's that simple. More importantly is how powerful it is and useful if you can sync up the concept with the example I mentioned earlier. Some people would utilize mask to selection and that works UNLESS you have modified the mask itself, say with a blur for example.

If you have not already, I go into some of this in my layer mask tutorial and hopefully, that will get your mind thinking about ways to use masks and channels in your mapping. I know for me, it was like a EUREKA! moment when I realized the power of masks and how a little time up front would save loads of time later. Of course, as I have mentioned in other threads recently, there are always tradeoffs in terms of RAM usage one has to consider as the image pixel size grows unless one has a very beefy machine.

Please feel free to ask my any questions, hopefully I know the answer(I am far from a GIMP master, but I know a decent bit thanks to RobA, Torstan, and others plus my own playing around).

[Mouse]

My one issue with turning off the show of selections is trying to figure out why my "painting" is not happening(selection inverted to where I am zoomed into).

Channel = saved selection(there is a tab you can add from the Dialog menu IIRC and you can name them just like layers). It's that simple. More importantly is how powerful it is and useful if you can sync up the concept with the example I mentioned earlier. Some people would utilize mask to selection and that works UNLESS you have modified the mask itself, say with a blur for example.

If you have not already, I go into some of this in my layer mask tutorial and hopefully, that will get your mind thinking about ways to use masks and channels in your mapping. I know for me, it was like a EUREKA! moment when I realized the power of masks and how a little time up front would save loads of time later. Of course, as I have mentioned in other threads recently, there are always tradeoffs in terms of RAM usage one has to consider as the image pixel size grows unless one has a very beefy machine.

Please feel free to ask my any questions, hopefully I know the answer(I am far from a GIMP master, but I know a decent bit thanks to RobA, Torstan, and others plus my own playing around).

Many thanks again

I will more than likely be asking lots of silly questions just like this one pretty soon, since most of the remaining artwork on my current world map will be done in GIMP. Corel Suite 11 crashes way too often with Win 10 for me to trust in it any more - Win 10 won't let it use the memory addresses it always used before, but instead of warning me that something is wrong it simply shuts the Corel app down without warning! LOL!

Its really late... or should that be early. I seem to have worked through the night again without realising it (5.30 am here). I will come back and re-read what you've said later, and hopefully make a better job of absorbing the information

[Mouse]

Just to update - the ants are no longer a problem, but I have a serious headache now after watching 3 different versions of how to find, download and install Script-fu and G'MIC!

And all I wanted to do was add a tracery of gold leaf to the design... possibly... not sure yet... LOL.

Anyway. I did it, but I just don't understand why these things don't come ready installed with the GIMP software. I never had to go through all this rigmarole with any of my other apps!

All the tutorials were out of date, giving instructions for things that just don't work any more in the case of G'MIC... Followed my nose in the end and found the website myself.

Does it get any easier?