I am a very occasional Gimp user and find much of the terminology non-obvious- I almost always have to google <gimp term> numerous times during a Gimp session. I also suspect that at various times in the past I have set various options to undesriable values. I am one of the users who, although I realise the value of Gimp, I only use it when I have to.

Right now I have a jpg aerial map of the town where I live. I need to draw boundaries around the various housing estates and then mark up road routes that are candidates for being preferred cycle routes etc. I.e. add lines of various colours. The plan is to use a layer for each colour. The objective is to examine the quality of the planning of the roads on these estates.

I have loaded the image ok. Then created and selected a layer on which to draw. I then selected the pen tool but I can't get it to draw anything. I believe I need to anchor the layer but the anchor button is greyed out and in spite of googling everything I can think of, I can find no way to get the layer achored, which I understand is necessary. I have tried drawing lines on a blank Gimp application, as shown in numerous Youtube videos, but No, that will not work for me either.

I have also sought a way to try and do a total reset on all my Gimp setting, in case it's the settings that are the problem. Google could not answer that question either. Bearing in mind that Gimp is such a complex creature, I would have thought that could be useful.

I would really appreciate some advice.

You don't say what version of Gimp you are using.

There is no Pen Tool.

You may mean the Path Tool. In this case go to the Paths dialogue and make the path visible. Select a new transparent layer in the Layers dialogue. Make sure there is no active selection. Do (Edit > Stroke Path)

Or you may mean the Pencil tool. Select a new transparent layer. Make sure there is no active selection. Draw on that layer. For straight lines Click at the start, then Shift-Click at the end. The Pencil Tool is good for vertical and horizontal lines, but angled lines have a jagged edge.

Or use the Paintbrush Tool. Select a suitable hardness brush. Similar to the Pencil tool, but angled lines don't have the jagged edges.

Load your map. Switch to path tool (B). If you need to close the path hold ctrl down when you return to the starting point/nod.



Create new transparent layer for your road routes above the map layer.
Select the path you want to stroke in the paths dialogue. Edit: stroke path, or you can alternately right-click the path it's also under the context menu. Foreground color will be used.

Thanks very much for your help. I think I am now on my way. In answer to questions. I was using 2.8, but after my posting I looked and found 2.10 and have now installed that. I have discovered some other really useful features such as the ability to load an image directly off a screenshot.
Thanks again!