GIMP Version: 2.10
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: Windows 7, Windows 10, both 64-bit
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

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I'm having a really odd problem with 2.10, both the Samj portable and the Partha portable on Windows 7, and with the Partha standard on Windows 10. I'm using the 64-bit version of all three versions of GIMP 2.10.

What happens is this: I take one image and put it into Gimp as a layer.

Then take another image and add that as another layer.

Then I either select an area or else choose to work on the image as a whole -- doesn't matter, as it turns out.

I choose the "Add layer mask" option, and in the Tools panel, option FG-BG (RGB). (Or BG-FG, or the BG-transparent or FG-transparent options -- again, doesn't matter, as things work out.)

Click on the white square that appears next to the layer image icon to activate the mask as selected.

Then, using the gradient/blend tool, draw a line from one part of the masked area to another, where I want the mask to end and begin. It seems to draw the mask as I would want it, fading the foreground image seamlessly into the background image.

I then pick "Apply layer mask".

The white mask icon to the right of the layer image icon disappears. And nothing happens. There is no gradient from foreground to background or background to foreground or anything. As far as i can tell, absolutely nothing has happened.

I'm perfectly willing to believe this is operator error, but I have absolutely no idea what the error could be, or how I can so perfectly reproduce it across three different installations of the program.

Any help anyone can offer will be much appreciated.

Hi Gimp User

I have Samj portable Version 2.10.
I made a video from my PC screen.

It looks like OK.

My Youtube video

Plase, test the video.

Doron.

Two questions:

1) did you add an alpha channel to the layer with the mask (unless it already has one)?
2) is the first layer color-indexed (loaded from GIF...)?

1) I did not add alpha channel
2) The 2 photos are normal jpeg files.

This is a link to the XCF Gimp file.
Download the file and test it.

GIMP XCF File

Doron.

Assuming you're asking me: Technically, I probably did add one, but not to the layer with the mask. I'm not sure whether or not any of the images I used already had one, although, since I was mostly working with JPEG sources, I assume they did not and probably could not have had alpha channels on their own.

I did have GIMP set to add alpha channels to new images, but as far as I've been able to tell, that only seems to work on the first layer added. Also, I turned off that feature to test, thinking that it might be causing a problem, and it made no difference at all.

The first layer has generally been loaded from JPEG, but a couple of the images I tried reported that they had embedded color profiles and asked if I wanted to convert or keep them. I tried both options, and it made no difference.

Hi vwrangler. I'm no use to you but it's good to see you made it here - the midget.

@vwrangler



Something like this in Gimp 2.10





No, not the way to do it. Hit the enter key to fix the gradient. It then correctly shows in the layers dialogue.



Now if you want to you can 'apply layer mask' which merges the mask with the image. More usual to leave the layer mask in place.

YES! THAT DID IT! Thank you so much!

That one step, hit Enter, seems to have been added since 2.8 ... or at least it wasn't actually necessary to make things work in 2.8.

Thank you again!

I'm going to kick myself extremely hard because I didn't think of this myself! When I first ran a gradient in 2.10 I noticed the difference from previous Gimps so I should have known. Sorry vwrangler.

Eh, don't worry about it. It's such a tiny thing that it would be easy to overlook.

And thank you again, rich2005.

Ah, Mystery solved. I wondered what I was doing wrong. Thank you, rich2005.