I want to make a heart...and I tried using the path tool but it was ugly. I have a really hard time getting the curves right, I always seem to end up with a 'crimp' at one of the nodes. There must be an easy way to make common shapes for us non-artist types.

Hold down SHIFT while moving one of the control handles (squares) and the anchor's other control handle will mirror its position, creating a smooth curve through the anchor point.

The trick is using symmetry 2-ton. Included my svg path (exported it from GIMP) as well as something that I Created using it.

daFont has many dingbat fonts for Valentine's day that has hearts in a lot of different styles.

http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=801

One font that has a lot of basic shapes in it including a heart plus a card suit heart. I have that font and it comes in handy at times is FnT Basic Shapes 1.

http://www.dafont.com/fnt-basicshapes1.font


If you don't mind if your heart is a bit asymmetrical you can use saulgoode's suggestion about using paths. This image shows the path I started with and then the finished heart.

Do you have the Aqua Pill script? If not you can get it here. http://registry.gimp.org/node/4958
It says it's for Gimp 2.4, but it works for 2.6 too.

I ran it as follows File > Create > Web Page Themes > Aqua Pill > Aqua Hrule
and used the following settings
The image it created was 700x400
I then did Image > Canvas Size and unclicked the link.
I set the size to 700x700 and clicked "Center" and "Resize"
I deleted the top two layers and merged the rest.
Layer > Layer to Image Size
Layer > Transform > Arbitrary Rotation
Enter 45 and click "Rotate"
Image > Guides > New Guide (by percent), set 50%, vertical, and click "Ok"
Using the rectangular selection tool and the vertical guide, select and cut the right side of the slanted pill.
Duplicate the layer and flip it horizontal.
You should get this

Wow, how pretty and so easy.



My dialog is different from yours.

For a perfect heart, set up cross-like grid lines and set your points equal distance, and like Saul suggests, use the Shift key to drag out your path nodes.

I divided my vertical grid lines into 4 equal segments on the drawing.

Could someone pleeeeeze help me understand how to flip one layer at a time. I select half the heart and go to Image > transform > flip horizontally, and both sides flip. This happens all the time.

@Molly

Well s*$%#! thanks POGO,

Very easy and fast, thanks PM.

Thanks PM!

The only change you might consider is when creating the new guide, specify that it is to be a vertical guide. It might seem obvious, but since it isn't mentioned someone might assume they are to accept the default, which is a horizontal guide and gives an unwanted result.

I used mine as a paintbrush. Resized to 0.10 with some jitter and used a gradient to paint with.

cool brushes "0"........

wow, thanks for all the different solutions.....off to try them out!

***ARGH, I can add scripts to my script folder, no problem, but I cannot access those that are script-fu! On my pc, my gimp (2.4) menu bar has a script-fu heading where I can get all my scripts. On the mac gimp (2.6) there is no menu bar heading for script-fu, but there is a script-fu listed in the filters list. Unfortunately, when I click on that, all it brings up is the dialog box for refresh or console to make my own script-fu. Are the actual scrlpt-fu scripts hiding somewhere else and I just can't find them? THis also has happened with the glass text script. I think they are hiding from me.

Thanks, molly. It's only one brush, my heart copied to the clipboard. The font, Fiolex Girls, has it's own built in hearts.

Well, I did try out the guides method, and it's ok, and there are no crimps, but even with guides and grid lines, it isn't perfect. Maybe if I do just one half, and then flip it, it will be symmetrical.

I sooo love it here! Everyone works together and comes up with so many ways to do things.

@Bob - Thanks for the heads up on the vertical guide omission!

@O - Thanks for fixing the vertical guide omission!

The location of the aqua button script on my computer is:

File > Create > Web Page Themes > Aqua pill > Hrule



That location can be changed in the script to accommodate your computer.

BTW - I have two Script-Fu's in my Filters > Script-Fu. One has the refresh selection and the console. The next one down has several links in it. I also have Script-Fu on my Image menu.