GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Linux
OS Version: 4.1.12-gentoo
GIMP Experience: New User

---

I use the "rectangle select tool" to draw a box around what I want to copy.
Then when I try to copy I get "Unable to cut or copy because the selected region is empty"
But it is not "empty" (except in gimp's imagination) because I am looking at the box made by the "rectangle select tool" and I can see something in it. How can I copy?

I figured it out after trying a buch of random stuff.. You have to use the Text tool first, and then use the rectangle select, because using the text tool will fix copy if it is broken and does not work.

No solved, I thought it worked, but it is still broken.

The following works...

1) Take a screenshot of the window containing what you want to copy
2) You can then copy from the screenshot.

I which this stuff was better documented!

What is happening is that you create a selection outside the boundaries of the active layer. For about everything, Gimp acts on the active layer, intersected with the selection. If these have no pixels in common, nothing happens.

You have no idea how grateful I am getting a reply...

However, I do not understand what your words mean. Can you please walk me through how to make text and then copy and paste that text as if it were a picture so that I can drag the result of copy around and anchor it where I want it to be?

Thanx

P.S. please don't use "code words", but instead say what to click on (and where I can find what it is I should click on, so that I can try to follow instructions).

I've been googling and found stuff about layers, so then downloaded a pdf called "GIMP: Working With Layers", and that sez to "go to the dialogs menu", but WHAT and WHERE is the "dialogs menu"?

I think I want to find it so I can "go to" it because I think it has something to do with text and maybe it will let me somehow turn text into a picture... but how?

I still can't find the "dialogs menu", but found something called Layers in Windows --> docable dialogs, and that brings up a "Layers" window that seems to indicate I have only one layer. But If I Select --> All and then Edit --> Paste as --> New Image, what I get is not all of what the Layers window said was the only one layer I had -- i.e. all of the stuff I can see -- but instead makes a new window containing only some of the text I had previously typed.

Does anyone have a clue how this works? How can I make what I see into a picture with only one "layer" so that I can cut and paste things?

Right click your mouse in the 'layers' area, then click on 'new from visible' in the submenu that
comes up. It will add a new layer of whatever is visible.

Ok, so now the Layers window sez I have a "Visible" layer (i.e., it shows a layer whose name is "Visible")... (THANKS).

But how do I turn that "Visible" layer into something I can copy and paste from/into? If it *already* is something I can copy and paste (and "select all" of), then how exactly can I select all or some of it to copy and paste?

Thanks for the help offered, but this is way too complicated without much more handholding.

In Green, your layer (that doesn't not cover the whole canvas(*)). The Ellipsis shape, the selection. The Hatched area, what you copy if you do Edit>Copy.



(*) which may be the important point here. Many layers (and in particular text layers) do not cover the whole canvas. The layer in the picture is 200x150 and completely green, not 400x400 with green surrounded by a transparent area.

If you have a solid layer that is full document size then just select that layer from the layers dock-able dialog. This way you can select whatever area you want with any selection tool. With a selection simply do a [Ctrl + Shift + C] which is copy visible from the edit menu. It will copy everything that is visible on all the layers inside of the selection area, and it doesn't matter what layer order you have.

You could also do a [Layer] [new from visible] to make one new layer from all that is visible before selecting and copying.

noob1, are you able to show us what you are trying to do?
You are not putting a transparent layer on top of your original layer are you?

To echo sallyanne's point, if you tell us exactly what you are trying to achieve, I can probably explain step by step what you need to do.
As a relative beginner myself, I am aware of how easy it is for the expert user to miss out the very simple step that is obvious to them!

On this site you will find the most helpful people when you need to solve a problem.

david.

If, for example you have a picture you are working on in gimp and it has more than one layer, normally if you click on a layer (select it) then select all it will copy all of that layer after clicking on copy.
If you select a part of a layer (using the rectangle select or another selection tool) you should only need to click on copy not "select all" to copy those pixels then paste as a new layer or image.
If however you want to copy all layers which is the one image you just need to click on image > duplicate. It will then have all the layers until they are merged/flattened or exported. Don't flatten your image unless you are saving as a jpg. If you want to keep transparent areas in it, (jpgs do not support transparency) and flattening will turn the transparent parts into the colour of your background Best to export as a png or gif if an animation.

I will take some screen shots of layer dialogue and where things are if you need but I must warn you now I use Windows, not Linux.

When you use the selection tool, like the rectangle, after you have the selection positioned,
are you pressing the enter key to 'make' the selection?

hi, this is obviously a very old post, ancient by internet standards. but i'm here in 2025 still not able to get a good answer to this question. And the best thing I've come up with to do in order to copy selected in a way that includes all visible information within the selection, but not the visible information outside of the selection, is this:

1--Make a copy of all the layers that should be in the image, select the layers (hold CTRL to select more than one) right click then DUPLICATE LAYERS (better yet, if you know how to duplicate a whole file/project/tab/window, that works too, then you can just do all this stuff without needing to do step 2. I don't know how to do that, though)

2--Set all the copies of the layers to visible and all the other/original layers to not visible using the little eye symbol on the left side of the right side panel

3--right click in the layers list area and select Merge visible layers option (if there is a way to merge SELECTED layers rather than VISIBLE layers, I'd love to know about it bc this is a pain)

4--Now you can select what you wanted to, and using the normal right click in it, EDIT then COPY, then you can right click EDIT and PASTE and that should have created a new layer with just what you selected

It is annoying and suboptimal, but I guess that's what you get with a free program (the program is cool, i'm glad it exists, but man is this extremely annoying feature to not have- is copy visible within selection really that hard? I've heard photoshop can do it, even older versions of it. anyway,)

Isn't that just <select something> and then "Edit > Copy visible"?