Rotating canvas in GIMP

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

Since the introduction of this feature in GIMP painter (GIMP fork) back in 2011 by Japanese guy 'sigetch', there were talks to include rotating canvas to the master branch. Now, 2 years later, it is finally in the trunk. There were custom builds out, now it's official

Oregonian · **Posted:** Wed Apr 24, 2013 1:03 pm **(#2)**

That sounds very interesting. Dumb question: What is the difference between rotating canvas and rotating a layer?

Onkel Hatti · **Posted:** Wed Apr 24, 2013 1:21 pm **(#3)**

the canvas is the whole painting area not only a layer.
By rotating the canvas, the image is not altered. It is very convenient for painters, so they can rotate the canvas in a position, where it is most easy to paint.

https://vimeo.com/64481497

kimppi · **Joined:** Feb 17, 2011 **Posts:** 225

This is very much needed for painting. Great news!

Oregonian · **Posted:** Wed Apr 24, 2013 1:31 pm **(#5)**

Ah! That makes sense. Rotating a layer alters the image on it. Adds junk (pixels) around it. Looks like a great feature.

Nice explanatory video.

Thanks for the explanation, kite. :hi5

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

Yes, sorry about possible confusion, it is rotating a view, not an image.
I believe it was discussed here before under gimp paint topic and the link i provided has a video that explains it in a nutshell.
I tried rotating canvas in PS and Krita and it is indeed very helpful feature for digital painters.
Sure welcome feature in GIMP.
Since it's not rotation of an image, this manipulation it totally lossless.

Graechan · **Posted:** Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:15 am **(#7)**

Isn't this akin to 'arbitrary rotation' but for the image not just the layer, it's been long overdue :yes

Rod · **Joined:** May 16, 2010 **Posts:** 16170

I agree.Gimp artists will find this very useful.Nice to see it is finally going to be implemented. :bigthup

Graechan · **Posted:** Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:43 am **(#9)**

Well i had a play with it but in my view menu there was no rotate to 0 (I tested in Gimp Painter)

Rod I have the feature now in Gimp Painter 2-8-3

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

Graechan wrote:

Isn't this akin to 'arbitrary rotation' but for the image not just the layer, it's been long overdue :yes

Yes and no. Well, rotating an image or a stack of layers always results in a loss of some image data and
thus is destructive manipulation (similar to resizing or applying other transformation tools - shear, perspective, flipping).
Rotating a view does rotate the whole canvas while the image is snapped to canvas and does not require image remapping,
so zero information is lost. Also, unlike arbitrary rotation where you still have to enter the numeric value, you just rotate
canvas with the mouse button. In photoshop you have to activate this tool, in GIMP it will be working by applying Shift[+Ctrl]+MMB.

Erisian · **Posted:** Thu Apr 25, 2013 6:05 am **(#11)**

Graechan wrote:

Well i had a play with it but in my view menu there was no rotate to 0 (I tested in Gimp Painter)

Rod I have the feature now in Gimp Painter 2-8-3

I didn't know Gimp Painter was available for 2.8. Do you have a link?

Rod · **Joined:** May 16, 2010 **Posts:** 16170

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6475

Erisian · **Posted:** Fri Apr 26, 2013 9:54 am **(#13)**

Thank you Rod and Partha.

dd · **Joined:** Apr 10, 2011 **Posts:** 532

Well, IMHO, this is a nice feature to have and all, but isn't really very useful for GIMP per se. GIMP isn't a painting/drawing software which is where rotating canvas is most useful, there are already programs much better suited for drawing/painting that allow this (Krita, Mypaint), and I feel GIMP would do better concentrating on what it already does well (being a general-purpose image editing software), not trying to add in too much stuff - else it's soon going to be as bloated as Photoshop. But that's just my opinion.

Graechan · **Posted:** Fri Apr 26, 2013 11:10 pm **(#15)**

Erisian some of the links are broken but the file that works best is the 32bit gimppainter from Onkel Hatti

I still have the original zip of this

Erisian · **Posted:** Mon Apr 29, 2013 5:25 am **(#16)**

Thanks Graechan. I downloaded it (32 bit) but as with all 2.8 Gimps it's painfully slow on my computer so sadly I'm still stuck with 2.6.11. I had assumed this was the "Gimp For Painters" with the mix brush tool but I saw no such tool.

Carlos Diniz · **Joined:** Jan 20, 2013 **Posts:** 590

Well, but I can't understand how to rotate canvas. Is this a plug-in or a script?

Onkel Hatti · **Posted:** Mon Apr 29, 2013 11:08 am **(#18)**

Its core :-)
The canvas is the drawing area, on which all layers, masks, selections, etc. are only displayed. So the canvas has nothing to to with rotating a picture/layer/mask, etc. I use a graphic tablet. When I want to cutout a form, I have to draw a curve from right bottom to left top. Try it, it's hard for a right-handed. So I rotate the canvas, nothing of my content will change but I can rotate it in a way, that I can draw the same curve from left to right. Thats much easier. A very useful feature.

Hatti

Carlos Diniz · **Joined:** Jan 20, 2013 **Posts:** 590

Thanks Hatti. But, how to do it? I have to use the rotate tool/

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

Carlos Diniz wrote:

Thanks Hatti. But, how to do it? I have to use the rotate tool/

K1TesseraEna wrote:

you just rotate canvas with the mouse button. In photoshop you have to activate this tool, in GIMP it will be working by applying Shift[+Ctrl]+MMB

Shift + hold down middle mouse button and drag in the direction you want your canvas to be rotated.
Add Ctrl to make incremental rotation.