The Graphics Muse Tools
ArrowGFX
 
Welcome to ArrowGFX Online from the Graphics Muse!  ArrowGFX is a GIMP Plug-In for creating all sorts of pointers, oriented in any direction and with variable length tails, as new layers, masks, or even over the the original layer!

On this page you'll find everything you need to know in order to get started with and make the most use of ArrowGFX.  Once you've gotten the hang of this plug-in, be sure to check out the other GFXMuse Tools plug-ins:

Table of Contents A tour of the ArrowGFX main dialog window

The ArrowGFX main dialog consists of a notebook with 3 pages:  Arrow Options,Image/Layer Options, and Draw Options.  The opening page, Arrow Options, is used to select an arrow head type, tail length, and overall scaling.  In the upper left is the Rotation Angle Preview.  When an arrow head has been selected, a preview of the arrow will be drawn within the circular outline of the Preview.  Clicking and dragging within the Preview will rotate the arrow around the edge of the circular outline. Changes to the orientation of the arrow in the Preview will cause the Angle input field (just to the right of the Preview) to be updated automatically.  Additionally you can type in specific degrees of rotation in that field.  Note that the maximum rotation value is 359 degrees while the minimum is -359 degrees.

Selecting an arrow head is simple enough - just click on one of the icons in the Arrow Heads window just beneath the Preview window.  When you click on an arrow head it will be outlined to show it has been selected and the preview will be updated with the new shape.  Also, the Tail Length slider and input field will be reset to the defaults for the newly selected tail.

Changes to the Tail Length slider will update the Preview window, causing the tail to be extended from the arrow head.  The tail length can be quite long in relation to the size of the arrow head and can extend past the circular outline of the Preview window.  However, the tail display is limited to the inside of the raised frame of the Preview window.

Below the Tail Length slider you will find an option for scaling the arrow.  By default the scaling is set to 1.0, meaning that the bounding box for the arrow, when drawn, will be the size specified by the Size box. Below the Scaling option is the DPI option.  Setting the DPI to something other than 72 is probably only necessary for those needing to work in terms of printed output dimensions and resolutions or if you can't create a bounding box large enough simply by increasing the scaling amount.  The Size box, below the DPI option, shows the dimensions of the bounding box for the drawn arrow and tail.  The default here is to display the size in inches, but this can be changed to pixels using the size options menu.

The computed size of the bounding box is dependent on 3 things:  the scaling amount, the DPI setting, and the X and Y margins that can be specified in the Image/Layer Options page.  For example, the default for DPI is 72 pixels and both margins default to 10 pixels which means the overall size of the bounding box will be 92x92 pixels (remember that the scaling default is 1.0).

Image/Layer Options
 

The second page of the ArrowGFX dialog allows you to specify options related to the layer and image into which the arrow will be drawn.  This page is divided into three sections: Draw To, Drawing Margins, and New Layer Options.  Each section is enclosed by a framed outline so it should be easy to follow this next section.

The Draw To frame has three mutually exclusive toggle buttons:  New Layer, To Original, and To Mask.  Selecting New Layer causes the arrow to be drawn on a new layer that will be positioned on top of all the other layers for the currently selected image (which can be set using the Available Images option menu to the right of the Draw To frame).  Selecting the To Original button will cause the arrow to be written over the currently active layer in the selected image.  This option is destructive to the contents of the current layer so be certain this is really what you want to do.  The other option, To Mask, will cause the arrow to be drawn to the mask of the active layer for the selected image.  If a mask does not exist then one will be created for that layer.  Keep in mind that a mask is a grayscale image so the current foreground color is not used in the mask.

If a new layer is to be created then the options in the New Layer Options frame become active.  If To Original or To Mask is selected then these options cannot be modified (they are said to be "grayed out").  The first two options, Blend Mode and Opacity, allow you to specify the initial settings for the new layer just as you would otherwise do using the Layer and Channels dialog.  The X and Y Offset options allow you to position the new layer within the selected image.  These offsets are relative to the upper left corner of the Image Window for the specified image.

Finally, the Drawing Margins options allow you to add a bit of padding to the left and top of the bounding box in which the arrow will be drawn. Setting the margins may be necessary for some arrows under some rotational angles to prevent the ends of the tail or tips of the arrow head from being cut off.

Drawing Options

The final page provides options for how the arrow will be drawn or painted.  This page has three sections, plus two additional options.  The three sections are Draw With, Fill Type, and Tail.  The Draw With options allow you to select the GIMP drawing tool to use.  The tool selected, one of Pencil, Paintbrush, Airbrush or Stroke Outline, will use the currently selected brush from the Brush Selection dialog so be sure you've selected your brush first. The Paintbrush tool has an additional option, Paintbrush Fade Out which is identical in use to the Fade Out option of the Paintbrush Tool Options dialog.  It determines how quickly the paintbrush fades as it draws.  The default setting of 0 (zero) means the paintbrush will not fade at all.  Smaller values greater than zero mean the paintbrush fades quickly as it draws.  Larger values mean it paints longer lines before it begins to fade.  Similarly, the Airbrush tool has an Airbrush Pressure option that functions the same as its Tool Options feature of the same name.  Both of these options are only active (modifiable) when their respective tools are selected from the Draw With frame.

Arrows are drawn in two steps - first their outline is drawn using the selected drawing tool and then this outline is filled, or not, using the method specified by the Fill Type frame.  The default is to fill the arrow with the same color as its outline.  Alternatively you can fill the outline with the currently selected Pattern, fill the outline with the pattern but leave off the drawn outline, or just outline the arrow shape.

The last frame involves the drawing of the arrow's tail.  It can either be drawn or not drawn depending on which toggle is set in the Tail frame.

Drawing the Selected Arrow
 

Once you've made all your modifications to the default settings of the dialog you can click on the OK button at the bottom of the window.  The arrow will be created fairly quickly even if its fairly large.  If the arrow is drawn on a new layer then that layer will be named GFXArrow.

Closing and Resetting the Dialog
 

The ArrowGFX dialog will not close after you click on OK.  It stays open so you can create multiple arrows if you so desire.  To close the dialog, click on the Cancel button.  If you need to start over with the original default dialog settings you can simply click on the Reset button and all the original settings of the dialog will be restored.

Sample Arrows

Here are some example arrows made with ArrowGFX.  Keep in mind that ArrowGFX works with the currently selected foreground color, currently selected brush and/or currently selected pattern so to get effects like these you need to play with those settings aside from just using ArrowGFX on its own.  For some of these samples brushes from the GFXMuse Tools were used, such as the small corner brush and the small "drovel".