GIMP notes
Differences from Photoshop to know about
The selection and the yellow thingie (the layer boundary)
You're familiar with the back-white-marching-ants selection.
But there's also the black-yellow thing, which can lead to a bunch of frustration/confusion before it is understood. (...especially if this boundary is hidden, which is possible)
It signifies the layer boundary. If you think of layers as transparency/Cel/onion sheets, it's simply the size of that sheet. You can't draw where it isn't.
Makes sense, but regularly it's not big enough - say, after you made the canvas bigger, when you cut-pasted into a new layer, and so on.
Perhaps the simplest option is right-clicking on the layer and choosing "Layer to image size". Note that his will extend the layer's background, though(verify)
See also:
Pasted stuff (Floating selections)
A 'floating selection' is created when you:
- Paste in something
- Do so intentionally via Select → Float (also CtrlShiftL)
- Use transforms like Flip, Shear, Scale, Rotate and Perspective
A Floating selection is effectively a temporary layer - and you can't do anything else with layers while you have one, and there can only be one.
You have a basic choice of:
- Tie the float to a new layer - by creating a new layer now (e.g. using CtrlShiftN)
- Anchor the layer to the current layer
- with (CtrlH)
- ...or by clicking outside the floating layer
- ...or with the anchor icon below the layer list
- ...or using "Anchor layer" in the floating layers right-click menu
See also: