Hi All...after a long hiatus and some serious illness I am back..and in trying to use GIMP today for the first time in goodness knows how long, maybe 2-3 years, I am finding so many differences. I am trying to do something with GIMP and can't even select text to colour it with a gradient...my goodness how easy it is to forget things and then cope with new beginnings with changes that one never expected. I have meddled with it on a few odd occasions but not for a very long time..and its time I did get back. I had even given some thought to useing Canva but I think taht wouold take my originality out of the equation...so in as few words as possible, I need help with GIMP please. Using Mac OSX.13.5.2 and have always sung the praises of GIMP on Mac. It just works! Looking forwawrd to hearing from some of you with thanks, in the next day or so. ~Pauline

Very glad to see you among us again, Pauline, and for your regained health.

Agree with Diego, it is so good to see you back here.

Thanks to you all..I finally got to select the text Iwant to but now I am only able to use grey scale for gradient.....sighs!! it has to be a setting somewhere that defaults to greyscale but where the heck is it????

Welcome back, I'm just a newbie from 2021

More seriously > For the gradient on a text, you don't need to select, just lock the alpha channel of the text layer, 2 advantages of this method, depending the selection you can have aliases, you wont here, also locking the alpha will respect the semi transparent pixels > they will be tinted semi transparent as well

Here a 50-seconds video > https://imgur.com/SD1uneT I did to put gradient on a text (don't forget to unlock the alpha once it's done )

Welcome back Pauline. Great to see you on board again. Good to hear you are over your illness too.

Glad to see you again, Pauline and definitely glad you are better.

Pauline, So good news you being in the forum enjoying good health.

Hi PixLab, I appreciate your help but I find the video way to small for my older eyes to see properly and, if there is meant to be sound as in instructions, I get nothing.~Pauline

Thank you all for the welcome back...I appreciate all of your comments. Technically I am not out of the woods yet but 2 years along from surgery and 18 months from chemo and radiation, I am finally starting to feel human again. I lost over 30kg in weight during my bi-lateral breast cancer journey and had 4 tumours, all non palpable, so unable to be felt by any of the medical people and least of all myself. All found via mammograms, ultrasound and MRI and suspicious blood tests previously to those radiology tests. I have 5 years of negative tests ahead before I can be declared well again, but I am feeling I am starting to get on top of it all. New Beginnings. Part of that is for me to get back to doing things that I love doing, not the least of those, GIMPing.

Remembering things with GIMP is hard because I am rusty at it and things have changed somewhat with new versions and my sight a little bit worse for wear as I get older and I have a brand new computer as well.....so if I callout for help don't be surprised.

What about a big screenshot (click on it to enlarge)?

In 1 -> Make sure the text layer is selected in the layers' dialog/stack
In 2 -> click that button (it's to lock - protect the alpha channel (alpha channel = transparency)
In 3 -> Select the Gradient tool,
In 4 -> THEN click that other button in the Tool Options dialog to get a drop down list of all the gradients you have in GIMP,
In 5 -> select the one you wish,
In 6 -> then click on the canvas, to put a starting point, STAY clicked and drag your mouse up to 7
In 7 -> hit the "Enter/Return" key on your keyboard to commit the gradient.



Once you are happy with the gradient do not forget to click on the button in 2 again to stop/unlock the alpha channel of your text

If your text is grayscale after you apply the gradient, you might want to check the image mode. Go to Image> Mode and see if you have it in grayscale. Change it to RGB. Hope this help.

Lovely to see you back Pauline and I'm pleased you are better. I hope you find your creativity again and are able to share with us.

Haven't used GIMP for a few years. Got into 3d printing and wanted to see if I could use GIMP. Well, anyway I'm back.

Welcome back Tony

Thank you everyone for the welcomes.