--- title: > A Quick Vignette, Using the Gimp date: 2007-11-11 12:18 modified: 2009-02-20 13:37 status: published description: > A brief tutorial. tags: GIMP, image editing, tutorial image: filename: decoration.png height: 6rem links: - url: http://gimp.org title: > The Gimp rel: related type: text/html ---

It's easy to fade out the edges of a picture using the Gimp. Here's how: (using Gimp version 2.4)

  1. Decide how broad you want the fade to be
  2. From the menu, Layer → Transparency → Add Alpha Channel; if this option is disabled (greyed out), then the current layer already has transparency enabled and you can skip this step
  3. From the menu, Select → All, or on the keyboard, Ctrl+A
  4. Select → Shrink
  5. Shrink the selection by half the breadth you chose earlier, ensuring that Shrink from image border is ticked
  6. Select → Feather
  7. Feather the selection by the full breadth you chose earlier
  8. Select → Invert or Ctrl+I
  9. Edit → Clear or Delete

If you want to fade to a solid colour rather than transparency, skip the final step and instead use the Bucket Fill Tool with the Affected Area set to Fill whole selection.