How can I get a high resolution background in GIMP?

Question

I am very new to any type of photo editing software

. I recently installed GIMP in order to make yearbook spread backgrounds for my school. I used a tutorial here (http://www.walsworthyearbooks.com/idea-file/9740/creating-custom-backgrounds/) that uses Photoshop to make spread backgrounds, but cannot afford to pay one hundred dollars to actually purchase Photoshop. I used GIMP because it's free (viva open source)and has a similar format to Photoshop.

The first couple pages are due back to the company by this Friday. I know... Yikes.

I have very little experience in these matters, and would appreciate a timely response from a technological genius.

THANXALOTTTTT :DDD

Answer 1

If you are trying to rescale a small, low resolution image up to this size - it won't work in GIMP or any other image editor - all you will get is a blurry mess. Sorry but it's not possible unless you get a high resolution version of the image to begin with.



There is no way to rescale a small low resolution image up, and get the quality back.



and buying Adobe Photoshop will not solve this problem either.

Answer 2

Well, what you can do is select the size you want.



If you are following the tutorial, you would click File > New



Click on the advance:

Width: 18.5 inches

Height: 12.5 inches

Resolution: 300 (important to make it 300)

Color: RGB color (8 bit) – if your book is black and white, use grayscale

Background contents: white



Click the foreground color on the toolbar (it is black by default) : HTML notion will be about : 810000



With the Paint Bucket tool, fill the blank document.



Now what you want to do is right click on the layers and add a transparent layer (for each Background image you want to use), position it, then anchor it Ctrl + H. When you have a layer selected, you will notice, for one, it is highlighted. Two, look above at the mode drop-down box and try the different modes, i.e., overlay.



You will also want to head over to deviantART for some Brushes : http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=gimp+brushes



Copy the brushes into a folder, open GIMP, click on Edit > Preferences >> Folder > Brushes (and locate and set the new brush folder., Restart GIMP).



Next, create a new Transparent Layer, and add all of the images of the students.



(Note: in the future, you may want to use a combo of GIMP and Scribus) http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus

Answer 3

Try this tutorial: http://www.gimpedblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/gimp-video-tutorial-how-to-use-gimp-to.html?



I do gimp tutorials online and would be happy to help you more. Feel free to connect with me and ask questions:

Twitter username: @alexstandiford

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GimpTutorials/258785994164787

Google plus: Alex Standiford