Gimp: Saving Your Work
Objectives and Overview
This lesson and activity cover how to save and export your Gimp designs. You’ll work through saving the files and uploading them to your Google Drive folder.
Lesson Objectives
- Identify the different file formats you’ll be saving in Gimp
- Demonstrate that you can save your Gimp designs
- Upload your designs to your Google Drive folder
Activity: Save Your Design
You’ll need to save your design two ways before you upload the saved files to Google Drive. First, you’ll save a .XCF file. This is your working file. If you need to make changes to your design, you can with this type of file. To save your design as a .XCF file, click File > Save As and then change your title and save to your Desktop.
To be able to upload your design to Scratch or any other website you need to export your design as a .png or .jpg file. PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics, it is a file type that is used widely on the internet and in other mediums because the file size is small and easy to handle.
Activity: Upload Your File to Google Drive
- Tip: When you upload files to your drive, you don’t need to worry about which computer you’re using while at the Tech Center. You can even work on your designs at home!
- Sign in to your Google account/email address. Find and click the Apps icon.
- Select Drive from the Apps pop-up menu. Note that this is a good shortcut for accessing many other features such as Mail, Calendar, and creating files in the Drive.
- Once you open the Drive, click New on the left menu. If you don’t see New, click the gears icon in the top right, and then click Experience the New Drive.
- Upload Options:
- Option 1- File: Uploads a single file. You’ll be prompted to select the file in the browser. Navigate to where you saved your design file.
- Option 2- Folder: Uploads an entire folder. This is useful if you have multiple designs stored in one location.
- Note: File is faster and more reliable. If you have difficulties with the folder option, you can always upload each file one at a time.
- Best Practices: Upload your content at the end of every Maker Foundations session! Leave roughly 5 minutes to do this.
Gimp Tips & Tricks
- Remember to save early and save often!
- Use control-D to duplicate objects.
- Here is a list of hotkeys for Gimp: Gimp Hotkeys
- Don’t forget that you can Undo any changes or accidental deletes by using “Undo”.