I’m very much illiterate when it comes to graphics processing, but there must be a very simple way for doing what I want to do. It’s just that I haven’t found it after two hours of playing around in GIMP and using online how-to texts.
So I have a file that has one object in the foreground against a relatively uniform background. The object fills almost, but not quite, the entire size of the image. I want to insert that object into a Powerpoint presentation, but it is important for me that the size of the object is exactly what I want it to be, and not less. I could do that with the “size and position” formatting tool in Powerpoint, but then I’m formatting the size of the overall image that I insert, and the object that I’m interested in is a bit less than that (because it doesn’t quite fill the image).
So I try to use GIMP to select only the object I’m interested in from, save it as a new image that consists only of the object, and insert and scale that in Powerpoint. But that is where I’m failing. I do know the “magic wand” tool in GIMP, and I manage to use that to select the background from the source image, and then I invert the selection and end up only with the object as a selection. But then I try to save that selection as a new image (which would only have the object in it), and what I end up with is a new image that has no background visuals but still the same size as the original image, so the object is still a tad smaller than the image. Meaning my scaling in Powerpoint still doesn’t ensure the object is as large as I want it to be.
I hope it has become clear what I’m trying to achieve and where I’m going wrong. Any tips on how to accomplish that?
I think you need to save the file as a new one first, then before making the selection you need to check what is the ratio for your presentation.
For regular HD or 4k res it is 16:9
That 16:9 aspect ratio needs to be entered in the selector tool.
Under the Rectangle Selection Tool there is a choice for the Fixed aspect Ratio. Once selected, the rectangle for cropping will retain the aspect ratio you need.
Crop the image to include most of the object you need.
Then just proceed as you attempted to do, in that way the final image should have the aspect ratio needed and that can be resized to the size you need for the presentation with little empty space on the sides or on the top and bottom.
Instead of saving the magic-wanded selection to a new file (at which point it’ll be forcibly rectangular-ized), just copy and paste it into Powerpoint: as in, don’t save the file at all, just copy it straight inside GIMP and paste it into powerpoint. When you save a file, GIMP has to give it a rectangular pixel size and may or may not save the transparent background in a format that Powerpoint understands. When you just copy and paste, usually that works.
If not, use the Powerpoint image editing tools to remove the background there, instead of in GIMP, and then just drag the image to the right size.
If you can’t get get the copy and paste to work with GIMP, try it with Paint.net instead. Sometimes Linux programs like that don’t play well with the Windows rich clipboard.
If I understand your question, I believe that is what you want.
Just adjust them to the scale that you need. If you turn off the links between horizontal and vertical, it will let you change them independently. If they are linked, then that change proportionally, depending on what you need. I think you want them linked, if I understand your needs right, but if it is more important to cover an area than to preserve the aspect ratio, then changing them independently may be better.