Gimp sharpen not available -- also doc

[joneall]

In Gimp, I've opened a jpeg file to which I have write access as owner. In the Select menu, Sharpen is greyed out. (Also feather, border, etc.) Why can't I sharpen my own file?

I checked "Grokking the Gimp", which suggests using RGB mode. But the Image/mode/RGB button is already greyed out. So what the ... does that mean?

In my opinion, documentation is that part of Linux which is most off-putting to beginners. And I'm not new to Unix!

Thanks in advance.

[Rog131]

Re: Gimp sharpen not available -- also doc

Hmm - Did you select work area (if whole picture -> Ctrl -A) ?

[Earthwings]

Re: Gimp sharpen not available -- also doc

In Gimp, I've opened a jpeg file to which I have write access as owner. In the Select menu, Sharpen is greyed out. (Also feather, border, etc.)

Same here in the context menu, but it's not greyed out in the image menu (menu of the window) - might be a bug.

Why can't I sharpen my own file?

Do you want to sharpen a selection or sharpen the content of what is selected? Sounds like the latter, which is available through Filter -> Enhance -> Sharpen.

I checked "Grokking the Gimp", which suggests using RGB mode. But the Image/mode/RGB button is already greyed out. So what the ... does that mean?

It means that the image already is in rgb mode.

In my opinion, documentation is that part of Linux which is most off-putting to beginners. And I'm not new to Unix!

I had a quick look at the documentation and I was quite impressed, it looks really nice. If you think something is missing, please contribute to it, it's open source.

[joneall]

Re: Gimp sharpen not available -- also doc

Do you want to sharpen a selection or sharpen the content of what is selected? Sounds like the latter, which is available through Filter -> Enhance -> Sharpen.

Ohmygosh! I was wondering why sharpen was under the select menu. So that one just sharpens the selection. It's difficult finding your way around in Gimp. I find that placement of different commands doesn't correspond to my sense of logic -- yet.

Why, e.g., are so many commands stuck into the Functions menu? For me, those are just tools.

Anyway, that did the trick. Thanks a lot!

[Earthwings]

Re: Gimp sharpen not available -- also doc

Gimp is by far not the best program regarding usability, although I'd say Photoshop isn't that much better as people often claim. Once you're used to gimp, it's quite ok and things do follow its logic.
Depending on your needs, krita might be a nice alternative to gimp. The user interface is generally better, but it lacks some functions gimp does provide.