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This is a very simply question, but one that I have been struggling to find an answer to: How can I put a box outline around something in GIMP? So that you can easily circle (but with a rectangle or square and not a circle) something in an image that you want to point out to someone. Or is there a better tool which would easily allow it without lots of manual drawing if it cannot easily be done in GIMP? When on Windows I would use Paint for this as I could not find an option in GIMP, but now in Ubuntu I can't find anything else to do it in.

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    Point 1: This is about GIMP, not Ubuntu. Point 2: You can easily do this(in pretty much ANY image editor) with the rectangle tool. –  Aug 19 '15 at 16:46
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    This question is not off-topic. Per the help center: "What topics can I ask about here?... Running third-party applications on Ubuntu.". If you look through the [tag:gimp] tag there are other question similar to this one as well. – Seth Aug 19 '15 at 16:53
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    @HeatherBrown: As GIMP runs on Ubuntu, and this is really only impacting me because I am on Ubuntu, I would say that it is on-topic. With the rectangle tool I am able to create a rectangle or square of a perticular colour, however how do you make an outline around something and not just fill? –  Aug 19 '15 at 16:54
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    @Tim I don't think [graphicdesign.se] would like this question. Their help center states: "What topics should I avoid asking about?... Simple "How to" questions — please search your application's help files first, and do a Google search before posting a question". – Seth Aug 19 '15 at 16:55
  • @HeatherBrown: Anyway, if you think it such an easy question, why don't you just post the answer? –  Aug 19 '15 at 17:08
  • @ParanoidPanda I was away from Ubuntu and did not have GIMP at my disposal to take a screenshot. Answer with screen shot now updated. –  Aug 19 '15 at 17:41
  • It is off topic, it should have gone to the gimp category of the graphic design site: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/gimp – Alex Fitzpatrick Aug 19 '15 at 20:18
  • @AlexFitzpatrick: It may have done fine. –  Aug 19 '15 at 20:33
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    However as @Seth said, it is not off-topic here as said in the help centre. –  Aug 19 '15 at 20:34

7 Answers7

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Select the area you would like to outline with the rectangle select tool. enter image description here

go to Edit > Stroke Selection.

enter image description here

You will get a dialogue. Choosing Solid Line will create an outline using the currently selected foreground color. Choosing Stroke with a Paint Tool will give you more creativity.

enter image description here

NotTheDr01ds
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5

Create new layer.
Rectangle select for outer wall of rectangle.
Bucket fill that rectangle or paste a texture if you want to use a texture for your outline.
Edit shrink selection by the width you want for your rectangle.
Cut.
Right click on the layer and merge the layer down.

RobotHumans
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3

I have a simple solution:

  1. Select the Pencil tool

    enter image description here

  2. Click on your image

    enter image description here

  3. Press Shift and hold and press Ctrl and hold for the steps below

  4. Move your mouse and click

  5. Move and click again to complete your rectangle

    enter image description here

A.B.
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2

You have answers for gimp, but I also find gimp a bit hard work for this sort of thing. I don't have windows so I don't know what its Paint is like, but I can recommend the very simple and old xpaint, the even simpler gnome version gpaint, or my favourite for over 10 years (and more sophisticated), xfig, all in ubuntu.

meuh
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2

A GIMP Alternate:

A simple tool for drawing rectangles and ellipses on pictures is already included in Ubuntu

LibreOffice:Draw

  1. Open the image in LibreOffice Draw. You can do this by first opening Draw and then opening the image in it. Or you can right click on the image and choose Open with > Other Applications > Show other applications.
  2. Look for Basic Shapes in the left hand tool bar and click the down arrow next to it. See Step 2 in the picture below:

enter image description here

  1. Select Frame or Ring shape. You can reduce the width of the ring and squish to to an ellipse if you want.

Hope this helps

Community
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user68186
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2

Select Filters > Render > Gfig... From there you can draw boxes and other shapes boxes in various styles.

Richard Bruce Gordon
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A different tool that I use a lot for this purpose is Flameshot. It is very handy when you want to take a screenshot of something, then mark, annotate, blur, point to stuff, etc.

Flameshot

Basically, we use Right-Click to pick colors, and Ctrl+Mouse_Wheel to increase and decrease stroke width. See README on the repo for more detailed info.

https://github.com/flameshot-org

Fernando Basso
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