GIMP: Paste as New Layer

I use "Paste as New Layer" all of the time. Typically I am zoomed in on an area (say bottom right of image) when I cut a region and 'paste as new layer'. I want to place the pasted layer somewhere in the area that I am working on (bottom right of image), but the only way I can get the pasted layer is to move to the top left of the image and drag it all the way across. Very time consuming.

Is there a way in which "paste as new layer" can be configured so that the pasted layer appears in the top left of the window instead of the top left of the image?

SparkyNZ

Posted 2017-08-02T23:02:20.240

Reputation: 157

Answers

I don't know of a way to configure this in GIMP - chances are there doesn't exist one. However, I can think of a workaround: In the menu under Edit->Keyboard Shortcuts, you can assign your own shortcuts to various GIMP functions (I'm assuming you already know this, but I'm writing for the general public here).

If you search for "New Layer", a shortcut by the name layers-new should pop up. This is the shortcut that will convert a floating selection to a new layer. So my suggestion is to revert to using the standard paste functionality, and simply assign a convenient shortcut to the layers-new command (something like Ctrl-B is pretty good, so you can quickly hit Ctrl-V and Ctrl-B in succession).

This is of course far from ideal, but I still think it's quite a solid workaround since you'll only lose one keystroke per paste operation.

PawkyPenguin

Posted 2017-08-02T23:02:20.240

Reputation: 263

Awesome!! Thanks heaps - I can assign a shortcut as you say to "Layer->To New Layer" which appears when I do the paste. That is far better way than what I've been doing. You deserve 100 upvotes in my opinion! – SparkyNZ – 2017-08-03T04:01:56.840

Sorry, wrong answer, you don't need to define a specific shortcut for Layer>To new layer, it's already there. – xenoid – 2017-08-03T11:30:09.870

@xenoid You're correct, the shortcut is already there. But rather than just saying "There is a shortcut", I think it makes sense to highlight how someone would go about solving a similar problem on their own (namely open up shortcut menu and then searching), especially for users that aren't familiar with GIMP. – PawkyPenguin – 2017-08-03T13:19:29.473

This would be a good answer if the question was how to define shortcuts in general. But here it makes you so something useless, and in fact misguided, because you change the shortcut for both Layer>New layer and Layer>To new layer. This is a standard and often used shortcut that you'll find in plenty of tutorials, and if you follow that answer and change the shortcut, plenty of tutorials or answers to questions won't work for you. – xenoid – 2017-08-03T14:04:19.580

Most people use Edit>Paste, Layer>To new layer, so, with the standard shortcuts, have trained their fingers for Ctrl-V, Ctrl-Shift-N. This because when there is a "floating selection" (which is what happens with Edit>Paste), Layer>New layer becomes Layer>To new layer and inherits its shortcut.

To answer some more of the question. Edit>Paste pastes the clipboard centered on the current selection (so if you just did a Ctrl-C in Gimp, the pasted bit is exactly over its source location), which is why you see it when zoomed in. By contrast Edit>Paste as>New layer pastes in the top left corner.

Also, no way to do what you want with a script or plugin, these are not allowed to interact with the UI, so they couldn't tell how much you are zoomed in or what are the coordinates of the part that you actually see.

xenoid

Posted 2017-08-02T23:02:20.240

Reputation: 7 552

Solution without any need of edit default shortcuts. Nice. Thank you. – Matěj Kříž – 2018-06-14T12:58:44.790