Working with layers is an essential part of digital image editing, allowing for richly detailed composites and complex edits that would otherwise take hours of painstaking work. But in order to work with layers in GIMP, you need to be able to see what you’re doing!
The central place to view layers in GIMP is in the Layers panel. If you’re using the default GIMP interface without any customizations, this should be located in the bottom right corner of your screen, as you can see in the screenshot below.
Displaying the Layers Panel
If you can’t find the Layers panel in the default location, it’s possible that it was closed accidentally. GIMP’s interface is customizable using a drag and drop system that can also sometimes lead to accidentally moved panels and missing toolboxes – but never fear!
The Layers panel is easy to find again. Open the Windows menu, selected Dockable Dialogs, and click Layers. You can also use the quick keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L to display the panel.
Viewing Your Layers
In this example, I only have one layer, but we’ll add a couple more in a minute so you can see a few other important elements of the layer system. In case you don’t have GIMP open right now, let’s take a closer look at the Layers panel.
If you’ve just opened an image for the first time, you’ll probably just have one layer named after the image file name, as you can see in my example above. If you’ve just created a brand new image, you’ll also only have one layer but GIMP will name it Background by default.
As you add new layers or layer groups, your Layers panel will update to show the new layers, as you can see below.
While you’re getting used to how the panel works, this is a great time to remind you that you should always be in the habit of naming your layers! You may be able to get away without naming when you’ve just got one or two, but once you’ve got a few it can be very confusing if you don’t name them properly.
Viewing Hidden Layers in GIMP
If you’ve selected a layer in your Layers panel but you can’t view it properly in your image, there are a couple of possible issues that might be to blame.
The most obvious one to check is the layer visibility setting, which is represented by the small eye icon beside each layer in the Layers panel. The icon acts as a toggle button, allowing you to quickly show or hide individual layers or layer groups.
If your layers are all marked as visible, the other possibility is that it’s located outside of the image window. The image content stored on each layer can extend beyond the visible boundaries of the image, and it can also be moved around outside of those borders.
By default, GIMP uses a yellow dashed line to indicate layer boundaries on visible layers, and a blue dashed line on invisible layers. It’s far too close to the dashed line used to indicate a selection since it can cause some confusion, but it’s a useful tool in situations like this.
Try zooming out from your canvas using the zoom shortcut Ctrl + Mousewheel Down or by pressing the - key (for clarity, that’s the “minus” symbol found on your keypad). Select the layer you can’t find, and check around the edges of the workspace for the telltale yellow line that indicates where your layer has wandered off to.
That’s about all you need to know in order to view layers in GIMP! There’s a lot more to be learned about working with layers in GIMP, but we’ll cover those in other guides, so be sure to follow along with the rest of this TGT series to truly master layers in GIMP.
About Thomas Boldt