Gimp on a Mac

[jwampole]

Hello all. My first post on this forum. I 'm using a MacBook running on Mac OSX 10.5.6, with all updates. 2Ghz processor, 1GB of memory. GIMP is version 2.6.5 My question regards the clone tool in GIMP. I simply cannot get the close tool to work, I keep getting the following error message "Set a source image first". Another message states "Ctrl+Click to set a new clone source". Bottom line, nothing seems to happen, no layers are locked. I'm very familiar with PS clone tool, use it at work all the time. I anticipated that the GIMP clone would operate in a similar manner. Also I've been unable to find anything about setting a source image, except to do it, not how to do it. I've also tried every combination of Function, Ctrl, Option, etc, that I can think of. I would appreciate any help you can give. Thank you for reading my mail.

[PrimeTime]

Double left click on the clone tool...............choose a spot you wish to clone from and hold down on control and left click to set the spot. To clone hold down on the left mouse button and move it around and it will clone.

[jwampole]

Hello Prime Time. Thank you for your input. I did exactly as you described and got the following error/warning message "Set a source image first" when I tried to actually clone. A Mac mouse has only one button, no left/right. That may be the issue here, although I did download the Mac version of GIMP. I have the same problem with the healing tool and possibly other tools. I believe my core problem is setting the source image. Documentation on setting the image source seems to be limited to saying that it has to be done, not how to do it. I'm sure eventually I'll figure it out, or just go with Photoshop Elements! I appreciate your input and help. Thank you for reading my mail.

[dcclark]

That's curious.

First, any time you need to "right click", you can just hold down control and click -- it's equivalent.

Second, are you working with layers? If so, are you working on the exact layer that you want, and are you sure you're not editing the layer mask by accident? I'm not sure if those errors would be the result, but those are common mistakes which can cause weird results. Working with an empty layer can really cause hard-to-track-down problems.

Finally... dumb question... you have actually opened an image in Gimp, right? (Yeah, I know it's way too obvious, but I have definitely dealt with people who forget the ultra-basics. No insult intended.)