How to draw a straight line in Gimp

It's embarrassing to say how long I've been using GIMP without knowing how to draw a straight line, but ... skipping that ... here’s a quick tutorial on how to draw a straight line with GIMP.

GIMP straight line: Step 1

Step 1 is to have an image you want to draw a straight line on. I’ll assume you have a practical image to work on, but for my purposes I’ll draw a straight line in black on a white canvas. Here’s my white canvas:

 

Step 2

The next step to draw a straight line is to select your painting tool. I’m going to use GIMP's Paintbrush Tool, but you can draw a straight line with any of the following tools:

• Paintbrush Tool
• Pencil Tool
• Airbrush Tool
• Ink Tool (Calligraphy tool)
• Smudge Tool
• Dodge/Burn Tool

I just tested all of these tools, and they work fine on my GIMP 2.6.3 system.

Step 3

After selecting your drawing tool, in Step 3 all you have to do is select a starting point for your straight line. Just click your image once wherever you want your straight line to start:

 

Step 4

In Step 4 we discover the secret to drawing a straight line in GIMP. All you have to do is hold down the [Shift] key while you move the mouse around, and decide where you want your straight line to end. As long as you hold down the [Shift] key while you move the mouse you’ll see GIMP giving you some visual help, drawing a straight line from your last dot to your current mouse position. It looks something like this:

 

Once you’ve decided where you want your straight line to end, just click that spot on your image (left-click), while still holding down the [Shift] key. After you click the mouse button, you’ll have a straight line, something like this:

That’s all you have to do.

Somehow I managed to work with GIMP a long time without knowing this, but it’s a huge time-saver once you find it.

Review: How to draw a straight line in Gimp

As a quick summary, here’s all you have to do to draw a straight line in GIMP:

1. Have an image you want to draw a straight line on.
2. Select a GIMP drawing tool.
3. Click the starting spot for your straight line.
4. Hold down the [Shift] key; move the mouse pointer to your second spot, and with the [Shift] key still held down, click the end point for your straight line.

I hope this “GIMP straight line” tutorial is helpful!