How to Scale or Resize Images in GIMP?

GIMP or the GNU Image Manipulation Program is an open-source graphics editor used for editing images. It is available for all of the platforms under GPLv3+ licenses. There are many features in GIMP that users can use to edit their images. One of the features is scaling or resizing the images. However, some users with less knowledge about GIMP will have a hard time finding the correct options for resizing images or layers in GIMP. In this article, we will teach you the steps about how you can resize an image or a layer over another image in GIMP.

Resizing/Scaling an Image in GIMP

This method works for the single image that you want to resize using the GIMP. Every program has different shortcuts and options for the resizing feature. Photoshop or other famous photo editing programs will have an option “Image Size” for this particular task, but the GIMP has an option called Scale Image for resizing the images. If all you need is to resize a single photo, then the below steps will guide you to that.

1. Open the GIMP application by double-clicking the shortcut or searching it through the Windows search feature.
2. Now click on the File menu in the menu bar and choose the Open option to open the image that you want to resize.

   

3. Click on the Image menu in the menu bar and choose Scale Image option to resize the image.
4. Here you can change the image size by selecting the different measuring units or resolution options. You can also turn off the chain link to have different width and height for the image.
   Note: If the chain link is on, then it will keep the aspect ratio as the original and the height and width will change together.

   

5. Once you change the options for resizing the image, click on the Scale button to apply changes. The size of the image will be changed according to the settings you choose.

Resizing/Scaling a Layer in GIMP

This is a bit different than the normal single image resizing. If a user is working on two images as different layers, then the Scale Layer should be used for the selected layer. If you paste another image over your main image, then it will take place in another layer on the layer selection dialog. Before starting the Scale Layer feature, make sure you have selected the correct layer that you want to resize. Follow the below steps to try it out:

1. Open the GIMP application, click on the File menu and choose Open as Layer option in the list. Select the image that you want to open as a layer over the opened image and click the Open button.

   

2. Select the image layer that you want to resize in the Layer selection dialog. Click on the Layer menu in the menu bar and choose the Scale Layer option in the list.
3. A Scale Layer dialog will appear, where you can resize the image by changing the values.

   

4. Click on the Scale button once you are done with setting the resizing options. The image in a different layer will be resized.