The GIMP image editor

Open a photo with The Gimp, use the rectangle selection tool and select the area to form the new image. The selected rectangle may be adjusted by dragging any of it's four corners.

Note; before editing an image make a backup copy of it, just in case of mistakes.

In the Edit menu click on Copy. Again in the edit menu, select Paste as | New Image.
This will create a new image consisting of the selected area.

The newly created image may need to be resized. If it is going to be stored at, for example, Photobucket and embedded in the auction listing then the width should be no more than 700 pixels, this will suit most photographs although there may be exceptions.

If the image is to be uploaded to Ebay photo services then Ebay recommend the longest side of the photograph to be at least 1000 pixels. This is to preserve image quality and also for the zoom function to work, if available.

To resize the photograph select Image | Scale Image. In the pop-up window enter the new width then click in the height box to automatically set the height. The chain symbol indicates that the width and height scales are linked and will be resized automatically. A broken chain symbol indicates that the width and height are not linked, click the chain to toggle between these settings. Click on Scale to complete the resizing. Then save the changes.

To save the image select Image | Flatten Image then File | Save, this will open a pop-up window. Select a folder to store the new image. The new image will require a name followed by the file extension (eg .jpg).

Name conventions; To be compatible with the many different computer programs and web browsers the name of an image file should only contain numbers, lower-case letters or under-scores (no spaces). For example, claudes_photo23.jpg

Once the image has been named click on save, in the pop-up menu set the quality level to about 85 and save.
The new image has now been created.

The Gimp has an auto crop function which will select, copy, rescale and save in one procedure.
Note; before using the auto crop function make a backup copy of the original image as this procedure will edit it.

Open the image with The Gimp image editor. Click on the rectangle selection tool and select Image | Autocrop Image, then select the area of the photo to be copied. Then select Image | Crop to Selection, this will delete the non-selected area.

Creating multiple same-size images.

If more than one image is required in the auction listing then it may be desirable to make all the photographs the same size. To do this open The Gimp and select File | New . This will open a pop-up window, shown below. In this window set the required width and height and click ok. This will create a new blank image.

Use The Gimp autocopy function, as above, to select and resize the subject photograph but leave some space around the item and also make the resize slightly larger than the new blank image, this will allow for positioning. Copy the resized image by selecting Edit | Copy.

Click on the new blank image, select Edit | Paste and the photo will appear in the new blank image. Select the move tool and hold down the left mouse button and drag to position the pasted image. When done save the result. Repeat this process for each photograph.

Using compression will reduce the file size of the photograph.
In the above example the file size has been reduced from 45kb to 23.8kb, this is a drastic reduction but shows what can be done. The trade off in compressing a photo is some loss of picture quality.

Open a photograph with The Gimp image editor select File | Save As.
In the pop-up menu select the folder the image is to be saved to and/or rename the photo, then click Save.
In the new pop-up menu tick the box to show preview and use the slider control to adjust the file size.
The effect can be seen in the image window, adjust the control until a suitable file size and quality has been reached. Click okay to save the changes.

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