How do I tell the dimensions of the current selection in GIMP?

Question

Oftentimes, I need to measure the dimensions of part of an image (in pixels). In Photoshop, I can make a rectangular selection and see the dimensions in the "Info" window (or something like that). How can I accomplish this in GIMP? The only thing I've been able to come up with is:

1. Make a selection
2. Make a new layer
3. Fill the selection
4. Autocrop the layer
5. Open the scale layer dialog to see the dimensions

There must be an easier way.

Solution 1

In GIMP, the status bar at the bottom of the window will show you the dimensions while you are selecting, but it disappears when you finalize the selection. I suspect that is because the selection can be shapes other than rectangle. If you want to see it afterwards, make sure the Windows --> Dockable Dialogs --> Tool Options pane is enabled. It may already be docked on your Toolbox. This will show you the position and size of a Rectangle Select. You can also modify the size of the selection from this pane.

I am using GIMP 2.8 on Windows.

Solution 2

If the above solutions are inelegible and your selection equals the current layer, you might also measure the size of the layer using "Layer" -> "Scale Layer".

Solution 3

Anyone knows how to measure selected area? I have irregular shape selected, and I want to know what is the area of that selection, for example in square pixels.

Edit:

I found the answer by myself, simplest solution was to open histogram dialog (Windows → Dockable Dialogs → Histogram), there you can find pixels count of selected area.

Solution 4

GIMP shows the ongoing selection dimensions in the status bar, just on the bottom of the window. If that is not enough for some reason, there is a "measurement tool" you can pick on the toolbox (on the default configuration, just following the "zoom tool") - which will give you any linear size, and also angles of measured lines.

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Comments

[Sébastien]

This does not work on Mac OS X

[rook]

Does Adobe patented their Ctrl+C Ctrl+N Ctrl+V ? Anyway, with this GIMP feature you will train your memory and that's good

[Alaa]

The selection for “Channel” in the dialog seems to make a difference, though. For me, it seems that keeping the default “Value” is best.

[Big McLargeHuge]

This is really a different, related question.

[Big McLargeHuge]

This works if you've just used the rectangle select tool but not if you used alpha to selection, fuzzy select or anything else. All these years later, I still can find an efficient way to reliably get the size of an arbitrary selection.