Enable Arrow tool in Gimp in Ubuntu

I use GIMP frequently to edit images from my phone and camera. I do not use Photoshop for two reasons 1) I use Linux and there is no native port for Photoshop in Linux. Though I can use it through WINE, I prefer not to do so. 2) GIMP is free and Photoshop is a paid software. Though Photoshop comes with advanced features, I prefer to go with GIMP. Sadly GIMP does not come with the “Arrow brush”. This brush is extremely useful if you plan to illustrate something with the help of images. An imprinted arrow in the photo will tell the audience the message that one exactly intents to convey. As this 'arrow' feature is missing from the default installation of GIMP, you need to draw it by using draw tools. Even then the resulting arrow will not be that good. But, you can download the “draw arrow” plug-in from the GIMP Extension center. Read the following guide to understand how to do it.

Unfortunately the Ubuntu 12.10 does not come installed with GIMP. If you need to edit/manipulate images, you need to install GIMP from the Ubuntu Software Repository. In almost all other flavours of Linux, GIMP is installed by default. You can install gimp in Ubuntu by typing the following command in the terminal.

sudo apt-get install gimp

Next, go to http://registry.gimp.org/node/20269 and download the “arrow.scm”. The link to arrow.scm is this → http://registry.gimp.org/files/arrow.scm

Either download or open this file with GIMP. The better option would be downloading. Copy arrow.scm and paste in the “scripts” directory of GIMP. This is a hidden folder. So, in nautilus, click on Edit → Preferences → click on the check box “show hidden files and backups”. The picture is shown below

Now you can see .gimp-2.2 → scripts → paste arrow.scm here. The image is shown below.

Next, open GIMP and you can see a new brush at the bottom of “Edit” menu. If it is not visible, then you need to reload the scripts of GIMP. To do this, in GIMP, click on Filters → Script-Fu → Refresh Scripts.

 How to draw an arrow

 first you need to select “Paths tool”. Click on the icon put in red triangle in the following picture.

Then click on the photo. It will put a dot there. Then click on the second point. The first dot will then be joined to the second dot to form a straight line. It will look like as shown in this picture.

Next click on the “Tools” menu and seclect “arrow” from the bottom of the menu. It will then present you with a dialog box. You can set the thickness and other features of arrow from this box. Click OK. This will then convert the line to arrow.

After selecting necessary thickness from the arrow menu, press the OK button and it will convert the line into arrow. The final arrow will look like this image.

Enjoy