Bree Photo Text & Fonts

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Note: Screenshots in this tutorial may show GIMP branding, but all menus, tool names, and keyboard shortcuts are identical in Bree Photo and the steps can be followed directly.

Adding text in Bree Photo is straightforward. Text lives on its own text layer, so you can edit the content, font, size, and color at any time without damaging image pixels.

Adding Text

Select the Text Tool (the “A” icon in the toolbox, or press T).
Click and drag on the canvas to create a text box, or click once to enter a single line of text.
Type your text in the text editor pop-up or in the floating toolbar on the canvas.
Adjust font, size, color, line spacing, and other options in the Tool Options panel.

Text layers appear in the Layers dialog with a “T” icon.

Installing New Fonts

Bree Photo uses FreeType 2 to render fonts and Fontconfig to manage system fonts. Any font recognized by Fontconfig, plus any font in Bree Photo’s font folders, is available in the Text Tool.

Bree Photo uses two font folders by default:

System font folder: usually should not be modified manually.
Personal font folder: a fonts folder inside your personal Bree Photo configuration directory.

You can also add extra font folders in Edit → Preferences → Folders → Fonts.

Installing Fonts on Linux

Place the font file in ~/.local/share/fonts/ (available to your user only).
Or place it in /usr/local/share/fonts/ as an administrator (available to all users).
You can also use tools such as GNOME Fonts or KFontView.

Installing Fonts on Windows

Drag the font file into C:\Windows\Fonts.
Or install via Settings → Personalization → Fonts.

Installing Fonts on macOS

Use the Font Book application to install fonts.

Refreshing the Font List

After installing fonts, restart Bree Photo to see them. If Bree Photo is already running, click the Refresh button in the Fonts dialog:

Refresh button

Tip: If you have trouble installing a font system-wide, try placing it in the fonts folder of your personal Bree Photo directory instead.

Editing Text

Double-click text on the canvas to re-enter edit mode.
Changes to font, size, color, and other properties in Tool Options update live.
Text layers can be moved, transformed, and given layer styles or masks just like regular layers.

Rasterizing Text

To edit text with pixel tools such as the Paintbrush, right-click the text layer and choose Discard Text Information to convert it into a normal pixel layer. After conversion you can no longer edit the text content, so use this with care.

Troubleshooting Fonts

If Bree Photo crashes while scanning fonts at startup, the cause is usually a malformed or outdated font file. As a temporary workaround, start Bree Photo from the command line with the --no-fonts option, although the Text Tool will then be unavailable:

bree-photo --no-fonts

Conclusion

The Text Tool is essential for posters, covers, logos, and annotations. Combined with layer effects and masks, you can create rich text visuals.

Source & License

This tutorial is adapted from the GIMP Documentation Team’s Text.

This document is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or later; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.