While working on the new design for Ventanazul, an slightly more complex project than usual, I started to notice a small but very important detail missing from Gimp: there's no way of removing, with just one action, all invisible layers.

When I design I like to test many ideas, each one composed by many layers, one for the gradient, another for some drop shadow, a pattern blending with overlay, borders, etc. Each idea can form a set of three or more layers, and these sets can quickly multiply for elements that need to be repeated, such as the tabs on a menu bar.

After some time discarding and testing new ideas I end up with many invisible layers all over the place, cluttering the interface and making each change take longer. I can live with some of the layers handling issues in Gimp, which at version 2.4 does not allow grouping layers as Adobe Photoshop yet, but having to waste time removing invisible layers, one by one, was too much.

So, I asked for help at Gimptalk and just a couple of hours later Saul Goode shared a link to his script for removing invisible layers on Gimp.

To use it do this:

• Download the file delete-hidden.scm by right clicking and choosing Save link as on your browser.
• Copy the script to your Gimp's scripts directory. For me, running Ubuntu 8.04, it's ~/.gimp-2.4/scripts
• Restart Gimp.
• Voilá! Now enjoy the new function at Image > Delete Hidden Layers.

Gimp lacks a few functions for common tasks on the design process but thanks to its scripting features it's possible to extend it. And now I'm thinking on writing my own Python based script to create grids. Yep, the same helpful grids that Muller-Brockmann popularized on the sixties.