[chiffre01]

I've never understood GIMP's approach to copy paste either. They've made a decision that copy and paste must require as many un-intuitive steps as possible.

Most graphics programs let you select a region, copy it and then move the copy around to where you want it, the end. You can usually paste into new layer if needed.

But not in GIMP for some reason you have to copy something and 'anchor it' or convert it to a new layer before you ever see it.

This kind of thing just makes me use other software.

[criddell]

That's how Procreate works as well. When you paste, it pastes into a new layer and then you can decide if you want to merge it down or not.

[Sophira]

I've memorised the keyboard shortcuts that I need in order to do this extremely common thing.

1. Select region with mouse.

2. Ctrl-C: Copy the region.

3. Ctrl-V: Paste (with the selection still active, so that it pastes in the same place).

4. Ctrl-Shift-N: Makes the resulting "temporary layer" into a permanent new layer.

5. Use the new layer.

I wish I could skip step 4. It's usually not necessary, and if I need to place the temporary layer into the same layer that I was already using, I can just merge the two myself.

Of course, sometimes you do need the ability to directly paste into the same thing, such as if you're editing a layer mask rather than the actual layer itself...

[mixmastamyk]

Not sure what you’re seeing, but if you choose the move (four arrow button) tool after pasting, it will move the selection. Then you can create a layer or merge down etc if you wish but not required.

[Izkata]

Slightly beyond that, pasting creates a temporary new layer you can manipulate like normal layers before anchoring it or converting it to a normal layer. It's visible in the Layers window as a separate layer from the one you were working on.

[mixmastamyk]

Right, “floating.”

[F3nd0]

> But not in GIMP for some reason you have to copy something and 'anchor it' or convert it to a new layer before you ever see it.

I select something, copy it, paste it, and I can see and move it right away. Is that not working for you? I’m on GIMP 3.2.2.

[cmyk_student]

Copy & Paste default behavior was changed in GIMP 3.0 (I was one of the people who worked on the change). GIMP 2.10 and earlier creating floating selections as described earlier.

I've gotten equal parts praise and complaints for working on that - some people think it makes GIMP much more intuitive, while others find it interfers with their workflow of quickly copying, editing, and merging back down pieces of a layer.