Simple Gimp Question
 

Hi, can anyone help me with this problem? Shouldn't be too hard (I think).

I have an image of black lines on a white background. It's an outline of a molecule drawn in chemdraw. I have a title page of a report and I want to use the image as a watermark in openoffice. I think I can use the gimp to save a version of the molecule, ideally faded out from the centre (to overlay the report title in the centre). If I could just fade out that would be useful if I can't do the other. I've tried this for a while and can't seem to get gimp to do anything (i've tried rtfm and stfw).

So -

how do I fade / use as a watermark with gimp (simple case)?

or

how do I fade out from the centre to overlay some text, either in openoffice or in the gimp (more advanced?)?

Thanks to anyone who can help with this.

Gir.

If by "fade out from the centre" you mean that the middle of the image is opaque and gets gradually more transparent as you move to the outer edges of the image...

Switch to the channels panel. Create a new channel, and with that channel selected create a radial gradient from black in the center (where you want it to be opaque) to white on the outside (where you want it transparent). Right-click on the channel and select "channel to selection". Then go back to the layers panel and reselect your layer (deselecting the channel). Cut.
This should delete the outer parts of the layer, but in a gradient, so it gradually disappears as you move outward.