Jie Shen
A bit embarrassing to admit, but I’ve always been a PowerPoint figure-making warrior.
PowerPoint is very convenient, but the exported images look terrible. Fine for a conference talk, nowhere near good enough for a paper. Microscope images are especially bad: there’s already not much you can see clearly, and compressing them just makes them blurrier.
So I started slogging through learning to make figures in GIMP.
Why not Photoshop? Because it costs money, and with a cracked copy I’m worried about downloading a virus, plus I can’t keep it updated. GIMP is billed as a free version of Photoshop. For what I need—processing artifact photos and microscope images—it’s more than enough.
But then I realized how annoying it is to redraw scale bars. Especially with lots of images: you repeat the same steps for every single one. Combining different images and matching their scales is a pain too. So I started wondering: if the process is more or less the same for every image, is there a way to do it all with one click, instead of clicking around and adjusting everything myself?
And that’s how I had my first-ever go at vibe coding. I discussed what I needed with GPT, and it wrote the code and made it into plugins. After installing them in GIMP, I can now skip most of the steps and do the following with one click:
1. Draw a line along the scale bar in a photo, and the plugin generates a matching new scale bar for me;
2. Draw a line in each of a group of photos, and the plugin matches their scales and generates a new scale bar;
3. Once I’ve arranged the images where I want them, the plugin adds a small number or letter label to each one.
Plugin 1: Redraw scale bars
Plugin 2: Match image scales and draw a new scale bar
Plugin 3: Add labels to each image
For the detailed steps, have a look at this Bilibili video:
[Productivity Tools | GIMP Plugins for One-Click Scale Bar Redrawing, Matching Image Scales, and Automatic Panel Labels]
The only thing I do manually is draw a line along the scale bar in the photo. The plugin handles all the calculations, the scale bar’s design and length, its number format and color, and the labels’ fonts and positions.
And if I need anything else later, I can keep asking GPT to improve it. All I have to do is work out what I need, roughly what steps I’d take if I did it manually, and how I want to simplify them.
The AI wave has finally landed squarely in my own workflow.
I’ve put the installation and usage instructions here. Do give the plugins a try. If you have questions, requests, or other convenient methods to recommend, leave a comment.
File shared via cloud drive: GIMP Research Image Processing Plugins – Six Trowels (Currently I only have a Chinese version of them, let me know if you need an English version).
Link:
https://pan.baidu.com/s/1fgso8nJBCjKM9tkkqaRFbQ
Access code: fpjq
生产力工具 | GIMP插件一键搞定制图重绘比例尺、多图片统一比例与自动编号
沈劼 · Jun 25, 2026, 9:23 AM
中文原文
说来惭愧，我一直是PPT做图战士。
PPT操作倒是非常方便，但是做完导出的图质量实在太差了，开会讲讲还行，放文章里就完全不够看。特别是显微镜的图，本来能看清的部分就少，质量再一压缩就更糊了。
于是我开始辛辛苦苦的学习GIMP做图。
为什么不用PS呢，因为要钱，而且破解版怕下载到病毒，还不能及时更新。GIMP号称免费版的PS，以我只处理器物照和显微镜图的需求，完全足够了。
但我又发现，给照片重画比例尺好麻烦啊。特别是图多了的时候，每张图都要重复一遍流程，非常麻烦。如果要把不同的图合并在一起，统一比例尺也很麻烦。于是我开始思考，既然每张图的操作流程都差不多，有没有什么方法，能够一键把所有操作都做了，不用自己点来点去调来调去。
然后我就经历了人生第一次vibe coding。我和GPT讨论了我的需求，GPT直接给我写了代码，做成插件，安装到GIMP之后，现在我可以跳过大部分的操作，一键实现：
1. 在照片中的比例尺上画一条线，然后插件直接帮我生成对应的新比例尺；
2. 在一堆照片里各画一条线，然后插件直接帮我统一照片比例，然后生成一个新的比例尺；
3. 在图片排好版放好位置之后，插件直接帮我在每张图片上生成一个数字或者字母小标。
插件1 重绘比例尺
插件2 统一比例格式并绘制新的比例尺
插件3 给每张图片加小标
详细操作过程可以参考这个B站视频
【生产力工具 | GIMP插件一键搞定制图重绘比例尺、多图片统一比例与自动编号】
整个过程唯一的手动操作就是自己沿照片里的比例尺画线，其它所有的计算、比例尺图案绘制、长度、比例尺数字格式、颜色、小标字体和位置，都交给插件自己完成。
而且之后如果我有什么新的需要，可以继续跟GPT提要求让它接着改进，全程我要做的，就是弄清楚我有什么需求，这些需求如果手动做大概是什么步骤，以及我要如何简化。
AI的浪潮总算是结结实实地打到我自己的工作流里了。
插件的安装方法和使用方法我都放这里了，欢迎大家来试用，如果有什么问题或者需求，或者有别的方便方法推荐，也欢迎留言在评论区里。
通过网盘分享的文件：GIMP科研图片处理插件-六把铲
链接:
https://pan.baidu.com/s/1fgso8nJBCjKM9tkkqaRFbQ
提取码: fpjq