Exporting layers in GIMP file to single pdf file

[Update: there is a nice working plugin that does the trick, see here]

In GIMP exporting multiple layers to one pdf file is surprisingly difficult. I found two solution, both require additional software besides GIMP, but are fairly easy to implement. One solution is given here. [this link doesn’t work anymore] It requires a plug-in or script to export individual layers to separate tiff files (something which perhaps surprisingly is not possible out-of-the-box in GIMP).

The before-mentioned site suggest the script “Save Layers as Individual Files”, which can be downloaded [this link doesn’t work anymore] from Panotools. Next step is to use ImageMagick to convert the tiff files into a single pdf file. Unfortunately the script throws up an error when I try to open it.

Luckily I found an even easier solution here. No need for a separate plugin, but you still need GraphicsMagick or ImageMagick.

• Open the GIMP file with multiple layers
• Make sure to order the layers in reverse order, page 1 must by the bottom layer, the last page the top layer
• Save the file as a MNG animation. In the dialogue that comes up, select “save as animation”.
• Now, open the terminal and use the command ‘convert document.mng document.pdf’ to export the mng file to a pdf file.

Credits go to Patrick’s WebLog, go there for more details.