Using GIMP to create Z symbol GIF's

GIMP is the Gnu Image Manipulation Program.  It comes included with
Red Hat Linux 5.2.

(Here "click" means left-click unless otherwise noted.)

cd into the directory where you want to deposit the .gif files.

Start GIMP:

 % gimp &

The GIMP announcement window appears briefly, then disappears.
The GIMP tool panel appears and remains.

At the top of the GIMP tool panel, click on File.  The file menu appears.

Click on new.  The New Image panel appears.

In Width and Height (for 14 pt text the
widest Z arrows are 14 pixels wide, and the tallest characters (brackets) are 
14 pixels high.

In Image Type, click on RGB.  In Fill type, click on Transparent.

Click on OK.  A tiny image window appears.  

Pull on a corner of the image window to enlarge it to a square about
as tall as the tool panel.

Click on the magnifying glass on the tool panel to select the
magnifier tool.

Click on the tiny image in the center of the (enlarged) image panel.
It gets larger.  Keep clicking until it doesn't get any larger.  It
almost fills the image panel and each pixel appears like a square on a
checkerboard.   The title at the top of the window says
"Untitled-nn.0 (RGB-alpha)".

Anywhere in the image window hold down the right mouse button.  A menu
appears.  Move the cursor down to Image.  Another menu appears.  Move
the cursor over it and down to Indexed.  Relase the right mouse button.
The Indexed Color Conversion panel appears. (You have to do this step
for each image, "Indexed" doesn't become the default for the session).

On the Indexed Color Conversion panel, clock on "Use black/white (1-bit)
palette".  Click on OK.   The panel disappears.  
The title on the image panel now says "(indexed-alpha)".

At this point you usually use a text tool to put a character in the
image panel.  You simply convert the character to a GIF, or use it
as a starting point for further editing.

Click on the "T" on the tools panel to select the text tool.

Click on the upper left corner pixel of the image panel.  The Text Tool
panel appears.

On the Text Tool panel, in the font list on the left side, click on
the font you want (for example "symbol").  In the upper right corner,
click on Points (not pixels) and enter the point size (for example
14).  Click on each of Foundry, etc. and in each case select the
appropriate entry from the menu.  Enter border 0.

In the text entry cell at the bottom of the Text Tool panel, enter the
text (usually just one character) you want to convert to a GIF (or use
as a starting point for editing).  If the character is mapped on the
keyboard you can just type it (typing D while the symbol font is
selected enters the Greek capital Delta, for example).  If the
character is not mapped on the keyboard it is harder.  I haven't found
any way to enter the character's octal or hex code in GIMP.  Instead I
use the "xlsfonts | grep symbol" command to find the full name of the
symbol font, then "xfd -fn ..." to display the font and the octal code
of each character, then use Emacs to insert that octal code into a
text file (C-q, then type the three-digit octal code, then RETURN),
cat the text file to a terminal window, something strange-looking
appears, then use the mouse to cut and paste that something into the
GIMP Text Tool panel.  In the Text Tool, the something strange 
appears as the symbol you wanted!

When the Text Tool shows the character (symbol) you want, click on OK.
The symbol appears hugely magnified in the image window, surrounded by
a "crawling ants" border.  If the character is not centered where you
need it, grab it with the cursor and drag it (I've had trouble with
this dragging part, for some reason I haven't discovered, it doesn't
always work.  It's easier to just plop the character in the center of
the image and then crop it.)

You may wish to edit the image.  Select the single-pixel brush.  In
the image window, hold down the right mouse button.  A menu appears.
Move the cursor over Dialogs (the last entry).  Another menu appears.
Move the cursor over Brushes and release the right mouse button.  
The Brush Selection panel appears.  Click on the little dot in the upper
right corner.  The text "Circle (01) (1 x 1)" appears.

Draw in the image.  On the tools panel, click on the pencil.  Move the
cursor over one of the pixels (checkerboard squares) in the image
window.  Click.  The pixel becomes black.  On the tools panel, click on the
eraser.  Move the cursor over one of the black pixels and click.  The
pixel becomes transparent again.  That's how you draw.

In the Tools panel, click on the X-acto knife picture to select
the Crop tool.  

In the image window, move the cursor over the upper left pixel of the
area you want to keep.  Press down the left mouse button and hold it down
as you drag the cursor to the lower right pixel of the area.  Release the
mouse.  The Crop panel appears.  Click on OK.  The image is cropped.

To write out the image, put the cursor in the image window and hold down the 
right mouse button.  Hold down the button as you move the cursor over File.
Another menu appears, continue to hold down the button and move the cursor over
Save As.  Relase the button.  The Save Image panel appears.

Type in the image file name you want, ending in ".gif".

Click on OK.  The Save As GIF panel appears.  Click on OK.  The GIF is saved.