2.14. Close

2.14. Close
	2. The “File” Menu

The Close command closes the active image. If the image is not in the main window, then the window is closed also. If the image is in the main window, the image is closed but the window remains, empty.

Closing an image is not undoable: once it is closed, everything is gone, including the undo history. If the image is not “clean” — that is, if you have changed it since the last time you saved it — you are asked to confirm that you really want to close it. Note that an image is marked as clean when it is saved to a file, even if the file format chosen does not preserve all the information in the image, so it is a good idea to think for a moment about what you are doing before closing an image. If there is the slightest possibility that you will regret it, it can't hurt to save a copy as an XCF file.

2.14.1. Activate the Command

You can access this command from the image menubar through File ? Close,
or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+W.

For most systems on which the GIMP runs, you can also execute it by clicking on a “Close” button somewhere on the image window titlebar. The location and appearance of this button are determined by the windowing system and the window manager.

	Note
	If you close the image window, as described above, GIMP simply closes your image. However, if you close the Toolbox window by using the “Close” button, GIMP itself exits.