I paste an image from Microsoft Word 2010 into GIMP 2.6.10 using Edit → Paste as → New Image, but the pasted image is less than half-size (1280×800 down to 553×347). Pasting into an existing blank 1280×800 image makes no difference.
On the other hand, pasting exactly the same clipboard entry into Windows Paint works beautifully, producing a razor-sharp 1280×800 image, and furthermore, pressing Ctrl+C in Paint, then going to Gimp and pressing Shift+Ctrl+V in Gimp produces the correct full-size image in Gimp too.
Why does pasting an image directly from Word to Gimp reduce the image size? How can I make it paste the correct image size without having to go via Paint?
UPDATE: I just noticed that cutting the image from Word and pasting back into the same document also loses definition. Paint must be magical.
Best Answer
Well, the format Office stores the images copied to clipboard is WMF (I think it is the reason of your problem). If you open Windows clipboard manager (start > execute > clipbrd), you can see that the default format is a metafile (View menu, the first option bellow "default format").
I think you can solve that problem easily using another clipboard manager. But you can try that to solve by another way:
option 1: save your document as html and open the image you want on Gimp.
option 2: open the document, see the page with the image, do "print screen" and then paste to Gimp and cut what do you want (you can zoom the page to copy with better quality).
option 3: open the document on OpenOffice, right click on a figure and select "save image" (if you cannot open DOCX, save in your Word as DOC).