I should probably sign up to the gimp forums for this question, but maybe someone knows the answer here.

Because of a small bug with Inkscape I have to rotate images in the gimp first.

But when I am rotating is there a way to hide the un-rotated image? I can only see how to hide the rotated image.
Seeing the previous image underneath makes it hard to see the edges clearly.

I set the layer opacity to zero, the rotation will still be visible.... then I set opacity back to 100. Sometimes I use guidelines for reference.

Vectorator wrote:But when I am rotating is there a way to hide the un-rotated image? I can only see how to hide the rotated image.
Seeing the previous image underneath makes it hard to see the edges clearly.

AFAIK, the GIMP doesn't have the provision to allow you to hide the original image while you are rotating it. Otherwise, you should have already seen it in the tool options box.

I'm guessing you want to straighten the original image? What I do in this case is use corrective direction, disable the preview, enable the guides and rotate the superimposed grid lines to visually match the edges of the image below, adjusting the number of lines until I find a satisfactory match. I use this method to straighten scanned photos and documents. Works like a charm every time.

Original > Settings > Corrected

HTH.

Ok thanks.

Yes simply hiding the layer before starting to rotate pretty much achieves what I want.