Chapter 5. Type Effects

Chapter 1 covered some of the basics of using text in GIMP. In Chapter 5, you’ll see how you can use lighting, shadows, color, texture, shape, and perspective to make the most of fonts.

GIMP isn’t designed to be used as a font editor; it’s a graphic design tool. But what you can do with text in GIMP is far more interesting than what you can do with a font editor. GIMP offers you the ability to alter the environment in which the font is displayed. No matter which of the available fonts you use, you can alter the depth, color, and texture for a text string. And that broadens your graphic design possibilities in much more meaningful ways.

GIMP’s Text Tools

The toolbox has a single tool for working with text: the Text tool. When you select this tool, GIMP opens the Tool Options dialog, in which you can choose a font and size and adjust other text formatting such as color and alignment. Text can be typed directly in the canvas window for WYSIWYG editing of short phrases or you can use the Text Editor dialog for larger blocks of text. Text entered in either window appears immediately in the current layer and incorporates the Text tool’s current settings.

The Tool Options dialog (left) for the Text tool and the optional Text Editor dialog. Short phrases can be typed directly in the canvas. Longer text blocks are more easily loaded into the Text Editor.

You’ll use the Text tool, its Tool Options dialog, and the Text Editor in all of the tutorials in Chapter 5, but the text itself is only the starting point. Any time you work with text, your goal is to convey a particular message, and the words you choose are only the first step. An image editor like GIMP really allows you to get creative with text in raster effects.

Text is rendered directly in the layer as you type.

Predefined Text Effects

GIMP provides a wide set of predefined text effects, from Chalk to Chrome to Frosty to Textured. If you need to achieve a certain effect but don’t have time to tinker, these predefined effects are the ticket. All of the predefined effects can be accessed by choosing File▸Create▸Logos from any canvas menu. Clicking any option in this menu will open a dialog in which you can select fonts and colors and set a variety of other options. The truth, however, is that these ready-made tools have their limitations, and you won’t rely on them in the following tutorials. To achieve something really unique, you need to do it yourself.

Create ready-made logos by accessing the File▸Create▸Logos menu.

All the text logo filters, like the Chrome filter shown here, allow you to adjust a few settings, but the results are usually pretty predictable.

Creating Your Own Type Effects

Now it’s time for you to explore GIMP’s Text tool while creating your own effects, such as shadows and erosion. The following tutorials will teach you how GIMP can transform run-of-the-mill characters into a stunning graphic message.

5.1 Chrome and Metal Text

Metallic finishes are most often applied to text, but you can also utilize these general-purpose textures in user-interface design. Metallic finishes are created with the Curves dialog. Adjusting the curves of either a gradient or a smooth texture causes gradual changes in tone to become more dramatic and produces the appearance of shiny metal. This set of tutorials shows you how to create three different metal effects.

High contrast, generated with the Curves dialog, gives these examples a metallic appearance.

Brushed Metal

The brushed-metal effect is the product of two basic processes. First you apply the Motion Blur filter, which makes it look as though the surface is covered with tiny scratches. Applying noise to a layer adds texture to otherwise flat images. Then you adjust the image’s gray tones in the Curves dialog. Adjusting the Value curve for an image with nonlinear variations—that is, an image with gray randomly distributed in the layer—accelerates the change from black to white and mimics reflective metal. The final effect is enhanced by extruding the letter into three dimensions.

The letter S is made to look like brushed metal.

Heavy Metal

The heavy-metal effect is similar to the brushed-metal effect, but it uses the Solid Noise filter to produce a cloudy texture and relies on more dramatic curves adjustment to achieve a polished, reflective appearance.

Heavy metal looks more polished than brushed metal.

Creating the Text

As in the previous tutorial, start by opening a new canvas using the default 640 × 400 template.

Hide the Background layer by turning off its visibility in the Layers dialog.
Press D to reset the default foreground and background colors, and then press X to swap them.
Choose the Text tool from the toolbox and pick an appropriate font. Change the text color to white. For this tutorial, I chose GraverplateExtrabold Thin, a font that uses uppercase characters for lowercase characters (known as small caps). This font’s wide surfaces make the heavy-metal effect easier to see. I set the font size to 182 pixels and reduced the letter space until the E and T abut each other.
Note
When trying to achieve this effect, always choose a font that’s solid (rather than outlined) and has thick characters. If you’d like to use a particular font but the characters seem too thin, the bold version of that font might work.
Click in the canvas and type Metal.
Use the Align tool to center the text layer within the canvas.
Resize the text layer to match the image size (Layer▸Layer to Image Size).
Using a thick font will make it easier to see the final effect.

Adding Depth

Clear any selections (CTRL-SHIFT-A).
As you did with the brushed metal effect, you’ll now extrude the text. Note that in this tutorial the extruding isn’t optional. The depth created along the edges of the text creates reflection variations that contribute to the heavy metal effect. Start by duplicating the text layer (Layer▸Duplicate Layer). Name the duplicate layer Blurred.
Use the Gaussian Blur filter to apply a blur of 10 pixels to the duplicate layer.
Click the original text layer to make it active.
Open the Bump Map filter (Filters▸Map▸Bump Map). Set the Bump Map option to the Blurred layer. Set the Map Type to Linear and check the Compensate for darkening checkbox. Set the Azimuth to 130 degrees, the Elevation to 30 degrees, and the Depth to 7. Click OK to apply this filter to the layer.
The Bump Map filter makes the original text appear three-dimensional.
At this point, you can delete the duplicate layer. Hide the Blurred layer by turning off its visibility in the Layers dialog.
Duplicate the original text layer. Name the new layer Cloud.
Select the text by choosing Layer▸Transparency▸Alpha to Selection.
Fill the selection with a cloud rendered from the Solid Noise filter (Filters▸Render▸Clouds▸Solid Noise), as discussed in 1.10 Basic Tutorials. Set the Random Seed to 0. Set the X Size to 10 and the Y Size to 2.
The Random Seed value is used to change the shape of the cloud, so feel free to try different values as you experiment. When set to 0, the random seed value used here, you should end up with the same cloud structure as I did. However, because the cloud is rendered only within the selection, you won’t actually see it. You’ll just see various shades of gray inside the selection.
With the selection still active, open the Motion Blur filter (Filters▸Blur▸Motion Blur). Set the Angle slider to 95 degrees and the Length slider to 20, and then apply the filter to the layer. Deselect all (CTRL-SHIFT-A). The Motion Blur filter turns the clouds into what look more like reflections of light.
Set this layer’s mode to Grain Merge to brighten the cloud layer and give the look of highly reflective metal.
Merge this layer with the layer in which you originally applied the Bump Map filter (Layer▸Merge Down).
Use the Solid Noise filter to render a cloud on the text. Then apply the Motion Blur filter.

Adding a Metallic Finish

This effect can be further improved by increasing the contrast between light and dark areas.

Open the Curves dialog (Colors▸Curves) and apply a curve like the one shown here. This gives you the basic metallic effect, but you can still enhance it further.
Add a drop shadow (Filters▸Light and Shadow▸Drop Shadow). Set the Offset X and Offset Y values to –2 pixels to move the shadow up and to the left and set the Blur Radius to 10 pixels. Apply this to the image.
Perhaps the edges of the text are too soft and need a more punched-out look. You can sharpen the edges of the text and get that punched-out appearance by stroking with a gray outline. Select the text in this layer by choosing Layer▸Transparency▸Alpha to Selection. Grow the selection by 2 pixels (Select▸Grow).
Add a new transparent layer by choosing Layer▸New Layer and setting the Layer Fill Type to Transparency. Name the new layer Outline.
The Curves adjustment brings out the metal appearance while the drop shadow will let the effect stand out on the page.
Click the Foreground color icon in the Toolbox and set the foreground color to gray by typing a4a4a4 in the HTML notation field of the Change Foreground Color dialog. Click OK and close the dialog.
Open the Stroke Selection dialog (Edit▸Stroke Selection) and set the Line Width to 2 pixels. Click the Stroke button to stroke the selection.
Deselect all (CTRL-SHIFT-A).
Change the Mode for the Outline layer to Multiply.
Shiny metals like chrome have a bluish tint, so you should add that for realism. Add a new layer (Layer▸New Layer) named Color and fill it with blue, setting the RGB values to 16/59/130. Drag the foreground color from the Toolbox into the canvas.
Set the Mode for this blue layer to Soft Light and reduce the Opacity to 53 percent. Turn on the visibility of the Background layer to see result of your labor.
Stroking the outline of the original text in gray and blending in color using the Soft Light mode gives the text a more punched-out look.

Liquid Metal

Using the Curves dialog made a big improvement to the metal effect in the Heavy Metal tutorial. But where you can go from there—what else can you do with metallic text? Take the process one step further: add non-text components to the image.

Here you simulate liquid metal. GIMP provides the heat, of course.

Creating the Text

With the toolbox selected, press D to reset and then swap the default foreground and background colors. Then open a new canvas window at the default size. Turn off the Background layer visibility.
Choose the Text tool from the toolbox. Pick a large, thick font—I used Arial Black sized to 220 pixels. As in the Heavy Metal tutorial, a thicker font makes the effect easier to see. In this case, you also want a font with lowercase letters and dots over letters like i and j. These elements will enhance the melting effect. Once you’ve chosen an appropriate font, set the font color to white.
Click the canvas and type the word Liquid. When you’ve finished, click OK to close the Text Editor.
Use the Align tool to center the text layer.
Expand the layer boundary to the image size (Layer▸Layer to Image Size).
A thick font is essential for this effect. With thin fonts, the metal’s reflective nature is harder to distinguish.

Liquefying the Letters

Use the Free Select tool to draw a round selection beneath the first letter. Hold down the SHIFT key to draw more selections beneath the text. Using the SHIFT key (or Add mode in the Tool Options dialog) allows you to add the new selection to the existing selection, even if the new selection doesn’t physically touch the existing selection. Make sure the selections overlap portions of each letter.
After you’ve drawn a few selections, grow them by 1 pixel (Select▸Grow) to soften the edges of the hand-drawn selections.
Fill the selections with white by dragging the foreground color box from the toolbox into the image.
Deselect all (CTRL-SHIFT-A).
Hand-drawn selections are added to the text layer and filled with white.
Open the Waves filter (Filters▸Distorts▸Waves). Set the Amplitude to 6, the Phase to 107, and the Wavelength to 29. Click OK to apply this filter.
The text and blobs below them will be distorted in a wavy fashion—the effect will depend on which font you chose for this tutorial. If you chose a different font, you may have to experiment with different settings for the Waves filter.
Name this layer Blobs and then duplicate it (Layer▸Duplicate Layer).
Open the Gaussian Blur filter (Filters▸Blur▸Gaussian) and apply a blur of 10 pixels. Name this blurred layer Blur. Click the Blobs layer to make it active again.
The Waves filter does the real work in this tutorial. The blurred layer sets the stage for you to add depth with the Bump Map filter.

Adding Depth and Polish

Open the Bump Map filter (Filters▸Map▸Bump Map) and use the Blur layer to apply the filter to the Blobs layer. Set the Map Type to Linear and check the Compensate for darkening checkbox. Set the Azimuth to 130 degrees, the Elevation to 30 degrees, and the Depth to 7. Click OK to apply this filter.
Turn off the visibility of the Blur layer.
Duplicate the Blobs layer (Layer▸Duplicate Layer). Create a selection of the bump map in this duplicate layer by choosing Layer▸Transparency▸Alpha to Selection.
Fill the duplicate layer with solid noise (Filters▸Render▸Clouds▸Solid Noise).
Open the Motion Blur filter (Filters▸Blur▸Motion Blur). Set the Length to 20 and the Angle to 95 degrees. Click OK to apply this filter.
Set the Mode for the duplicate layer to Grain Merge, and then merge it with the original Blobs layer (Layer▸Merge Down).
As in the Heavy Metal tutorial, use noise and blurring to simulate reflections.
Deselect all (CTRL-SHIFT-A).
Open the Curves dialog and adjust the Value curve as shown here.
Add a new layer (Layer▸New Layer), fill it with blue as before, and set the Mode for the new layer to Soft Light.
Adding a color layer makes it look as though an object is reflected in the metallic surface.

Further Exploration

This final version could be improved by more carefully controlling the distortion of the text. You could do this by using the IWarp filter instead of the Waves filter, for example. Additional color could be added as well. Try adding red and yellow layers with solid noise layer masks to make it look as though the letters are hot—there must be some reason why the metal is liquid, right?

5.2 Gel Type

The gel effect shown here is nothing more than soft shadows, smooth surfaces, and white reflections. Imagine how water in a glass tube looks and you get the idea. Gel effects are especially popular in web design, but you’ll see them used in many different contexts. The Mac OS X user interface incorporates what Apple calls the Aqua style, which utilizes gel effects in shades of blue.

Looks like gel, doesn’t it?

The process described in this tutorial can be applied to text, borders, and buttons—just about any surface. Depending on the settings you use for the Curves dialog, the Lighting Effects filter, and the Bump Map filter, your results may be different from mine. What you should take away from this process is how to use bump maps, lighting effects, and layer modes.

Creating the Text

Reset the foreground and background colors by pressing D in the image window. Then start with a canvas set to the default size (640 × 400 pixels).

Click the foreground color box to open the Change Foreground Color dialog and choose a nice blue. I’ve set the RGB levels to 0/51/222 for this shade.
Choose the Text tool from the toolbox. In the Tool Options dialog, choose a serif font. This tutorial uses Bookplate Thin with the font size set to 280 pixels. Serif fonts work best here because their characters are easily rounded by the process that follows. Click the canvas and type Gel.
Use the Align tool to center the new layer in the canvas.
Choose Layer▸Layer to Image Size to expand the text layer to the boundary of the image.
When using the Text tool, you can also change the text color by clicking the color swatch in the Tool Options dialog.

Rounding the Surface of the Text

Create a selection around the text by choosing Layer▸Transparency▸Alpha to Selection.
Shrink the selection by 2 pixels (Select▸Shrink) and feather it by 2 pixels (Select▸Feather).
Create a selection of the text, and then shrink and feather it. The dark edges on the letters in this Quick Mask view of the selection show that the selection is smaller than the lettering.
Click the foreground color box to open the Change Foreground Color dialog and set the RGB values to 31/82/255 for a slightly brighter shade of blue.
Create a new layer by choosing Layer▸New Layer or clicking the New Layer button in the Layers dialog. Name the new layer Bump Map.
Click the Bump Map layer in the Layers dialog to make it active, and then fill the selection with the foreground color by dragging it from the toolbox into the selection.
Deselect all (Select▸None).
Duplicate the layer (Layer▸Duplicate Layer). Name the duplicate layer Blur.
Open the Gaussian Blur filter (Filters▸Blur▸Gaussian Blur) and apply a blur of 10 pixels to the Blur layer.
Click the Bump Map layer to make it active.
Open the Bump Map filter (Filters▸Map▸Bump Map). Set the Azimuth to 105 degrees, the Elevation to 5.75 degrees, and the Depth to 10. Set the Map type to Linear, check the Compensate for darkening checkbox, and choose the Blur layer from the Bump Map drop-down menu. Click OK to apply the filter to the Bump Map layer.
The blurred edges of the duplicate layer are used as input to the Bump Map filter to simulate depth. Use the Bump Map filter to add depth.
Set the Bump Map layer’s mode to Addition.
You’ll need to make a color adjustment to the Bump Map layer in order to make the text look more gel-like. Open the Curves dialog (Colors▸Curves) and set the curve as shown here. When the visibility of the Blur layer is turned off, you can see that the Bump Map layer appears brighter.
Adjusting the Curves dialog for the Bump Map layer gives the text a gel-like appearance, but be sure to turn off the visibility of the Blur layer in the Layers dialog to see the changes.

Note

We won’t be using the Blur layer again until later in this project, so turn off its visibility for now to make the rest of your work easier to see.

Adding Lighting Effects

Now you’ll apply one more filter to the Bump Map layer.

Open the Lighting Effects filter (Filters▸Light and Shadow▸Lighting Effects). On the Options tab, click and drag the blue dot to the upper-left corner of the preview. The blue dot represents your light source. Position the blue dot so the gel text is highlighted to your taste. It’s tricky! If you lose the dot, disable this light (by changing the Type in the Light tab to None and then selecting a different light from the Light Settings menu) and create a new one.
Positioning the light source in the preview can be difficult. Don’t be afraid to click Cancel and try again.
On the Light tab, choose Directional from the Type drop-down menu. Your blue dot now is associated with a line representing the direction of your light source. The Intensity setting you select has a great impact on the overall effect, as do the changes you made in the Curves dialog. I set the Intensity to 1.15. If you aren’t pleased with the gel effect, experiment by adjusting this value or adding additional lights. Click OK to apply the Lighting Effects filter.
Of all the Lighting Effects filter’s settings, the Intensity setting has the greatest impact.
Once the Lighting Effects filter has been applied, offset the Bump Map layer by –2/–2 pixels (Layer▸Transform▸Offset).
Open the Gaussian Blur filter (Filters▸Blur▸Gaussian Blur) and apply a blur of 5 pixels to that layer.
A soft blur smooths the edges, giving the text a more realistic gel-like appearance.

Lightening the Text and Adding a Drop Shadow

To bring out the curved surface of the gel, you can increase the contrast in the text and add a background shadow. If you turned off the visibility of the Blur layer, turn it back on to continue with this project.

Make sure the Blur layer is active in the Layers dialog. Duplicate this layer by choosing Layer▸Duplicate Layer (the duplicate layer will be named Blur copy by default).
Offset the Blur copy layer by 2/2 pixels (Layer▸Transform▸Offset).
Click the original Blur layer to make it active, and then offset it by –2/–2 pixels (Layer▸Transform▸Offset).
Set the Blur layer’s mode to Addition and set the Blur copy layer’s mode to Screen.
Revisit the Blur layer and use it to lighten the gel coloring even more.
Click the Gel text layer to make it active. Add a drop shadow (Filters▸Light and Shadow▸Drop Shadow) offset by 4 pixels and blurred by 6 pixels.
Now that the text is so light, it fades into the white background. Adding a drop shadow helps the effect stand out.

Further Exploration

The basic process for creating gel effects is the same no matter what kind of surface you modify. To add variety, try using different colors for the gel or using the Waves or IWarp filters to add distortions.

5.3 Distressed Text

In interior design, distressing is used to give furniture an aged and weathered appearance. In graphic design, it serves a similar purpose—it gives clean and crisp objects, such as text, more visual interest. While it would be possible to design a complete font set around this effect, premade effects always limit an artist’s design options. Adding your own personal touches is tough if every F in your text looks exactly the same.

An example of distressed text

Creating the Text

With the toolbox selected, press D to set the foreground color to black.
Open a white canvas set to the default size (640 × 400 pixels).
Click the Text tool to make it active, and then select an appropriate font in the Tool Options dialog. This example uses SoutaneBlack Thin, whose thick characters make it easier to see the distressed effect, set to a font size of 80 pixels.
Click in the canvas and type BRoKEN SPARRoWS, using lowercase for the letter o, just to add a little pizzazz. Press ENTER to add a line break between the words and then insert a few spaces before the word SPARRoWS.
Use the Align tool to center the text on the canvas.
Choose Layer▸Layer to Image Size to expand the text layer to the boundary of the image.
Add a new transparent layer by choosing Layer▸New Layer. Name it Distressed and set the Layer Fill Type to Transparency.
The distressed text effect is easier to see if you start with a thick font.

Creating a Distressed Layer

The next part is the hardest. You’re going to add a series of vertical lines of varying widths to be used as the basis for the distressed effect. The difficulty here will be in positioning the lines randomly over the letters.

Turn on the image grid (View▸Show Grid) and set GIMP to snap to the grid (View▸Snap to Grid). You’ll use the grid to make drawing perfectly vertical (and thus parallel) lines easier.
Choose the Pencil tool from the toolbox and select the Round brush, with the Size set to 1.00 in the Tool Options dialog. Draw a single line extending from the top of the canvas to the bottom. To do this, click near a grid point at the top of the canvas, hold down the SHIFT key, and then click near a grid point in the same vertical line as the original point at the bottom of the canvas. This will draw a straight line 1 pixel in width.
With the help of the image grid and the Snap to Grid option, you can draw straight lines with ease.
Note
You can also draw a straight line without the grid by pressing CTRL-SHIFT. This method will constrain the angle of the line to 15-degree increments.
Hide the image grid (View▸Show Grid) and turn off Snap to Grid (View▸Snap to Grid). At this point you may also want to turn off the visibility of the text layer, though that isn’t required.
Choose the Fuzzy Select tool from the toolbox and use it to click the line you just drew with the Pencil tool. You may need to zoom in on the line to make clicking it easier.
Once you’ve selected the line, press CTRL-C to copy it, press CTRL-SHIFT-A to deselect all, and press CTRL-V to paste the duplicate line as a floating selection.
Use the Move tool to move the duplicate line to the right or to the left, then click outside the floating selection to anchor it to the original layer. Do this a few times, positioning the lines randomly across the width of the canvas. When you’ve finished, you should have one layer containing many lines. Duplicate this layer (Layer▸Duplicate Layer).
Offset the duplicate layer by entering 1 pixel in the Offset X field (Layer▸Transform▸Offset).
Merge the active layer with the layer below it by choosing Layer▸Merge Down. This effectively doubles the width of your lines in a single layer. You also could have used a brush 2 pixels in width from the start, but knowing how to enhance effects through duplicating and offsetting layers is a useful skill.
These randomly positioned lines will be used to mask out portions of the original text.
With the Distressed layer active, choose the Pencil tool again, set the brush Size to 3.00 in the Tool Options dialog, and repeat the process described above, this time drawing thicker lines overlapping the lines you’ve already positioned. Avoid uniformly spacing these thicker lines, and make sure they intersect the text here and there. Don’t forget to use the grid to draw the first line!
Making a few lines thicker than others adds more randomness to the pattern, but make sure that the lines intersect the text, or you won’t be able to see a difference in the final effect.
Open the Hurl filter (Filters▸Noise▸Hurl). Set the Random Seed to 150, the Randomization to 10 percent, and the Repeat to 1 time. The Hurl filter scatters dots in the current layer, overwriting pixels if necessary. The Randomization value specifies how much of the layer should be filled with dots. Higher Repeat values indicate that the filter should be applied repeatedly, thus increasing the overall number of dots applied. Click OK to apply the Hurl filter to the Distressed layer.
Open the Pick filter (Filters▸Noise▸Pick). Set the Random Seed to 10, the Randomization to 20 percent, and the Repeat to 3 times. Click OK to apply this filter to the Distressed layer. The Pick filter is similar to the Hurl filter, but it chooses the pixels and which color to use for them in a slightly different manner. In this case, using the Pick filter makes the dot distribution more random and introduces some larger dots to the pattern. After applying the Hurl and Pick filters, you’ll be left with a set of distressed lines.
Using the Hurl and Pick filters creates random noise and makes the lines look distressed.

Applying the Distressed Effect to the Text

Now it’s time to blend the distressed lines with the text.

Invert the colors in the Distressed layer (Colors▸Invert).
The Hurl and Pick filters scattered colored dots in the Distressed layer, but you’re shooting for a black-and-white effect, so go ahead and desaturate the layer (Colors▸Desaturate). Make sure to turn back on the visibility of the text layer. Change the layer’s mode to Addition.
Use the Move tool to position the layer as necessary to get the best effect.
Because the background is white, the white lines disappear where they don’t intersect with the text. If your background is a different color, copy the Distressed layer, paste it into a layer mask that you create on the text layer (Layer▸Mask▸Add Layer Mask), and then turn off the visibility of the Distressed layer.

Further Exploration

There are many other ways to use the Distressed layer to enhance the original text. Try using it as a layer mask on the text layer or as a layer mask on a colored or textured layer above the text. You can also extrude distressed text using the Bump Map filter to produce an effect that looks like erosion.

5.4 Frost

A standard GIMP installation provides several specialty filters, including the Sparkle filter (Filters▸Light and Shadow▸Sparkle), which takes specks of white in an image and stretches them out into spokes of light. You can use the Sparkle filter to produce frost, snow, and icicle effects, but the results are not always ideal, because the spokes of light are fairly uniform. This tutorial explores other ways to achieve a frost effect.

Chill out with this cool tutorial.

In this tutorial you’ll use the Pick and Slur filters to randomize the edges of selections, and then you’ll apply the Wind filter to those selections to generate icicles. You used the Pick filter in 5.3 Distressed Text, so you should be familiar with it how it works. The Slur filter is a pretty standard noise filter; it works by replacing the color of randomly chosen pixels with the color of nearby pixels.

The lesson here is that you’ll seldom find a single filter that gives you exactly the effect you need. You’ll have to learn to use filters in combination—and in the correct order.

Creating the Background and Text

Open a new white canvas set to the default size (640 × 400 pixels).

Choose the Blend tool from the toolbox. In the Tool Options dialog, click the Reset button, then select Horizon 2 from the Gradient menu. This gradient will fill the background with what looks like a horizon. Drag down from the top of the canvas window past the bottom. When you drag beyond the canvas window, you’re effectively stretching the gradient. The result is that the simulated horizon is near the bottom edge of the canvas. The placement of the horizon doesn’t matter much, as you’re just using this blue backdrop to add to the frosty feeling of the design.
Use the Gradient menu in the Tool Options dialog to choose the Horizon 2 gradient.
Duplicate the Background layer (Layer▸Duplicate Layer). You’ll merge the duplicate Background layer with an embossed text layer shortly.
Choose the Text tool. Set the font color to black and choose a thick font. I’ve chosen SoutaneBlack Thin set to 100 pixels. Click the canvas and type North Pole.
Center the text on the canvas using the Align tool.
Create a selection of the text by choosing Layer▸Transparency▸Alpha to Selection. Save the selection to a channel (Select▸Save to Channel). Click the channel name and change it to Outline.
Deselect all (CTRL-SHIFT-A).
Save the text outline to a channel.

Bringing the Text Forward

Click the text layer in the Layers dialog and merge it with the duplicate Background layer by choosing Layer▸Merge Down. Click the layer name and change it to Text Layer.
Merge the text layer with a copy of the Background layer in preparation for embossing.
Set the Mode for the Text Layer to Grain Merge. Once the text is embossed, the Grain Merge mode will allow the text edges to blend with the original Background layer.
Now you’re ready to emboss the Text Layer (Filters▸Distorts▸Emboss). Use the Emboss function, and then set the Azimuth to 313 degrees, the Elevation to 39 degrees, and the Depth to 19. You may wish to change these settings, depending on the font you use, but if you use a thick font, similar settings should work well for you. Click OK to apply this filter.
Right-click the saved Outline channel in the Channels dialog and choose Channel to Selection. Remember this process; you’ll need to re-create this selection shortly.
Grow the selection by 2 pixels (Select▸Grow).
Feather the selection by 1.6 pixels (Select▸Feather) and then invert it (Select▸Invert). This will select everything but the letters.
Click the Text Layer in the Layers dialog to make it active. Cut this selection from the Text Layer (CTRL-X). This will leave behind the embossed text with the colored background.
The Emboss filter has two function options: Bumpmap and Emboss. For this tutorial, use the Emboss option. Notice that the innermost areas of the text take on the appearance of the Background layer.
By removing the surrounding portion of the text layer, you get a darker background and lighter text, thanks to the Grain Merge mode of the text layer.
The current selection will still be displayed, but you should replace it. Retrieve the Outline channel selection once again. Grow this selection by 2 pixels (Select▸Grow) and save it to another channel. Name this channel Stroked.
Set the foreground color to white. Working in the new Stroked channel, stroke the selection using a Line Width of 3 pixels (Edit▸Stroke Selection), and then deselect all (CTRL-SHIFT-A). Temporarily turn on visibility for this channel so you can see what you’re doing in the next few steps.
This technique deviates from those used in previous tutorials. Here the stroke operation takes place in a channel, not a layer.
Open the Pick filter (Filters▸Noise▸Pick). Set the Random Seed to 10, the Randomization slider to 30 percent, and the Repeat slider to 2 times. Click OK to apply these settings to the Stroked channel. Working in a channel instead of a layer allows you to easily create a shape that you can turn into a selection later and fill with white in a layer. Not all filters work in channels. Fortunately, the noise filters are an exception, and the results are excellent.
Use the Pick filter to add noise to the saved selection channel.
Open the Slur filter (Filters▸Noise▸Slur). Set the Random Seed to 100, the Randomization slider to 30 percent, and the Repeat slider to 3 times. Click OK to apply these settings to the Stroked channel.
The Pick and Slur filters add some random perturbations to a layer or selection. The noise filters may produce artifacts at the top of the channel. If this happens, make a selection at the top of the channel and fill it with black.

Adding Snow

In the Layers dialog, add a transparent layer and name it Snow.
Retrieve the Stroked channel as a selection (from the Channels dialog).
Use the Rectangle Select tool to crop the selection to half the height of the tallest letters. In the Tool Options dialog, set the Mode to Subtract. After cutting the bottom half of the selection, hit ENTER to accept the change to the selection.
Using the Rectangle Select tool to crop the Stroked selection.
Subtract the Outline channel from the current selection. To do this, select the Outline channel in the Channels dialog, and then hold down the CTRL key while you click the Channel to Selection button at the bottom of that dialog.
Feather the resulting selection by 3 pixels (Select▸Feather).
Click the Snow layer in the Layers dialog, and then fill the selection with white.
Deselect all (CTRL-SHIFT-A).
Subtracting the Outline channel from the cropped Stroked selection leaves behind a selection that sits on top of the text. When this selection is filled with white, it becomes fallen snow on top of the letters.

Creating Falling Snow

You’ve created a cute snow pile on your text, but you can do more to enhance this design’s frosty feeling.

Rotate the image by 90 degrees clockwise (Image▸Transform▸Rotate 90 degrees clockwise).
Press CTRL-J to fit the window to the image.
Open the Wind filter (Filters▸Distorts▸Wind). Set the Style to Blast to achieve thicker streaks, set the Direction to Right to indicate the direction from which the wind should blow, and set the Edge Affected to Leading to indicate that the streaks should flow with the wind from the point of impact. Set the Threshold slider to 20 and the Strength slider to 5. Click OK to apply this filter to the Snow layer.
Reapply the Wind filter, this time setting the Style to Wind, the Direction to Right, and the Edge Affected to Leading. Set the Threshold slider to 20 and the Strength slider to 20. The second application adds more streaks but softens the overall effect.
Rotating the image and applying the Wind filter turns the snow piles into falling snow and icicles.
To add the finishing touches, start by rotating the image counterclockwise by 90 degrees (Image▸Transform▸Rotate 90 degrees counter-clockwise).
Resize the canvas to fit the window again.
Open the Slur filter (Filters▸Noise▸Slur) again. Set the Random Seed to 100, the Randomization slider to 20 percent, and the Repeat slider to 2 times. Click OK to apply this filter to the Snow layer. This will add icy particles to the snowy streaks.
Set the Mode for the Snow layer to Grain Merge.
Duplicate the Snow layer (Layer▸Duplicate Layer), and then set the Mode of the duplicate layer to Addition.
Turn off the visibility of the Stroked channel, if you haven’t done so already.
When the duplicate Snow layer is combined with the original Snow layer, there’s more snow overall. Set the layer mode to Addition.

Further Exploration

In this tutorial you applied a frosty effect to text, but this effect can be applied to just about any surface, whether straight or curved. You could even apply it to a photo. Using the same techniques on a photo of a house’s roof line, you could take the scene from summer to winter in one day!

5.5 Neon Signs

One of the most interesting effects in a digital artist’s bag of tricks is the glowing neon sign. This was one of the first tricks available to GIMP users, and it’s still one of the easiest to master. Neon is a gas that glows reddish-orange when electrically charged. Real neon signs are made to glow in different colors by being filled with gases (often argon) that emit ultraviolet light. The inside of the tube is then lined with phosphors that glow when exposed to the ultraviolet light generated by those gases.

It’s time to shed a little light on the subject at hand—neon light, that is.

While science can explain how real neon signs work, using GIMP-generated colored light to simulate a glowing neon sign requires a little magic. There are many ways to perform this magic, but most of them involve using the Emboss filter to transform ordinary lines into 3-D tubes, and all of them use some degree of blurring.

Experimenting with the Built-in Neon Effect

Before digging in, take a look at GIMP’s built-in logo generators. The File▸Create▸Logos menu offers a wide array of ready-made logo designs. The logo filter that automatically generates a simple neon effect is shown here, though as you can see, its default settings produce an effect that is not quite as interesting as the one you’re going to try. While these ready-made logos are fine for small projects, you can create an image with more depth and character if you build the effect yourself.

The Neon logo effect is fine for small, quick projects.

Creating the Background

Start by creating a background against which the neon light will shine on a white canvas set to the default size (640 × 400 pixels).

Open the Patterns dialog (Dialogs▸Patterns), find the Bricks pattern, and then drag that pattern onto the canvas. This fills the canvas with the selected pattern.
Desaturate this layer (Colors▸Desaturate).
Click the foreground color box to launch the Change Foreground Color dialog and set the RGB values to 244/0/0 for the deep red shown here. Click OK to close the dialog.
Setting the mood for Joe’s Bar: The outside wall is made of brick.
Choose the Bucket Fill tool from the toolbox. In the Tool Options dialog, set the Mode to Soft Light and set the Affected Area to Fill Whole Selection.
Click inside the canvas to color the bricks red.

Preparing the Neon Tubes

Now you’re ready to work on the sign itself.

Choose the Text tool from the toolbox and then choose a font that suits your project. This example uses SoutaneBlack Thin sized to 110 pixels, with letter spacing set to 5.0. Thick fonts like this work well, especially when you’re still learning how to master this technique, but neon signs can have all sorts of shapes, so feel free to experiment.
The text color should be set to the current foreground color, but if it isn’t, set the RGB values to 244/0/0 to match the red in the background.
Click the canvas and type Joe’s Bar. Use the Align tool to position the text in the center of the canvas.
Expand the text layer boundary to match the image size (Layer▸Layer to Image Size). This allows you to add elements to the layer that would otherwise be cut off by the original layer boundary.
After positioning the text, don’t forget to resize the layer by choosing Layer▸Layer to Image Size.
Create a selection of the text’s outline by choosing Layer▸Transparency▸Alpha to Selection. Save this selection to a channel (Select▸Save to Channel), and then double-click the channel name and change it to Outline. You’ll use this channel again later.
Grow the selection by 3 pixels (Select▸Grow).
Create a new layer (Layer▸New Layer) and name it Stroke. Return to the Layers dialog to see the new layer.
Stroke the selection by choosing Edit▸Stroke Selection and setting the Line Width to 5 pixels.
Delete the original text layer and then deselect all (CTRL-SHIFT-A). You now have the outline for creating the sign’s neon tubes.
The stroked outline may be difficult to see. Adding a temporary white layer can help. Also, try wider strokes but beware: you may need to adjust the letter spacing in the text before you create the selection to be stroked!
Duplicate the Stroke layer and name the duplicate layer Emboss.
Open the Gaussian Blur filter (Filters▸Blur▸Gaussian Blur) and apply a blur of 6 pixels to this layer.
Open the Emboss filter (Filters▸Distorts▸Emboss). Set the Function to Emboss, the Azimuth slider to 43, the Elevation slider to 30, and the Depth slider to 43. These settings give the Emboss layer a cutout appearance. Click OK to apply this filter to the layer.
Lower the Emboss layer in the Layers dialog by choosing Layer▸Stack▸Lower Layer once.
Set the Mode for the Emboss layer to Addition.
Open the Gaussian Blur filter (Filters▸Blur▸Gaussian Blur) and apply a blur of 6 pixels to the original Stroke layer. Set the Mode to Grain Merge.
Move the embossed layer below the original text. Setting the layer mode to Addition adds this layer to the Background layer and brightens the embossed areas.
Add a drop shadow to this layer (Filters▸Light and Shadow▸Drop Shadow). Offset the drop shadow by setting the Offset X and Offset Y values to 8 pixels. Set the Blur Radius to 6 pixels, set the Opacity slider to 100 percent, and uncheck the Allow resizing checkbox. If you were to instead check the Allow resizing checkbox, it would resize the canvas and place transparent areas around the edges. That’s not what you want for this tutorial. Apply this drop shadow.
The Stroke layer should still be active, but if it isn’t, click the Stroke layer in the Layers dialog to make it active again.
Add a second drop shadow. This time, set the Offset X and Offset Y values to 9 pixels, the Blur Radius to 15 pixels, and the Opacity slider to 100 percent. Again, uncheck the Allow resizing checkbox. Applying these drop shadows raises the neon tubing above the background wall.
Move the Emboss layer above the Drop Shadow layers but below the Stroke layer.
In the Drop Shadow filter, positive Offset X values mean move right, and positive Offset Y values mean move down. Note that both drop shadows are applied above the Emboss layer.

Adding the Glow

Add a transparent layer by choosing Layer▸New Layer and setting the Layer Fill Type to Transparency. Name the new layer Glow.
Retrieve the Outline channel selection from the Channels dialog by clicking that channel and then clicking the Channel to Selection button.
Grow the selection by 25 pixels (Select▸Grow). Notice that growing a selection rounds its edges.
Feather the selection by 15 pixels (Select▸Feather).
Click the Glow layer in the Layers dialog to make it active. Drag the foreground color from the toolbox into the selection to fill the selection with that color, and then deselect all (CTRL-SHIFT-A).
Open the Gaussian Blur filter (Filters▸Blur▸Gaussian Blur) and apply a blur of 20 pixels to the Blur layer. Apply this same blur two more times by pressing CTRL-F twice. The amount to blur is up to you. Apply the blur a few more times if you’d like to soften the edges of the glow even more.
The neon glow starts as a soft-edged, color-filled selection.
In the Layers dialog, lower the Glow layer to just above the Background layer.
Set the Mode for the Glow layer to Screen.
If you like, you can apply multiple blurs to the Glow layer.

Adding a Glass-Edged Reflection

Add a new layer (Layer▸New Layer). Move it to the top of the stack in the Layers dialog and name it Highlight.
Retrieve the Outline channel selection again. Grow this selection by 2 pixels (Select▸Grow).
Set the foreground color to white, and then click the Highlight layer in the Layers dialog to make it active again.
Stroke the selection by choosing Edit▸Stroke and setting the Line Width to 4 pixels, and then deselect all (CTRL-SHIFT-A).
Offset this layer by choosing Layer▸Transform▸Offset and setting the Offset X and Offset Y values to –2 pixels.
Open the Gaussian Blur filter (Filters▸Blur▸Gaussian Blur) and apply a blur of 2 pixels.
In the Layers dialog, move the Highlight layer to just below the lowest Drop Shadow layer.
Set the Mode for the Highlight layer to Hard Light.
This last part is what really makes the neon tubes look realistic. By adding light, you make the tubes appear rounded.
The white Stroke layer picks up color when its mode is set to Hard Light.

Further Exploration

There are thousands of variations on this technique, applicable to both text and graphic designs. Try using a piece of clipart instead of text. Use the Fuzzy Select tool to make selections of disconnected parts of the clipart. The result will be a neon outline of your clipart!

5.6 Spray Paint

In 1.2 Layers and Modes you learned the basics of working with layer modes, which provide a unique way of merging one layer with another. While modes are available for use with all GIMP paint tools, tool-based modes blend directly within the layer and actually change the layer’s pixels. This becomes a problem if you make a long series of brushstrokes, for example, and want to backtrack later. If you haven’t specified enough undo levels in the Preferences dialog, you might not be able to undo some of those strokes.