Lesson 4 - Creating Graphical Text

**Goofy** · May 21, 2012, 10:08 AM

Lesson 4 - Creating Graphical Text
Welcome to the fourth lesson, lads.

On this lesson we'll study creating "graphical text". It's a very good way to improve your work and make your text less plain. Using these techniques can be very useful for example for signatures and banners - basically wherever it's possible. I won't teach you making text with an increased 3D effect as we have here, though, as it's quite simple if you use the Layer Effects Filter plug-in (download link in the homework section, just in case you want to try it out).

Techniques

Bump mapping
Selection growing
Layer merging
Installing brushes
Creating a craggy border by using brushes

Creating graphical text

First off we'll create a basic text with a little more eye candy than plain letters, as well as a slight "3D" impression. By using this technique you can make your artworks look more interesting and thus for example promote your work.

Step 1

First we'll naturally create the text. I have created a 1000 x 1000 image to make sure it's big enough - I'll later cut out what is spare.

Click to view content:

Step 2

Now you'll have to look for a proper texture for bump mapping. For example rock and metal textures are good for this purpose - you can find those on Mayang for example, or simply by using Google Search. Keep in mind that the texture should be bigger than your text, but not too much - a big texture doesn't fit a small piece of text very well.

Anyways, I'll paste my scratchy metal texture onto its own layer:

Click to view content:

Step 3

I have now turned the texture layer invisible by left-clicking the eye next to it (in the Layer menu) and selected the text layer's Alpha (again by right-clicking the layer in the Layer menu and then clicking "Alpha to Selection"). Now I'll select a golden gradient and blend the image as follows:

Click to view content:

Step 4

Now we'll want to add some depth to the text's look. This can be done with the Bump Map feature of GIMP. First I'll bump map the text layer by itself - to do that you must make sure that you have chosen the right layer (see the top right corner of the Bump Map window). Play with the "Depth" and "Ambient" values a little once you'll get the result you want. I have also set the "X offset" to -1 to move the bump map one pixel left. That adds a little to the "3D" impression:

Click to view content:

A similar effect could also be reached by using the "Add Bevel" feature that is found in the "Filters > Decor" menu, but the outcome would be slightly different.

Step 5

Now I'll make the text look more realistic by doing basically the same thing as above, but this time doing the mapping with the metal texture layer (again see the top right corner of the Bump Map window):

Click to view content:

This technique of adding a surface effect to your image is very useful for numerous things, including for example signatures and wallpaper backgrounds - basically whatever.

Step 6

Now that we have bump mapped the text you can see that the letters' left edge is brighter than the right one. Thus I'll first select Alpha...

Click to view content:

...and add a drop shadow to the right to simulate light coming from the left:

Click to view content:

The X and Y offset values define where the shadow will be rendered. If X value is above 0, the shadow will be offset to the right. However - unlike in a usual x,y coordinate system - if the Y value is above 0, the shadow will be offset below the selection.

You can tick the "Allow resizing" box if you want - if it's checked the image file will be enlarged if the shadow would otherwise be cut off. This can be useful at times, but basically as far as the object for which you want to add the shadow is far enough from the image border you don't need to care about this.

Step 7

Now I'll draw a border to the text to make it look even better. With keeping the Alpha selection I use the "Stroke Selection" feature to do this on a new layer ("Text border"):

Click to view content:

A two-pixel border is quite good for a text piece of this size.

Step 8
Now I'll blur the border - as you can see, it usually looks quite jagged in some parts. I apply a five-pixel Gaussian Blur on the border to make it smoother:

Click to view content:

Step 9

Blurring the border also made the outline of the text look blurry, as some border pixels were moved on top of the text itself. To make the text look sharp again I select Alpha one more time and erase the part of the border that is inside my selection. When you do this remember to make sure you have selected the text Alpha but have the border layer as your active layer.

Click to view content:

Step 10

Finally we'll crop the image. Remember to leave some room for the shadow - you may not see it in GIMP, but when you post your picture on a forum for example you may notice that the shadow has been cut off. A good way to detect that is to create a temporary white (if you have added a black shadow) layer and put it to the bottom. That way you'll probably be able to see where the outline of the shadow goes.

Click to view content:

This is what my text looked like in the end:

Click to view content:

Creating shadow text

This is a text creating technique that may come out quite handy at times - creating text that consists of text with a loose shadow or only the shadow that points the letter outlines.

Step 1

I'll create a similar text as in the previous part of this lesson, and select text Alpha.

Click to view content:

Step 2

Now we'll grow the selection by right-clicking the image and then selecting "Select > Grow".

Click to view content:

Step 3

Now only the shadow is lacking. I'll add a drop shadow with no offset:

Click to view content:

Step 4

To make the shadow bolder I'll duplicate the shadow layer:

Click to view content:

Once the layer is duplicated we'll merge the two layers. Right-click on the upper layer in the Layer menu and select "Merge Down" - this will merge the layer with the second uppest visible layer. Keep this in mind to prevent merging wrong layers.

Click to view content:

Step 5

I'll turn the text layer invisible - only the shadow remains:

Click to view content:

Step 6

Finally (just like with the first text piece) I'll crop the image:

Click to view content:

And here are the results - the first one shows what the text looked like before steps five and six.

Click to view content:

Both of these styles can be useful, depending on your purpose. The first one may be better for headlines for example, while the second one is a little more artistical and can be used for anything that it fits.

Creating graphical text with a craggy border

This is pretty much the same thing as the first one, but a little more artistical and stylish with the text outline being craggy.

Step 1
Follow the "Creating graphical text" section until you've completed step number five:

Click to view content:

Step 2

Now we'll need to make the text craggy, and for that we need extra brushes. You can find them on Brusheezy for example. To install a brush (set) download it, unpack the file and copy-paste it to file destination ".../.../user/.gimp-2.6/brushes" or ".../.../user/.gimp-2.8/brushes", depending on the version of GIMP you're running. The brushes can be used once you have reopened GIMP.

One of the greatest upsides of GIMP is that it can use PhotoShop brushes (.abr) as well, so you don't have to care about that.

As a tip I'd recommend to create another empty "brushes__" (for example) folder before pasting the brushes in the other one. When you don't need your brushes, simply rename the folder that contains them "brushes_" and change the name of "brushes__" to "brushes". I suggest this because brushes will dramatically decrease the loading time of GIMP.

However, I suggest constructing a large collection of different brushes - splatter, grunge, cloud, water and abstract brushes for example.

I'll use a few splatter brushes together with the Eraser Tool to remove parts of the text:

Click to view content:

This is a lot easier on GIMP 2.8, however, as it supports rotating brushes.

I'll continue erasing by using some other splatter brushes as well. Eventually I got this:

Click to view content:

Step 3

Finally I'll add a shadow as always.

First I'll select Alpha...

Click to view content:

...and then add a drop shadow:

Click to view content:

This is what I finally got:

Click to view content:

And this was lesson number four. Remember to use your knowledge to improve your work in future - for signatures, wallpapers and thread banners! And as always, keep practising! There are numerous ways of creating text, but what you have learned on this lesson is very important for learning more, being perhaps the most common text creating technique. And more importantly, it's very simple yet the results can be quite impressive.

Homework
Create two pieces of text (one "shadow text" and one "graphical text"/"ragged graphical text") by using the techniques I have taught on this lesson. Please post the results in this thread by Monday the 28th of May.

Tips

You could give the Layer Effects Filter plug-in a try to create text with an increased impression of depth. It's a very cool addition to GIMP, so I definitely suggest getting it
Remember to make your text large enough
Try to avoid jagged letter edges - you can even blur the original text itself to prevent that

Lesson passed

**Legio** · May 21, 2012, 10:36 AM

HELP

**NekoGenijalan** · May 21, 2012, 12:56 PM

I continued Legio's style

. A bit big though...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**TheDarkKnight** · May 21, 2012, 01:25 PM

...But...I just finished the last assignment...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**edse** · May 21, 2012, 02:43 PM

Shadow text

Graphical text

Ragged graphical text

**Raritу** · May 21, 2012, 08:50 PM

I'm not very familiar with this lesson.. so yeah... This may not come out very well

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I just don't have anything to write...

**Kameraden** · May 22, 2012, 04:48 AM

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Willowran** · May 22, 2012, 06:03 AM

before i start this, is there some place i can download extra fonts for GIMP...something more cool?

**Bolkonsky** · May 22, 2012, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by Willowran

before i start this, is there some place i can download extra fonts for GIMP...something more cool?

Just find the font you want, and install it to Windows. GIMP should automatically detect it.

**The Norseman** · May 22, 2012, 09:33 AM

Text

Text 2

Sorry about this text below. I know it looks really bad but today is the only day I had time to do this and I am in a hurry so I just applied some effect and uploaded it. The point is for me to understand how to do things isnt it?

Text 3

**King William the Conqueror** · May 22, 2012, 01:40 PM

First Text

Second Text

I might try the second one again. I am not to pleased with the results of the 2nd pic.

**Vaðarholmr** · May 22, 2012, 02:03 PM

I nave problems with this:

Step 4

Now we'll want to add some depth to the text's look. This can be done with the Bump Map feature of GIMP. First I'll bump map the text layer by itself - to do that you must make sure that you have chosen the right layer (see the top right corner of the Bump Map window). Play with the "Depth" and "Ambient" values a little once you'll get the result you want. I have also set the "X offset" to -1 to move the bump map one pixel left. That adds a little to the "3D" impression:

Nothing happens. I have tried different layers and copy-pasting and such.

Anyway, I did this:

But without depth its meh...

**Goofy** · May 23, 2012, 07:08 AM

@Legio: Good, but you should create a graphical text as well.

death

@NekoGenijalan: Nice work and an interesting gradient choice.

@edse: Very good, I like the ragged text!

@Soarin': Excellent, but you should blur the border of the first one in my opinion.

@Kameraden: Great, but the same thing applies on you as well - blur the border, if possible.

Originally Posted by Willowran

before i start this, is there some place i can download extra fonts for GIMP...something more cool?

I linked you to dafont already in the lesson content, but well, here you go with a couple of sites for finding fonts.

Originally Posted by Bolkonsky

Just find the font you want, and install it to Windows. GIMP should automatically detect it.

Exactly. More specific instructions can be viewed in the OP.

@The Norseman: Great, the border of the "FIFA" text looks very nice and smooth.

@King William the Conqueror: Good. On the second image you have cut the shadow off - pay attention to that next time. It happens very easily as I stated already on the previous lesson.

I nave problems with this

It happens with GIMP at times - I don't know what it is caused by, but I think it's the same problem as you have. Try reopening the image and/or playing around with the values - especially X and Y offset, Waterlevel, Depth and Ambience.

**Legio** · May 23, 2012, 07:18 AM

brigels

**Goofy** · May 23, 2012, 07:25 AM

@Legio: You should still bump map the text, and preferably blur the text border.

The basic steps of text creating are:

1. Create the text (quite obvious)
2. Set the colour of the text, or use a gradient
3. Add a drop shadow
4. Add a border
5. Bump map the text with itself (or use the Layer Effects Filter plug-in)
6. Bump map the text with a wooden, metal or rock texture for example

There's not a "right" order for these, though, but you should always apply "5" before "6". Otherwise you won't bump map the text with itself, but with the already bump mapped text, and thus your result would look quite clumsy with the bump map getting bump mapped again.