Follow Techotopia on Twitter

On-line Guides
All Guides
eBook Store
iOS / Android
Linux for Beginners
Office Productivity
Linux Installation
Linux Security
Linux Utilities
Linux Virtualization
Linux Kernel
System/Network Admin
Programming
Scripting Languages
Development Tools
Web Development
GUI Toolkits/Desktop
Databases
Mail Systems
openSolaris
Eclipse Documentation
Techotopia.com
Virtuatopia.com
Answertopia.com

How To Guides
Virtualization
General System Admin
Linux Security
Linux Filesystems
Web Servers
Graphics & Desktop
PC Hardware
Windows
Problem Solutions
Privacy Policy

  




 

 

Grokking The Gimp
Previous Page Home Next Page

     
9.3 Type Effects

Type effects can give a Web page character. They are a great way to make Web page logos and titles, and they introduce stylistic elements that say something about the content of your page. The GIMP can produce great type effects, and the best news is that many effects have been automated with scripts,  using a scripting language called Script-Fu. 

Figure  9.19

  
Figure 9.19: The Collection of Script-Fu Text Effect Scripts
Figure 9.19

shows that the scripts for creating type effects are contained in the Toolbox:Xtns/Script-Fu/Logos menu. There are 27 different effects in the Logos menu. This section presents one of them.

Figure  9.20(a)

  
Figure 9.20: The 3D Outline Script and Helper Dialogs
Figure 9.20

shows the dialog for the 3D Outline  script. In this dialog, you can specify the text to be rendered, the font and size (in pixels) of the text, and an image pattern that is used to create the 3D outline. The dialog contains defaults for each of these. For this example, the text string default is The Gimp.

Figure  9.20 shows how the defaults can be changed. For example, the default font used in this example is Rootsheavy but other fonts can be chosen using the Text tool. As shown in Figure  9.20(b) the Text tool can be invoked directly from the 3D-Outline dialog by clicking on the Font menu button. The image pattern can also be changed interactively by clicking on the Pattern menu button (the button with the three dots). This brings up the Pattern Selection  dialog shown in Figure  9.20(c). The small image squares in the dialog are thumbnails of each available pattern. To get a larger view of a pattern, use the mouse to click and hold on the pattern of interest. This displays a larger thumbnail of the pattern, as shown in Figure  9.20(d).

The result of running the 3D Outline script is shown in Figure  9.21.

  
Figure 9.21: Result of Running the 3D Outline Script-Fu Script
Figure 9.21

Note that caution is required when using the Script-Fu scripts to generate text effects. Typically, text effects are constructed of multiple layers, many with layer masks (for example, see Section  8.7). Before using a result obtained using the automated logo scripts, it is usually necessary to flatten the image before saving it to a JPEG or GIF file format. This can be done by choosing Flatten Image from the Layers menu.




©2000 Gimp-Savvy.com
Grokking The Gimp
Previous Page Home Next Page

 
 
  Published under the terms of the Open Publication License Design by Interspire