Create web 2.0 style text in The Gimp
September 2, 2007
The web 2.0 effect really helps websites look great, this is done with web 2.0 style buttons, gradients, lines etc. One effect is also web 2.0 text usually used in logos. I am going to show you how to create a simple web 2.0 looking text for the words Help Developer!
- Firstly I am going to create a new file with a width of 500px and a height of 150px
- Next press T or select the Text tool from the toolbox and click near the top left of the canvas.
- Type the text you would like to be shown in the window that appears, for me it is ‘Help Developer!’.
- Now go to the tool options window and change the font, font size and color until it fits the canvas nicely and you are happy with the settings.
- Now press R on click the select icon on the toolbox and then press Ctrl + A which will select the text. Now press Ctrl + X, this will cut the text.
- Now press Ctrl + V, this will paste the text as an image rather than editable text.
- Now press L or select the gradient tool from the toolbox, click and drag from the top of the text to the bottom
- Now click anywhere on the canvas outside of the yellow dotted border.
- Go to the Layers window by pressing Ctrl + L, now select the top layer if it isn’t already selected and click the Copy button in the bottom of the window, it is the fourth button along.
- Now go back to the canvas and press Ctrl + A, then Ctrl + X and then Ctrl + V.
- Use the arrows on your keyboard to move the text into line with the text below.
- Now select the elliptical region tool on the toolbox or press E.
- Now click and drag from the top left to about half way down the text
- Go to the main Gimp window and make sure the top color is set to white.
- Now go back to the canvas and press Ctrl + ,
- This will fill the top half of the text different color.
- Now press R and click anywhere to the bottom of the yellow dotted border.
- Go back to the Layers window and make sure the top layer is selected and make the opacity of the layer 30.0
- No go to the Background layer and change the color to a color of your choice, I chose dark gray because it makes it stand out better.
This is what I ended up with:
