Creating artistic text

This tutorial will show you how to enhance captions with filters, i.e. Paint contour, Drop shadow, Glow and Bevel. It is recommended to create artistic text in 256x256 size, and it can be resized later to be used at small icons.

  1. First of all, you need to create a new document in 256x256 size. Then input some text using the Text (T) tool.

  2. Choose Filters | Bevel to make the text look plastic. Try to set a Blur value near the bevel Radius.

  3. Choose Filters | Glow and select Outer glow. Use a large Intensity to create a nice glow around the text.

  4. Select a brush shape, brush width and foreground color you like, using the Tool Behavior dialog box. Then choose Filters | Paint contour. The text will be framed using the current brush.

  5. Choose Filters | Drop shadow to make a soft shadow dropped by the text.

This image can be found in the Samples folder as arttext.png: