Gold Nameplate Text
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This tutorial uses the new Sculpture and Outer Bevel effects in Paint Shop Pro 6. With the Sculpture effect, image files can be saved as patterns, applied as a tiling effect to images or selections, and definition is added through the use of lighting, elevation, depth, and so on. Custom settings that you make to create your own effects can be saved in a file called a "preset". Your preset file name appears in the list along with the presets supplied by Jasc so all of your settings are saved and easily recalled.
To create the text effect above, you'll need to download two presets I created, along with two image files. They are in a zip file called goldnameplate.ZIP (14KB). Download
Unzip the files to folders within your Paint Shop Pro 6 directory as follows:
- Flat Gold.psc and "Gold Nameplate.pbv" to the Presets folder
- gold_BP.pat to the Patterns folder
- brown.jpg can be placed anywhere.
Click on the New button to open a new image and set the options in the New Image dialog to match those below:
- Width: 500 pixels
- Height: 150 pixels
- Resolution: 72 (or higher)
- Background Color: any color
- Image Type: 16.7 million colors (24 Bit)
Click the OK button.
Click on the Text tool and then center your cursor in the new image and click. The Text Tool dialog box will open. Press the Delete key to clear out any text that might be displayed in the lower window. Set the options in the dialog as follows:
- Font Name: I used Arial Black for this example. If you don't have it, pick a font that is thick.
- Size: I set mine to 42. (You can type an unlisted size for the font)
- In the "Create As" section, check Selection and Antialias.
- Set the text to be centred as shown below, and pick any color. (The color will be replaced by a pattern.)
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Click in the text entry window and type your text. Click the OK button. Your chosen text will display in the new image, surrounded by a moving selection marquee. At this writing, the beta version of PSP 6 doesn't center text vertically as it did in PSP 5. If you want to reposition the selection, click on the Mover tool, right-click on the selection, hold the mouse button down and drag the text to the desired location.
Go to Image > Effects > Sculpture... and apply the "Flat Gold" preset. Click the OK button.
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If there are any gaps where the Sculpture effect didn't fill the selection, undo and reapply the preset but enlarge the scale of the pattern so the selection is covered. This could happen if the font size you chose was much larger than the one used in this exercise.
Go to Selections > Modify > Contract.... In the Contract Selection dialog, enter "1" as the "Number of pixels" value and click the OK button.
Go to Selections > Modify > Feather.... In the Feather Selection dialog, enter "1" as the "Number of pixels" value and click the OK button.
Click on the Invert Selection button or, if this button isn't displayed on your toolbar, go to Selections > Invert. The background area will now be selected.
Open "brown.jpg".
Click on the Flood Fill tool.
If the "Tool Options" box is not already open, type a lower-case "o" to open it. Click on the left tab and match your settings to the ones at the left, making sure to select a Fill Style of "Pattern".
Click on the "Fill Style Options" tab, which is the middle tab. Open the drop-down list under "New Pattern Source" and select brown.jpg. The preview window will display the wooden pattern after you've clicked on the file name.
With the Flood Fill tool, click inside the selected background area to apply the fill.
Click on the Invert Selection button or, if this button isn't displayed on your toolbar, go to Selections > Invert. The text will again be selected.
Go to Image > Effects > Outer Bevel... and apply the "Gold Nameplate" preset. Click OK and apply it a second time. (You can use the "Last Used" entry in the preset list to apply it again.)
Remove the selection marquee (Selections > Select None).
Add a new raster layer by going to Layers > New Raster Layer. Accept the defaults suggested in the Layer Properties dialog box and click the OK button.
Click on the Selection tool. If the "Tool Options" box is not already open, type a lower-case "o" to open it. Match your settings to the ones below.
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With the Selection Tool, click and drag the left mouse button to form a rectangular selection around the text. The resulting image should now look like the one below.
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Go to Image > Effects > Drop Shadow... and apply the following settings in the Drop Shadow dialog box:
- Color: Black
- Opacity: 100
- Blur: 3.3
- Vertical Offset: 3
- Horizontal Offset: 3
Click on the OK button to apply the drop shadow.
Go to Image > Effects > Cutout... and apply the following settings in the Cutout dialog box:
- Fill interior with color: unchecked
- Shadow color: Click on the color rectangle to open the Color dialog box. In the Current Color Settings section, enter a Red value of 199, a Green value of 171, and a Blue value of 143. Click OK.
- Opacity: 89
- Blur: 1
- Vertical Offset: 1
- Horizontal Offset: 1
Click on the OK button to apply the cutout.
Remove the selection marquee (Selections > Select None), crop as desired, and save the file in the format of your choice.
The Last Word
- The reason for contracting and then feathering the selection by one pixel is to blur the edge slightly to help prevent the jaggies.
- The raised wooden cutout effect is optional, of course. I had you add it to a separate layer so you could delete it later without affecting the underlying image. If you save in .psp format before saving to any other, you can retain both layers in case you decide to use the cutout later.
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