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Napalm's signature-making tutorial with GIMP 2

Hey guys, I'm gonna teach you how to make simple yet nice signatures using GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program).
So after opening up GIMP, make a new transparent image about the size of 650x200 or whatever you want. The first thing we're gonna do is getting a nice font, I recommend using Black Caps, it's a pretty nice font and I use it a lot. Download it by clicking here.
After you install the font, click the Text Tool button in GIMP , find yourself a good font or the one which you've just downloaded, and write out your username on the transparent blank image. We're also gonna make a reflection thingy of it later, so make sure it's not bigger than the half of the image. You can also choose any color you like.
Now it should look somewhat like this: Click here to view image.
Let's make some part of it another color to make it more attractive. On the Layers window, select your text's layer and above the layer selections, you will see a checkbox, check that. This locks the alpha channel, and when we use our Paintbrush , it will only color places that have colors in them and not transparent.
The lock alpha channel checkbox: Click here to view image.
Now select the Paintbrush tool, change the color to something else than the text's color and recolor some parts of it. I'll just make the first letter black for now. Click here to view image.
Now let's make it glow! On the Layers window, right click your text's layer and click Duplicate Layer. Click here to view image.
Now select the middle layer, make sure the Lock Alpha Channel checkbox is checked, select the Paintbrush tool, change the color to light blue or some light color and paint all of the middle layer to that color.
Make sure the first layer is visible again. Select the middle layer, right click it, and click Layer to Image Size. Click here to view image.
Now uncheck the Lock Alpha Channel checkbox and select the Blur tool , select the middle layer, and not the top one, set the Blur tool's Size to like 10, and start blurring the middle layer.
Now Duplicate the first layer, and you should now have 4 layers. So, select the Move Tool , and move the second layer from top to the other half of the image.
Select the Mirror Tool , and use it on the second layer from top(let's call it reflection layer!).
After you've got the reflection layer mirrored, select the Rotate Tool , and rotate the reflection layer by 180 degrees. If it's on the bottom too much, feel free to move it upwards a bit.
Now change the reflection layer's opacity to around 40%, and select the Eraser tool , on the options window for the Eraser Tool select this brush: Now erase half of the reflection layer with the Eraser tool.
And yeah, I guess that's it. Save it as anything.png and upload it to www.imgur.com .


Hope you guys liked this tutorial, all credits to me, Napalm™.
Thanks for reading!

-Napalm™

I'm horrid at GIMP. Some people enjoy it, but It seemed to me that it was still the underdog program in comparison to photoshop's functionality. (Not meaning you can't create some decent stuff in GIMP, as i've seen it done, but there's more freedom in Photoshop.)

Nice simple text though, good job

GIMP is a very good image editing program for beginners and thanks for the tut

It would be nice if you provided a ps guide, because I rather use ps imo.

Thanks for the share, i'm gonna try this out.

I've never used GIMP before in my life, never saw it to. Just downloaded it and I try this.

(07-30-2011, 04:57 AM)Ace Wrote: [ -> ]I'm horrid at GIMP. Some people enjoy it, but It seemed to me that it was still the underdog program in comparison to photoshop's functionality. (Not meaning you can't create some decent stuff in GIMP, as i've seen it done, but there's more freedom in Photoshop.)

Nice simple text though, good job

This^ Lol.

I was horrible at gimp, and I decided I was gonna give up at sigs a really long time ago, but I got ps cracked, and I loved it, got pretty good ^.^

(07-31-2011, 05:46 AM)Mark Zuckerberg Wrote: [ -> ]This^ Lol.

I was horrible at gimp, and I decided I was gonna give up at sigs a really long time ago, but I got ps cracked, and I loved it, got pretty good ^.^

Lol OK guys, these posts convinced me to try Photoshop. I never tried PS and I always tought that GIMP is better. xD

Almost everyone I know says photoshop is better and easier to use than gimp .

Hmm I may give this a go. I am not very good at this stuff. nice share thanks.