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GIMP comes with a wide variety of filters and effects. Now, we are going to use some of them with just text layers, to give you a clear idea of how to create great looking text starting from a solid-color font.

In this article by Juan Manuel Ferreyra, author of GIMP 2.6 Cookbook, we are going to create a logo for a company in no time by using a few filters and just little work.

GIMP 2.6 cookbook

Over 50 recipes to produce amazing graphics with the GIMP

(For more resources on GIMP, see here.)

How to do it...

We can go about creating our logo by carrying out the following steps:

1. In a new file, using the Text Tool, write the name of the company. Pick a font, its size, and place it a little above the middle of the canvas. Lock the layer by selecting it and clicking in the Lock checkbox to avoid accidentally making changes to it:
   

   

2. Create a new gradient by clicking on the + button at the bottom of the Gradients dialog. If it is not enabled, call it by using Ctrl + G, or go to Windows | Dockable Dialogs | Gradients:
   

   

3. To pick the colors for the gradient, position the mouse over the the orange bar (blue in Windows) and right-click:
   

   

   Select the Left Endpoint's Color:

   

   And/or the Right Endpoint's Color:

   

   Here are the colors I have chosen:

   

4. Using the Blend Tool, apply the gradient:
   

   

5. Right-click inside the text layer name in the Layers dialog, and select the Alpha to Selection option:
   

   

6. Then, go to Select | Grow, and make it bigger by 3 pixels:
   

   

7. Create a new layer and name it border. Fill it using the Bucket Fill Tool (I used a dark color), and place it underneath the text layer (drag and drop the border layer):
   

   

8. Duplicate the border layer by clicking on the Duplicate button at the bottom of the layers dialog, or going to Layer | Duplicate Layer.
9. Repeat this operation with the text layer. Move this last duplicated layer on top of the border copy layer.
10. Merge these duplicated layers by going to Layer | Merge Down, and change its name to reflection:
    

    

    Choose Select | none from the menu to be sure there's no selection present.

11. Using the Move Tool, place the reflection layer below the "text" layer and flip it with the Flip Tool.
    

    

    Use the Move Tool to adjust the position of the flipped text, and separate them vertically by just a few pixels.

12. Right-click in the reflection layer inside the Layers dialog, and select the Add Layer Mask option. Choose the Black (Full Transparency) and click Add.
    

    

13. Using the Blend Tool, pick the FG to BG gradient from the Gradients Dialog, and apply it from bottom to the top to create a semitransparent reflection of the text:
    

    

14. Select the original text layer. Right-click on it in the Layers dialog, and choose Alpha to Selection. Then with the Ellipse Select Tool in subtract mode (check the following image):
    

    

    Draw an ellipse, as in the following image:

    

15. Create a new layer and name it glass. Then, fill it with a white color using the Bucket Fill Tool:
    

    

16. Change its opacity to something around 30 and you are done! Here's the final logo:
    

    

How it works...

Just by using a font you like and a few tools you quickly created a logo. See how we only used default paint/blend tools and masks to create it? GIMP has powerful extensions but you can also create professional pieces without using complex filters or even using much time.

Summary

This article showed us how to use a few filters to create a company logo.

Further resources on this subject:

• Photo Manipulation with GIMP 2.6 [Article]
• How To Create Amazing Text and Font Effects in Gimp 2.6 [Article]
• Creating Pseudo-3D Imagery with GIMP [Article]
• Blender 2.5: Creating a UV Texture [Article]
• Python Graphics: Combining Raster and Vector Pictures [Article]
• Open Source Awards 2010: Gimp [Article]

GIMP 2.6 cookbook

Over 50 recipes to produce amazing graphics with the GIMP

Published: March 2011
eBook Price: $26.99
Book Price: $44.99
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