18 May 2007 11:10 PM, by devvv (Bernhard Stockmann)

Cool glowing text

In this tutorial I'll show you how to get this pretty nice glowing text effect using GIMP. In my opinion glowing text looks much better if you have text with a rounded font. Take a look at the rounded corners-tutorial if you want your special font to be rounded off.

This article has been written using GIMP 2.3.10. It's divided into 6 steps and takes about 10 min to complete for an average user. 98402 times read so far. Category: Text effects, required skill: 1 of 5

36 comments have been posted so far.

Available in other languages:

Glühender Text (de)

1
New file: 500x200px.
- Fill the background with black color.
- Take the text-tool and write any text you want onto a new layer. Use a font size of 60 for this at least.
- Layer / Layer to picture size. Now your text-layer should be renderend and have the same size as the whole picture.

Click to enlarge
2
The next step is to create a strong outer glow.

- Click the layer with your right mouse button in the layers dialog menu. Choose "Selection from Alpha".
- Select / Grow: 3px
- Add a new layer, name it "schein nach aussen" (which measn outer glow in German ;)).
- Fill the selection on this layer with #007eff
- In the layers dialog move the layer behind the text-layer

Click to enlarge
3
- Select / None (CTRL SHIFT A)
- Filter / Blur / Gaussian: 45px.
- Duplicate the layer and apply a gaussian blur again: 30px.

Click to enlarge
4
My layers look like this now:

Click to enlarge
5
Click the glowing text-layer in the layers dialog to activate it.
- duplicate it
- on the duplicate apply another gaussian blur. Take a value of 15.
- Set the layers mode (found in the layers dialog at the very top above the opacity) to "Dodge".

Click to enlarge
6
- Duplicate the "schein nach außen" / "other glow"-layer.
- in the layers dialog move it to the top of all layers, so thats it is above all the other layers. Set the layers mode to "Dodge" again. This step makes the glow effect even stronger ;)

Thats it. Have fun with your own glowing text!

Click to enlarge

This article is licensed under the following license: Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Austria

Comments

Post your own comments, questions or hints here. The author and other users will see your posting and can reply to it. Of course, you can also ask in the chat.

Comments are chronologically arranged.

http://www.gimpusers.de/tutorials/glowing-text.html 2 rating(s) with 4.0 of 5 stars in average

http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat Jun 2 01:50:34 2007 Blood, 02 Jun 2007 01:50 AM

nice tuts very nice.
imma use it for my next sig or avi.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon Jun 4 04:39:12 2007 Hey you, 04 Jun 2007 04:39 AM

Hey you, yes, you with the avy and siggy!
Don't touch my mossy or I will send you back to lumby.

I love bunnies
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon Jun 4 18:47:44 2007 lightdreamer, 04 Jun 2007 06:47 PM

Doesn't look good on a white background. Somehow, when I use the gaussian blur, it goes gray.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon Jun 4 21:26:58 2007 devvv, 04 Jun 2007 09:26 PM

yes lightdreamer, thats a fact of nature - all things have better glow on dark background ;)
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed Jul 4 03:08:10 2007 bivins92, 04 Jul 2007 03:08 AM

This is pretty cool.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon Jul 9 13:31:30 2007 Dan, 09 Jul 2007 01:31 PM

Awesome shizzle! I love it! :D
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Fri Aug 17 00:22:34 2007 Sean, 17 Aug 2007 12:22 AM

I couldn't find anything from 2. Where's it?
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sun Nov 4 23:03:35 2007 la queen, 04 Nov 2007 11:03 PM

datz hot
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Thu Jan 17 20:59:24 2008 coche, 17 Jan 2008 08:59 PM

great tutorial thanks!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon Feb 11 20:21:10 2008 JOHN VARGHESE, 11 Feb 2008 08:21 PM

thanks its cool
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sun Feb 24 09:31:42 2008 Paradox, 24 Feb 2008 09:31 AM

I can do that a different way in 39 seconds exactly but that is what i started with. Thanks!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Tue Mar 4 03:20:03 2008 Krueger, 04 Mar 2008 03:20 AM

Thanks alot, great job.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon Mar 17 21:56:53 2008 ariana, 17 Mar 2008 09:56 PM

wow
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed Apr 16 07:15:51 2008 Kain, 16 Apr 2008 07:15 AM

I'm doing good so far, but whats #007eff???
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed Apr 16 11:18:53 2008 devvv, 16 Apr 2008 11:18 AM

that is a hex-color code! you can set the color when you click the foreground/background-color - to the right you can set this color.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed Apr 16 15:20:18 2008 Kain, 16 Apr 2008 03:20 PM

Okay, I follow this step by step, and it comes out alright, not good, but not to bad. Anyway, how do I change the glow's color? Instead of it being the color of the words, I want it to be a different color.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed Apr 16 16:34:42 2008 devvv, 16 Apr 2008 04:34 PM

make a new seperate layer atop all, the fill it with the color of your choice. set the layers mode to "color", the it should be the color of your choice.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Thu Apr 17 12:04:23 2008 Rundo0o, 17 Apr 2008 12:04 PM

Where can i find Grow?
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Thu Apr 17 12:06:52 2008 devvv, 17 Apr 2008 12:06 PM

look in menu Selection / Grow
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Thu Apr 17 12:37:40 2008 Rundo0o, 17 Apr 2008 12:37 PM

Thanx, I have one more question.. What font did you use?
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Fri Apr 18 12:28:14 2008 devvv, 18 Apr 2008 12:28 PM

its not a special font - any sans serif font will be fine - i did the rounded corners technique (under "Techniques" at the tutorial overview page) to get it look like this
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sun Apr 20 09:00:15 2008 neb, 20 Apr 2008 09:00 AM

Thanks this rocks!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Tue Aug 12 01:32:35 2008 Somebody, 12 Aug 2008 01:32 AM

I can't find the layers dialog box!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat Aug 16 00:32:32 2008 Torbjorn, 16 Aug 2008 12:32 AM

Go to File --> Dialogues --> Layers, in the main window of Gimp, or hit the shortcut Ctrl + L.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sun Aug 24 00:42:33 2008 Anonymous, 24 Aug 2008 12:42 AM

Okay, cool tutorial, but I've got Gimp 2, which is fine, I can translate. But I add the new layer with a new color, put it behind the text, and I get white text on top of my colored layer...not with a colored border on black. What am I doing wrong?
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat Sep 20 21:08:45 2008 Alec W, 20 Sep 2008 09:08 PM

nice effect, cheers :)
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat Nov 15 16:06:38 2008 Jason, 15 Nov 2008 04:06 PM

A really nice tutorial, thanks a bunch.
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed Feb 25 04:42:02 2009 Will, 25 Feb 2009 04:42 AM

I have Gimp 2.6.3, and this doesn't work too well :(
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed Apr 29 02:34:25 2009 Hypershadsy, 29 Apr 2009 02:34 AM

I can not get this to work for the life of me
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat Jun 6 23:59:15 2009 Kim, 06 Jun 2009 11:59 PM

What is #007 effect?
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed Jul 8 18:25:01 2009 chris, 08 Jul 2009 06:25 PM

ooh thanks! it came out amazing!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon Aug 24 06:53:56 2009 mahvin, 24 Aug 2009 06:53 AM

Another great tutorial, thanks Bernhard!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Tue Mar 30 01:49:28 2010 comzhao, 30 Mar 2010 01:49 AM

hey I did the technique for a gimp brush
and it worked so just make sure the backround is transparent
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat Apr 17 01:23:07 2010 Nathan, 17 Apr 2010 01:23 AM

How do i move the layer behind the text layer????
(end of step 2)
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat Apr 17 08:53:38 2010 gimp_erin, 17 Apr 2010 08:53 AM

Awesome tutorial! Tried it out and I understand everything perfectly!
http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat May 29 20:14:48 2010 minamoto.kazuya, 29 May 2010 08:14 PM

i don't understand the part where you said "Selection From Alpha" where can i find that? all i read is Alpha Selection, i mean, Alpha to Logo.

Registered users can log in (top right of the page) to use their profile name to post comments, request email notification on new comments and attach images (e.g. their versions of the effect) to their postings.

Your name:
Email address:
rating:
Your comment:
Are you human?

Last online

Not logged in

GIMP information

Useful links

Latest news [archive]

Latest tutorials

[AVATAR] Become a real Na'Vi using GIMP!

Glow FX extreme

GIMP 2.8: A preview of the new features! [April 2010]

The creepy zombie hand of death!

Create a simple Grunge-Stamp!

Create a cool wax seal with an engraved eagle

Latest discussion

External news

Poll

Stats

Cool glowing text

Available in other languages:

Comments