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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. 82733 times read so far. Category: Text effects, required skill: 1 of 5

32 comments have been posted so far.

Available in other languages:

  1. 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.
    Screenshot of step 1
    Click to enlarge
  2. 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
    Screenshot of step 2
    Click to enlarge
  3. 3
    - Select / None (CTRL SHIFT A)
    - Filter / Blur / Gaussian: 45px.
    - Duplicate the layer and apply a gaussian blur again: 30px.
    Screenshot of step 3
    Click to enlarge
  4. 4
    My layers look like this now:
    Screenshot of step 4
    Click to enlarge
  5. 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".
    Screenshot of step 5
    Click to enlarge
  6. 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!
    Screenshot of step 6
    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.

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

    nice tuts very nice.
    imma use it for my next sig or avi.

  2. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon 04 Jun 2007 04:39:12 AM CEST 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

  3. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon 04 Jun 2007 06:47:44 PM CEST 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.

  4. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon 04 Jun 2007 09:26:58 PM CEST devvv, 04 Jun 2007 09:26 PM

    yes lightdreamer, thats a fact of nature - all things have better glow on dark background ;)

  5. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed 04 Jul 2007 03:08:10 AM CEST bivins92, 04 Jul 2007 03:08 AM

    This is pretty cool.

  6. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon 09 Jul 2007 01:31:30 PM CEST Dan, 09 Jul 2007 01:31 PM

    Awesome shizzle! I love it! :D

  7. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Fri 17 Aug 2007 12:22:34 AM CEST Sean, 17 Aug 2007 12:22 AM

    I couldn't find anything from 2. Where's it?

  8. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sun 04 Nov 2007 11:03:35 PM CET la queen, 04 Nov 2007 11:03 PM

    datz hot

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

    great tutorial thanks!

  10. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon 11 Feb 2008 08:21:10 PM CET JOHN VARGHESE, 11 Feb 2008 08:21 PM

    thanks its cool

  11. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sun 24 Feb 2008 09:31:42 AM CET 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!

  12. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Tue 04 Mar 2008 03:20:03 AM CET Krueger, 04 Mar 2008 03:20 AM

    Thanks alot, great job.

  13. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon 17 Mar 2008 09:56:53 PM CET ariana, 17 Mar 2008 09:56 PM

    wow

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

    I'm doing good so far, but whats #007eff???

  15. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed 16 Apr 2008 11:18:53 AM CEST 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.

  16. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed 16 Apr 2008 03:20:18 PM CEST 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.

  17. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed 16 Apr 2008 04:34:42 PM CEST 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.

  18. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Thu 17 Apr 2008 12:04:23 PM CEST Rundo0o, 17 Apr 2008 12:04 PM

    Where can i find Grow?

  19. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Thu 17 Apr 2008 12:06:52 PM CEST devvv, 17 Apr 2008 12:06 PM

    look in menu Selection / Grow

  20. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Thu 17 Apr 2008 12:37:40 PM CEST Rundo0o, 17 Apr 2008 12:37 PM

    Thanx, I have one more question.. What font did you use?

  21. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Fri 18 Apr 2008 12:28:14 PM CEST 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

  22. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sun 20 Apr 2008 09:00:15 AM CEST neb, 20 Apr 2008 09:00 AM

    Thanks this rocks!

  23. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Tue 12 Aug 2008 01:32:35 AM CEST Somebody, 12 Aug 2008 01:32 AM

    I can't find the layers dialog box!

  24. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat 16 Aug 2008 12:32:32 AM CEST Torbjorn, 16 Aug 2008 12:32 AM

    Go to File --> Dialogues --> Layers, in the main window of Gimp, or hit the shortcut Ctrl + L.

  25. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sun 24 Aug 2008 12:42:33 AM CEST 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?

  26. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat 20 Sep 2008 09:08:45 PM CEST Alec W, 20 Sep 2008 09:08 PM

    nice effect, cheers :)

  27. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat 15 Nov 2008 04:06:38 PM CET Jason, 15 Nov 2008 04:06 PM

    A really nice tutorial, thanks a bunch.

  28. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed 25 Feb 2009 04:42:02 AM CET Will, 25 Feb 2009 04:42 AM

    I have Gimp 2.6.3, and this doesn't work too well :(

  29. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed 29 Apr 2009 02:34:25 AM CEST Hypershadsy, 29 Apr 2009 02:34 AM

    I can not get this to work for the life of me

  30. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Sat 06 Jun 2009 11:59:15 PM CEST Kim, 06 Jun 2009 11:59 PM

    What is #007 effect?

  31. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Wed 08 Jul 2009 06:25:01 PM CEST chris, 08 Jul 2009 06:25 PM

    ooh thanks! it came out amazing!

  32. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/glowing-text.html Mon 24 Aug 2009 06:53:56 AM CEST mahvin, 24 Aug 2009 06:53 AM

    Another great tutorial, thanks Bernhard!

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