JWG PSP7 Tutorials:
Cutout Text
I learned this method of cutout text effects from web graphics on a budget and dont make any claims to originality whatsoever :-) I am merely reproducing this here with some extra screenshots and settings, in the hope that you will find it easy to understand, and do yourselves. I do urge you to go and visit this site when you have finished here, as there are plenty more options for cutout buttons, dings, etc detailed there. Generally these effects can be seen to greater advantage on grainy textured backgrounds, but can also be used on others too, including this plain colour.
Making the background tile
OK, first of all we are going to use a bg tile I made following the simple instructions from Web Graphics on a Budget
here ,or you can make your own if you prefer.
Right click on this and save it to your hard drive. Open it in PSP, and save it to your PSP patterns folder as Windows or OS/2 Bitmap and then it will always be available for you to use as a Pattern. Click File: Save As, then browse to your patterns folder (often in C Program Files Jasc Software Paint Shop Pro Patterns)
Open the patterns folder, and you will see all the patterns are .bmp
In the save as type box, click on the little arrow, and a list of file types appears. Scroll down until you find Windows or OS/2 Bitmap (.bmp) and click on that:
Name your bg tile and save it.
Colourising your tile
Open a new image 500w x200h, 16 million colours, transparent background. I know this is quite large but we will resize it when we have finished. Flood fill your image with the bg tile from your patterns folder:
You can use this texture as it is, but you may wish to colorise it to match your page. Choose a color that you want to use, and set it as your foreground color. Click on it and the color dialog box will open.
Make a note of the numbers in the Hue and Saturation boxes, then close this box. Click on your image, and go to Colors:Colorize: In the box that opens, type in the Hue and Sat numbers you just jotted down.
Click OK, and your image is now the color you want it to be. (If you dont know the hex code (ie #FF0000) of your color, or dont really know what you want, use the eye dropper to pick out a color from a graphic you are using, to help you obtain just the right shade for your background).
Making the text
Click on Layers: New Raster Layer, and name it cutout: click on your text tool, click in your image and the text entry dialog box opens:
Choose your font, and size, and either use null stroke and black fill as shown in the screenshot, or black stroke and black fill if you want thicker text as in the examples used here. (For those I also had my stroke set as line width 2, to obtain a chunkier result, but this is very much a matter of personal taste--- just experiment to find out what looks best to you). To change line width, click on your text tool, and this box appears. the default width is 1, so alter this to whatever you want.
Make sure Selection is checked, and NOT Floating as is usual for non-vector text, as we want just an outline of the text, and not the black fill and stroke. I
have used Elegance at Size 72, and you may download this font here if
you would like to use it yourself. Click OK, and the outline selection of your text appears. Do not deselect, and go to Effects:3D Effects:Cutout and use these
settings.
Vertical: 2 Horizontal: 2 Opacity: 100 Blur: 5 Shadow color: Black
Fill interior with color: unchecked.
Click OK, and do not deselect:
Click on Layers: New Raster Layer, and name it shadow.
Go to Effects:3D Effects:Drop Shadow and use these settings:
Vertical: 1 Horizontal: 1 Opacity: 100 Blur: 1 Color: White.
Click OK, and deselect (Selections:Select None)
Go to your layer palette and click on the cutout layer
At the end where it says normal, there is a little black arrow. Click on this, and a list appears: Click on Luminance: Go to Layers: Merge All (Flatten)
Now we probably need to crop our image, so click on the crop tool on the left hand toolbar:
Draw a box around your text to the size you want your graphic to be. When you release your mouse, if the size is not quite right, put your mouse over one of the sides of the crop box, and it will turn into a 2 headed arrow. you can then move each side individually to the right place. (A 4 headed arrow moves the entire box).
When all is to your liking, go to Image:Crop
Your graphic is now finished, and if you are going to add it to a webpage using the same background (as I have done with the header logo here), just save as a jpeg, and away you go :-) Here are a couple of examples using different textured backgrounds.
Another method
An alternative method you might like to try, is to use drop shadow alone and not the cutout effect: Follow the first steps of the tutorial as above, but when
you have your text outline selected, Go to Selections:Invert: and apply the following Drop Shadow:
Vertical: 2 Horizontal: 2 Opacity: 100 Shadow: Black Blur: 5
Click OK, and go to Selections :Invert, Then apply the following Drop Shadow:
Vertical: 1 Horizontal: 1 Opacity: 100 Blur: 1 Shadow: White
Change the blend mode of the text layer to Luminance as above, merge your layers, and save.
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