How-to: Creating an icon similar to this, *points to icon*, in Gimp

[blnchflr]

This tutorial is aimed at Gimp novices. It is my first tutorial, un-betaed, and I welcome feedback!

The font I'm using is Amadeus, but you can choose any font you like. (For Ubuntu font newbies = me 2 weeks ago: Installing fonts in Ubuntu.)

1. Start Gimp.


2. Click Ctrl+N or File > New… to create a new image. Set Width and Height to 100 pixels and Fill with to Transparency.
   
   


3. (If you prefer to save the image as you work on it, maybe even to come back to it later, hit Ctrl+S and save as .xcf, the native Gimp file format.)


4. In the Toolbox, choose the text tool.
   
   
   


5. (I like to work with icons in 400% zoom - View > Zoom > 4:1 (400%) - but do as you prefer.)


6. Use your mouse to mark a rectangle for your text. A small window for your text will pop up immediately - you can move it to the side if it's blocking your image.
   
   


7. I like to mark the whole icon, write my text, then play around with font, font-size, positioning, etc. (font color is irrelevant for this tutorial, don't bother changing it). I don't know anything about Hinting, Force auto-hinter, and Antialiasing - I check and uncheck to see what looks best, *hands*. I haven't found one setting always work best, but Hinting and Antialiasing usually work well.
   
   


8. When you're happy with your text, right-click the text layer in the Layers, Channels, Paths, etc. window, and choose Alpha to Selection.
   
   


9. Now your text should be outlined.
   
   


10. Now we're finally nearing the fun bit! Click Shift+Ctrl+N or Layer > New Layer… to add a new layer. Width and Height 100 pixels, and set Layer Fill Type to Transparency.
    
    


11. Click the little eye icon next to the original text layer to make it invisible. Afterwards, make sure you're standing on the new layer - it's highlighted in the Layers, etc. window.
    
    


12. In the toolbox, choose the blend tool.
    
    


13. For more fun than you can shake a stick at, choose a gradient (click on the black-over-grey-to-white rectangle for a menu of gradients).
    
    


14. With your mouse, draw a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line through your icon.
    
    


15. As soon as you release the mouse button, your chosen gradient will fill in the text outline, whee!
    
    You can always Ctrl+Z to choose another gradient/line.
    
    


16. When you're happy with it, click Shift+Ctrl+S to save as. For the transparent background to work, you must save it as .gif or .png! .png looks better for this particular icon (cf. below).
    
    1. .gif:
       
       
    
    
    2. .png:
       
       


17. Icon on different backgrounds:
    
    

    .gif
    .png

I'm not a Gimp expert, but I'm happy to help if I can: ask if you get stuck or have questions :o)

Comments

[jana]

I don't know anything about Hinting, Force auto-hinter, and Antialiasing - I check and uncheck to see what looks best, [...]

That's a pretty good approach so far as I'm concerned :) But I looked up what the official documentation has to say about it, since we're here to learn and improve our GIMP skills and stuff... ;)

Hinting: Uses the indices of adjustment to modify the characters in order to produce clear letters in small font sizes.

Force Auto-Hinter: Auto Hinter tries to automatically compute information for better representation of the character font.

Antialiasing: Antialiasing will render the text with much smoother edges and curves. This is achieved by slight blurring and merging of the edges. This option can radically improve the visual appearance of the rendered typeface. Caution should be exercised when using antialiasing on images that are not in RGB color space.

Anyway, thanks for the tutorial! Simple, yet eye-catching.

[blnchflr]

I looked up what the official documentation has to say about it,
I can't say the explanations make me any better equipped to choose a setting blind O_o

Welcome, thank you!

[darkemeralds]

You are like my rescuer! I just converted to all-Ubuntu, all-the-time because of a Vista crash, and the only thing I miss from my Windows days is the full-suite Corel Graphics that I spent years learning to use.

This tutorial is just what I needed to break out of my crop/scale/brighten limitations. Thank you so much!

[blnchflr]

Welcome to Ubuntu! Is this your first time with Linux?

I'm a total convert, myself - installed dualboot Ubuntu in May 2008, deleted Vista from my hd the year after, and have never missed it.

Tangent, because I have a how-to on it: Do you know about setting up keyboard shortcuts for oft-used programs/folders/files in Ubuntu? It's so brilliant. The ability to customize in Linux never ceases to impress me!

[darkemeralds]

I don't know about keyboard shortcuts, and I miss them from Windows. Your entry is locked, but I'd love to see it.

I'm reasonably geeky, but I do find the "easy instructions" for a lot of Linux activities to be rather daunting. The lines of code, and the dearth of step-by-step instructions on what to do with them, can be really frustrating.

All the same, I AM learning, and I like Ubuntu a lot. I did the dualboot thing too, but it only lasted about two weeks before Vista crashed and made my decision for me--this was a month or so ago. So I'm a real newbie.

[blnchflr]

Doh, unlocked version.

I find some instructions hard to follow, because they assume I know things I don't - however, I also think there are many excellent step-by-step instructions. And the Danish Ubuntu help forum is generally excellent (the English isn't half-bad, either).

But basically my first two weeks with Ubuntu sucked - I was a Windows superuser, and way too set in my ways. The turning point was coming across an article which said Linux was best for computer newbies and computer programmers, since they were either not set in their ways or capable of learning news things. Windows superusers were the worst group to try and introduce Linux to, since we were so set in our ways. That made me I get stubborn, and I made myself learn and get used to Ubuntu!

Btw, if you have questions, consider joining linux4all and asking questions there; help generate more DW content - and people are helpful, too :o)

[dragonwolf]

Second linux4all, as well as the superuser comment.

I dove into Linux full-time this past September after spending several years dabbling and basically waiting for me to get the right hardware to play nice with the OS without having to resort to trying to edit X.org from the terminal screen you get if X fails to load (this happened primarily with my crappy old Inspiron 1100 that I had that required proprietary, Windows-only drivers just to get 1024x768 resolution, but I also never had any luck getting ATI drivers to fully work, which was a deal-breaker for me as I wanted my 3D acceleration).

I went from Windows superuser/admin (10ish years of tech support) to somewhere between basic and mid-level Linux user in under an hour. :D For a while, I was (and to a slightly lesser extent, still am) stuck in that weird limbo, where I have needs beyond the basic user, but don't have quite enough knowledge to solve a given problem without spending fifteen minutes searching Google or playing trial and error (or both).

The different communities around the major distros provide a ton of help (especially if you know how to convert Red Hat commands to Debian ones) and there's tutorials for damn near everything, which is nice. The command line stuff can be a little daunting at first, but if you're not afraid to read the snorefest that is documentation, and pick up on the common commands, it's not too bad.

[darkemeralds]

I'm going to do sooooo much with the tools I just learned from your post! This is just my first little lame try, but I'm thrilled. Thanks again.

[blnchflr]

Welcome :o)

[kake]

Thank you for this! It was just what I was looking for to make an icon for my new series of posts.

[blnchflr]

Oooh, pretty - I'm glad you got the fonts working!