Cutout Text
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For GIMP Versions: 2.2, 2.4, 2.6
Making a text cutout is one of the easiest assignments you might ever be given. The process for creating the cutout itself is very straightforward and takes only three layers. What is harder is finding a background that makes the cutout really show through. In a real project, the background you use will probably depend on the message you need to convey. Doing an ad for a Dude Ranch? A wood grain cutout would fit the bill. How about some brochures for a kitchen remodeling company? A granite or tile countertop cutout will cook up some tasty responses!
But for practice while you learn the technique, you can just pick one that looks good and doesn’t take long to generate. Thai peppers are naturally mouth-watering hot spices but when the text is placed over a watery backdrop we get the theme for this tutorial: “Thai Pepper: the cool hot spot”.
This demonstration applies the cutout process to text, but it’s easy to extend it to any shaped object. Whether you’re making grid cutouts, or tire tracks, or even faking depth for a window frame, you’ll follow pretty much the same steps, with only slight variations.
Creating a Background and Adding Text
Open a new canvas window (File->New). Make it the default 420×300 pixels. Open the Patterns dialog. Click on the Electric Blue pattern and drag it into the canvas.
Desaturate the layer (Layer->Colors->Desaturate). Double click on the Foreground color box to open the Change Foreground Color dialog. Set the RGB values to 29/174/176. Close the dialog. In the canvas, select the entire background layer by typing ctrl-A.
Select the Bucket Fill tool from the Toolbox. In the Tool Options dialog, set the Mode to Grain Merge and the Affected Area to Fill Whole Selection. Click in the Canvas to colorize the layer. Deselect.
The patten used looks a bit like water, but the pattern repeats in too uniform a manner. To give it a more random appearance, like we’d see in the surface disturbances of a lagoon, we’ll use the Wave filter. Open the filter (Filters->Distorts->Waves). Set the Mode to Smear (so the waves won’t wrap around in the layer) and disable the Reflective option (which produces the more recognizable wave shape). Set the Amplitude to 9.5, Phase to 160, and Wavelength to 50. The Amplitude is the height of the wave in the layer (top to bottom), and the Wavelength is the width of the wave from crest to crest (left to right). The Phase is just where the crest starts horizontally in the layer. Apply these settings to the background layer.
Select the Text tool from the Toolbox. Choose an appropriate font. I’m using URW Palladio L, Bold and set the size to 60. Make the font color black. Click in the canvas to open the Text Editor. Type in Thai Pepper and close the editor. Use the Move tool to center the text in the canvas window.
Creating the Cutout Effect
Duplicate the text layer. Offset the duplicate layer (Layer->Transform->Offset) by -1 in both X and Y. Set the layer boundary to the image size (Layer->Layer to Image Size). Gaussian Blur the layer (Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur) by 1.5 pixels both horizontally and vertically.
Duplicate the original text layer again. Offset the new duplicate layer by +1 pixels in both X and Y. Set the layer boundary to the image size. Gaussian Blur the layer by 1.5 pixels. Set the Keep Transparency button in the Layers dialog. Type ctrl-A in the canvas to select the whole layer. Set the Foreground color RGB values to 177/177/177, which is a light gray. Drag the foreground color box into the layer to color the text. Deselect. Move this layer to just below the original text layer in the layer dialog.
Click on the original text layer to make it active. Create a selection of the text (Layer->Transparency->Alpha to Selection). Click on the first duplicate layer, which should be the layer just above the text layer. Type ctrl-X to delete the selection from this layer. Get the selection for the original layer again, click on the second duplicate (below the original text layer), and type ctrl-X to cut from that layer.
Set the first duplicate layer mode to Multiply. Set the second duplicate layer to Grain Merge. Set the Opacity of the original text layer to 45%.
Further Exploration
For added effect this tutorial could have added a red pepper and perhaps some tropical plants to the scene. Both of these items could be pulled from one of the many inexpensive online stock image archives.
