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Archive for January, 2009

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Photos … Moon… :)

January 11, 2009 By: Dexter Category: Fun, Photos

Nothing great has happened for past few day. Went out saw the moon and decided to take some snaps. So just putting up the snaps here.

Moon 01

Moon 02

Moon 02

Moon 03

Moon 03

Moon 04

Moon 04

Moon 05

Moon 05

Moon 06

Moon 06

BTW i have done no image manipulation here, just re-sized/cropped the images a bit. And on another note: These are some random photo-snapping “I Am Not A Photographer”.

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Adding Shadow Behind Text with GIMP

January 05, 2009 By: Dexter Category: GIMP, Tutorial

In my early previous post Adding Shadow To Text with GIMP, the shadow drops in front of the text.
In this post I will show you how to drop shadow behind the text. This one is a bit tricky since you will have to work with layers. If you do not know what layers are click here

  • Start with a blank canvas. Add the required text. (preferably use a bigger canvas size, its easier to move text around for placement. later you can crop the image to required size,..)
  • Add some text to it.
  • You should get something like IMAGE 1
  • Select the text (try using the fuzzy select tool if required), press ^c to copy the selection.
  • Paste this selection on the canvas, a bit away from the original image. IMAGE 2
  • Do not click the mouse any where, here press ctrl+l, this should give you layer dialogue box  see IMAGE 3.
  • You should see one of the layers as floating selection, click on button of the lower left corner of this dialogue box.() You will have a new layer.
  • Here select the original layer, (the one with the white background), select the original text using the fuzzy select tool (you will probably need to invert selection by pressing ctrl+i)
  • Now from resize the text i.e stretch it from the tools — transform tools — scale. Only scale it vertically. See IMAGE 4.
  • After you have applied scaling, Shear the text in similar manner to give it a slant. tools — transform tools — shear.
  • You should have something similar to IMAGE 5.
  • To make it look a bit realistic preform a Gausian blur on the shadow. Filters — Blur — Gausian Blur.
  • From the layer dialogue box, reduce the opacity of this layer, because the shadow has to go behind the text. IMAGE 6
  • Now place this final text with the base line behind the original text. IMAGE 7
  • Save your image. Your text with shadow behind is ready.

Text Shadow

IMAGE 1: Basic Text

Text Shadow

IMAGE 2: Copy of text in new layer

Layer dialogue box

IMAGE 3: Layer dialogue box

Text Shadow

IMAGE 4: Stretched Text (verticallly)

Text Shadow

IMAGE 5: Skewed Text

IMAGE 5: Skwed Text with less opacity and blurring.

IMAGE 6: Skewed Text with less opacity and blurring.

IMAGE 7: Final Text with shadow behind it.

IMAGE 7: Final Text with shadow behind it.
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Moving wordpress bolg… how to keep old links working

January 03, 2009 By: Dexter Category: Hacks, PHP, Tutorial, Wordpress

If you plan to shift your Wordpress blog from old directory to another on the same host, one of the problem you would face is what about the incoming links to the post or what about the links on the search engine results.

Lets take this scenario and some simple solution:

  • Your Blog was initially installed at http://yoursite.com/blog
  • You shifted it to the top level at http://yoursite.com. (see the following link how to do this: http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory )
  • Your original links to your posts will be like this http://yoursite.com/blog?p=22 (the number may vary, I am also assuming that your links are set to query string method)
  • If you have followed the procedure form wordpress for the same, you know that your index.php had to be moved to the top level of the site i.e http://yoursite.com
  • So when a person follows the old link, the person either gets to see an error or a listing of the blog directory (which is not good, both the cases).
  • So how do you redirect it to the new location.
  • Here is some code to do the same
  • Write the following code and save it as index.php under the old blog directory (i.e http://yoursite.com/blog/)
  • <?php
    $qs = $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']; // this fetches the query string i.e the page id.
    $newurl = ‘http://yoursite.com/?’.$qs;  // new location is ready
    ?>
    <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN”>
    <html>
    <head>
    <title>Redirecting…</title>
    <meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1″>
    <!– send the user to new location –>
    <META http-equiv=”refresh” content=”2; url=<? echo $newurl; ?>”>
    </head>
    <body>
    Redirecting……
    </body>
    </html>

  • So now your old links will work magically ;)
  • BTW your are free to use the above at you own risk.
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Adding Shadow To Text with GIMP

January 03, 2009 By: Dexter Category: GIMP, Tutorial

A basic way to enhance effect to to text is to drop a shadow of the text. Here is a simple way to do it in GIMP.

  • Start with a blank canvas
  • Add some text to it see IMAGE 1
  • Select the text (try using the fuzzy select tool if required), press ^c to copy the selection.
  • Paste this selection on the canvas. IMAGE 2
  • Move the newly pasted selection below the original text. Do not click the mouse any where, keep your new text selected. (you should see dashed lines all around selected text)
  • Perform — Layer — Transform — flip vertically. You should get inverted text below the original text. else move it below the original text. IMAGE 3
  • Next preform a – Tools — Transform Tools — Shear (Shift+S). In the dialogue box — Put a value -25 for “x magnitude”
  • Your text will be displaced again, align it back again to the original text’s base.
  • If you want the shadow to be a bit lighter. From the layer dialogue box — lighten the opacity of the layer containing the shadow text.
  • Merge all the layers.( if you need )
  • Your Basic Drop shadow is ready IMAGE 4
  • Of before I forget to tell you… GIMP has a nice filter for creating shadows of the selected object. you can find them under the tools — light and shaodow.

Basic Text

IMAGE 1: Basic Text

Copy Of Text

IMAGE 2:Copy Of Text

Inverted Text

IMAGE 3: Inverted Text

Text with final shadow

IMAGE 4: Text with final shadow
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