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.
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 IMAGE 1: Basic Text  IMAGE 2: Copy of text in new layer  IMAGE 3: Layer dialogue box  IMAGE 4: Stretched Text (verticallly)  IMAGE 5: Skewed Text  IMAGE 6: Skewed Text with less opacity and blurring.  IMAGE 7: Final Text with shadow behind it. |
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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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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.
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 IMAGE 1: Basic Text  IMAGE 2:Copy Of Text  IMAGE 3: Inverted Text  IMAGE 4: Text with final shadow |
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December 28, 2008
By: Dexter
Category: GIMP, Tutorial
Another GIMP thingy that you can do easily, i.e. to achieve a coarse textured wall surface in different colors. I did start with red. You may want to try out others.
- Start with a new file or should is say canvas of the required size
- Bucket Fill with Red color (or any other color that you like)
(see IMAGE 1)
- Select the whole image, then apply RGB Noise filter.
Filters — Noise — RGB Noise
- Play around with different values of Red Green and Blue (Make sure that the basic color which you select remains prominent and you have some black or dark areas.)
(see IMAGE 2)
- Next apply Emboss effect (select the bump map option from the emboss dialogue box).
Filters — Distorts — Emboss
- Keep the Depth slider at the middle, move around depth and azimuth to get different flow of the coarse effect.
(see IMAGE 1)
- I felt that the brightness was less so I increased the contrast and brightness a bit more in the end.
- And that makes your coarse surface ready!
|
 IMAGE 1: Basic Red Background  IMAGE 2: After Applying RGB noise filter  IMAGE 3: Final Coarse Wall Surface |
 Coarse Wall Yellow |
 Coarse Green Wall |
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