Alb's Tutorials / Paint Shop Pro Tutorials / Neon Text Banner

Neon Banner Title
This tutorial is about a very interesting text effect you can achieve with PSP8. Since only one language version of PSP can run on a pc the screenshots are in German. Nevertheless, following the tutorial should be easy - just fill in the settings at the same spots in the windows. Please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail if you get into trouble.

Again, we start with a new graphic:
new graphic

Activate the text tool and enter the following settings:
Text settings

If you don't have this font on your system just use a similar one. Write a short word. The result should look similar to the following screenshot:
example text

For the next step we need a new layer. At the layer palette click on the button "new raster layer":
new layer

A new window appears:
layer window

Keep the settings and click OK. The layer palette holds a new layer:
layer palette

Be sure that the upper (new) layer is selected before you go on with the tutorial.

In the menu, click "Selections" / "Modify" / "Contract":
Selection

Click OK to close the window, and the contraction dialogue opens:
contraction dialogue

Enter the settings you see in the screenshot and click OK.
Now activate the magic wand magic wand, press (and keep pressed) the SHIFT button, and select the remaining white areas in and around the text, too.
Press CTRL+SHIFT+i to invert the selection.
As the following step, you open the contraction dialogue again ("Selections" / "Modify" / "Contract") and contract the selection by 1 pixel.

Activate the flood fill tool (F) and select yellow as flat colour:
flood fill colour

After flood filling the selection, the graphic should look like this:
filled frame

Now click "Effects" / "3D effects" / "Inner bevel":
Inner bevel
Enter the settings as you see them above and click OK.
We go a step further. Click "Effects" / "3D effects" / "Drop shadow" and enter the following settings:
drop shadow

drop shadow 2

The result looks ok, but we can do better. At the layer palette, select the lower layer and acitvate the magic wand.
magic wand 2

Select all letters (press the SHIFT key to select multiple areas) and activate the flood fill tool again.

Select following fill settings:
colour settings

After colouring the letters, the graphic looks much more 3d:Nach dem Füllen der Schrift sieht diese nun viel plastischer aus:
8-rand/21.jpg

At last we want to add a drop shadow to enhance this effect. Again, click "Effects" / "3D effects" / "Drop shadow" and use the following settings:
8-rand/22.jpg

After applying the effect, our graphic will look like this:
result

Not bad for an effect without using any plug-in, right?




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