Fonts
> Vector vs Raster :
Font Collecting : Anti-aliasing
: Using fonts : Making
Titles : Effects : Dingbats
text effects
There are many effects you can apply to text, I'll just show you a
few of the basics. Some can be done in Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop,
others may require specific pragrams (such as Cool 3D). I won't go
into detail on how to do all these effects here, just a very basic
description of how to do it. You should be able to work it out by
messing around with the filters in PSP, or by hunting around for specific
text-related graphics software. I've used the font "Arial Black"
in these examples.
In PSP7, I normally
have my "Stroke" colour turned off when I work with fonts
(just use "Fill" colour)
- gives nice clean, sharp edges.
In PSP7, text must
be rasterised (or created as 'floating' raster text, not vector) and
full colour.
Then use Effects>3D Effects>Drop Shadow. I've then made
the background colour transparent.
Just create your
text once in the underneath colour, then do it again in the top colour
and position it over the top. When you're happy with the position,
flatten and then reduce to 256 colours and set background to transparent.
Some fonts are
always Outline Fonts - ie, hollow inside like this. You can create
the same effect with any font in PSP by setting the "Stroke"
colour to your outline colour, and turning off the "Fill"
colour (ie opposite to the others above).
This is the same
as above, although with the "Fill" colour turned on and
set to pink. It makes the text a bit bolder/fuzzier than it normally
appears, though.
Although PSP, Photoshop
etc will apply some supposed 3D effects, most of them either look
pretty cruddy or are rather complicated to use. This was made with
a very simple program calld ULead Cool 3D. It's very inexpensive and
also fun for animating text if you're into that sort of thing. I actually
prefer the simple, earlier version as I'm not really into animation
- and Amazon sell it for about ten dollars. A worthwhile investment.
The fancy later versions are still pretty cheap though, and you might
enjoy playing with the whizzy functions, just don't put spinning pulsing
titles on your site PLEASE! To see this effect in use on one of my
sites, take a look at goldentarot.com.
A great aspect
of Cool 3D (even the very first version) is that it's easy to render
your 3D text with any texture. Here. I've used a Renaissance gold
textured panel for a subtle effect, but you can use much bolder built-in
textures if you like that sort of thing.
