The letterpress effect has become very popular. I wanted to write a quick tutorial to answer the question: “How to make a letterpress effect with Gimp?” Here is my way in 9 easy steps:
- Start with a new blank image. For this demo, I’m going to be using 640 x 200
- Add a background gradient using the “Blend Tool”
- Add your desired text – using a fat font
- Right click font layer – select “text to selection”
- Add new layer and name it gradient
- Now we’re going to add a slight gradient to our text using the “Blend Tool” | Set gradient to: “FG to Transparent” and use a color that is slightly darker than your text – apply the gradient from the bottom up to about the middle of the text
- Next, go to: Filters > Light and Shadow > Drop Shadow. Set X, Y, and Blur to 1. Set the color: #ffffff (white) and the opacity: 20%
- Then: Select > Invert
- Lastly: Filters > Light and Shadow > Drop Shadow: X, Y: 1 | Blur = 6 | Color: #111111 | Opacity: 100%
The following video shows how I used these steps to make the image at the top of this post. Here is my screen cast on how to make a letterpress effect using Gimp:
