The excellent book by Michael J Hammel "The Artist's Guide to Gimp Effects" describes in detail the creation of "gel" text for book covers, web pages etc. I developed my own summary checklist following the guidance in his book. And it works in production.

The bad news is his list has 37 steps. And his book was written in the days of Gimp 2.2, looking forward to 2.4. Today 2.6.11 is the stable version and 2.7.x is in use by many. So I ask the group to look over the 37 steps listed below and evaluate whether there are better approaches available in e.g., 2.6.11 that can shorten the list a bit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Create canvas 420x100 at 300 dpi. 2. Select Foregorund Color and set to 0/15/222 3. Select text tool. Choose serif font & set to e.g. 180 pixels. 4. Type text
5. Move text to center of canvas.
6. Choose Layer-> Layer to Image size. 7. Choose Layer-> Transparency -> Alpha to Selection. 8. Choose Select -> Shrink 2 pixels
9. Choose Select -> Feather 2 Pixels 10. Select Foreground Color and set to 31/82/255 11. Select Layer-> New layer. Name Bump Map. 12. Make Bump Map active layer.
13. Fill text with Foreground Layer color (drag & drop). 14. Select -> None.
15. Layer -> Duplicate. Name layer Blur. 16 Make Blur layer active layer.
17. Filters-> Blur->Gaussian Blur 10 Pixels. 18. Make Bump Layer active layer.
19. Filters -> Map -> Bump Map. Azimuth 105, Elevation 5.75, Depth 10, Map Type Linear, Compensate for Darkening. Apply. 20. Set Bump Map Layer mode to Addition. 21. Colors -> Curve
22. Set Blur Layer invisible.
23. Bump Map Layer: Filters -> Light and Dark -> Lighting Effect 24. Options tab: Move blue dot.
25. Light Tab: Directional, Intensity 1.45, OK 26. Layer -> Transform -> Offset -2 -2. 27. Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur -> 5 28. Make Blur active & visible.
29. Layer-> Duplicate Layer.
30. Make Blur Duplicate Layer active. 31. Layer -> Transform ->Offset 2 2
32. Make Blur layer active
33. Layer -> Trensform -> Offset -2 -2 34. Set Blur layer mode to Addition
35. Set Blur copy layer mode to Screen 36. Make text layer active
37. Filter -> Shadows -> Drop Shadow Offset 2 pixels Blur 3 pixels.
------------------------------

On Sunday, June 19, 2011 10:44:17 pm Michael J. Hammel wrote:

On Mon, 2011-06-20 at 09:30 +1000, Owen wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jun 2011 10:36:34 -0400

John Culleton wrote:

The excellent book by Michael J Hammel "The Artist's Guide to Gimp Effects"

Thanks for the kudos.

The bad news is his list has 37 steps. And his book was written in the days of Gimp 2.2, looking forward to 2.4.

The 2nd edition for 2.8 is expected to be out in early 2012. I'm trying to coincide the update with the 2.8 release so the book is relevant. I'm almost done with updating all the text, including quite few new tutorials. I've been putting off making new screenshots to give the developers as much time as possible for UI updates. But I'll be starting in on those very soon.

Are you sure that File->Create->Logos->Chrome wont do what you are looking for?

Kind of. But understanding how to do it manually allows you the flexibility of making your own flavor of the effect. That's the purpose of all the tutorials in the book - to teach technique without falling back on too many pre-built effects.

Well that was an authoritative set of responses! I will look forward to the new edition. In addition to being most informative it is a very handsome book.

I write, publish, index and lay out books. Your book sets a very high standard and I salute your product.

In the meantime I will look at Chrome more carefully. Sometimes I use the routines under logos and modify the results to suit my needs. For example I almost always eliminate the background layer. Chrome may or may not match up to the routine taken from "The Artist's Guide to Gimp Effects"

Stay tuned :