Ragnarok's GIMP Splash

Ragnarok · 2012-06-17 04:41:40

Well, I woke up and saw damo's GIMP splash thread which inspired me to try playing with GIMP and create my own. This is my first time trying to create something in GIMP other than a #! wallpaper I made, so I'm sorry if it looks bad or has some beginner mistake that I missed.

Link: http://ragnarokviii.deviantart.com/#/d53v9ea
Screenshot(Low quality for people with slow connections/limited bandwidth):

It's meant to look similar to Photoshop CS3's splash screen.
I didn't bother to try and make the text look similar, only the background/colors and text placement.

It's a very simple image. List of what I used to make it:
Gradient tool, Radial
Text tool
Drop shadow on GIMP text (I forgot to add a drop shadow to the "GNU Image Manipulation Program" text)
Inner shadow on all text
Rectangle select tool to create a 1px border around the image.

I didn't add a drop shadow to the image because GIMP displays splashes with transparent pixels as white.

damo · 2012-06-17 05:22:25

^ Clean and simple

One point I have is that I think it would look better if the text below "GIMP" was the same width. Maybe play with the font size and kerning?

Keep 'em coming

Ragnarok · 2012-06-17 07:57:31

damo wrote:

^ Clean and simple
One point I have is that I think it would look better if the text below "GIMP" was the same width. Maybe play with the font size and kerning?
Keep 'em coming

I didn't even know GIMP had a kerning option Thanks for letting me know

I played with it a bit and this was the result:

What's different in this image:
I recreated it from scratch since GIMP is evil when it comes to text.
Changed the background color from blue to orange
I reduced the height five pixels.
I increased the kerning on GIMP to try and match the width of G.I.M.P. (bottom text)
GIMP and G.I.M.P. are the same distance apart from the left border of the image.
G.I.M.P. text increased by 2 pixels (12 -> 14)
I increased the kerning of GIMP to try and make it the same
Removed/forgot to add a border around the image.
Drop shadow and inner shading are slightly different.
Added a drop shadow to G.I.M.P.

Things I'm not happy with about the above image:
I kept both GIMP and the G.I.M.P. text below it even against the left border, though I think that was a bad idea. I think it would have been better if I moved G.I.M.P. right a little more

I think it looks better without the inner shading. Makes the letters pop out more on the darker colors.

I'm not sure how I feel about having the texts have the same width. I think it would look good if they were centered, but having it in the left corner makes it look odd imo.

Font used for G.I.M.P. I think I should make it bold and experiment with kerning.

I'll experiment a bit more later.

Last edited by Ragnarok (2012-06-17 08:00:10)

mariannemarlow · 2012-06-17 08:00:04

I didn't even know you could change the splash for gimp!

Blimey

Ragnarok · 2012-06-17 08:03:32

^ Yep, I didn't know either until I read damo's thread

EDIT:

I was playing around and created another one:

This time the text is centered. GIMP makes it really hard to experiment with text when you can't edit it after cropping the layer >.> I can't get the alignment right if I don't crop it
I'm still not happy with the text and I probably should have made them all caps.

I think I'm done for a while.

Last edited by Ragnarok (2012-06-17 08:55:26)

damo · 2012-06-17 17:00:09

Ragnarok wrote:

GIMP makes it really hard to experiment with text when you can't edit it after cropping the layer >.> I can't get the alignment right if I don't crop it )

Just tried it in GIMP-2.8 - works fine for me. I even cropped out a letter, and I can still edit the text within the layer.

The text tool is vastly improved in 2.8, yay! (I'll have a go with 2.6 later)

PS A workaround is to have each letter/word on a separate layer with transparent background, then you can move them around independently. The alignment tool comes in handy then....

EDIT: I see what you are saying now - subsequent editing discards the changes made with other tools, although the text layer is still "editable". (Same in 2.6). The tip above still works though

Last edited by damo (2012-06-17 17:25:30)

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#1 2012-06-17 04:41:40

Ragnarok's GIMP Splash

#2 2012-06-17 05:22:25

Re: Ragnarok's GIMP Splash

#3 2012-06-17 07:57:31

Re: Ragnarok's GIMP Splash

#4 2012-06-17 08:00:04

Re: Ragnarok's GIMP Splash

#5 2012-06-17 08:03:32

Re: Ragnarok's GIMP Splash

#6 2012-06-17 17:00:09

Re: Ragnarok's GIMP Splash

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