Recently I had a pm asking me about my Faux 3D plug-in and why it was not working with a text layer. I explained that the plug-in would only work with custom font files.

There is, of course, a way to get the filter to work with ordinary text layers - not exactly a cheat mode. Why you would want to do this is another question.

Here are the steps to do this.



Use the text tool to add a caption to a new Gimp image as a text layer:



Duplicate the text layer:

Merge the two layers to create a normal gimp layer:



Alpha select the outline of the text by holding down the Alt key and clicking on the layer icon in the Layers Tab.

Fill the selection with a gradient or pattern:



Remove the selection from the Select menu:

Select>>None

Rename the layer in the style of custom font file layers - eg A.png

Now you can use the image with the Custom Font Faux 3D.

Link to Faux 3D plug-in on GimpLearn

Open the plug-in and choose the options that you require. Click on OK and that's it.