Creating Engraved Text - using Gimp 2.6.10
Open Gimp and create a new document -white bg - 700x300 pixels in size. make it invisible.
Make sure your foreground color is black and background is set to white.
Create a new layer call it plate, and make it transparent.
Select the rectangular select tool, make sure rounded corners, antialiazing, and fixed SIZE are selected (tool options area)
Set rounded corners to 25 - set size to 575x225,
Drag your mouse across the transparent plate layer.A selection will appear, center it on the layer, and fill with this color 636363.
Go to Select/none to clear the selection.
Go to Filters/Noise/HSV Noise and put in these settings

Right click alpha to selection plate layer - Go to Filters/Distorts/Wind - put in these settings.

go to Select/none your image should look something like this now..

select plate layer right click alpha to selection - go to Layers/Layer Effects/Bevel and Emboss - put in these settings.

Now we have our steel plate....lets engrave it. =)
Make the bg layer visible again
Select the type tool - choose a font i used marlet Medium - type something on your plate - i typed Engraved Text - color the text black
Duplicate this layer color it 636363
make sure the gray layer is on top
move the gray type up and over 3 pixels
select the plate layer - go to Filters/Map/Bump Map - put in these settings

click ok
delete the type layers


You can add a shadow or whatever you like.

Done - hope you enjoyed the tutorial. =)

Nice tutorial. For some reason, my text looks like it's protruding instead of indenting. Checked my settings, same as yours. I chose marble for my plate.

It looks engraved to me!

Me too, its kind of an optical illusion really. =)
Its all in the eye of the beholder.

I should add also some folks do not have the bevel and emboss filter script, so try messing with FX Foundries layer effects instead.

You can also do it with 3 colors of the same text...another tutorial for another time i guess. =)

Excellent tutorial! I never used the Pillow Emboss before! I left the grayish text layer, lowered the opacity to 27 and set the layer mode to screen.

There are really so many possibilities with the Bevel and Emboss plugin.If you cant use the Python version, i recommend the SCM here.
http://registry.gimp.org/files/layerfx.scm

python version (must have python installed to work)
http://registry.gimp.org/files/layerfx.py

Just because it's 3:40 AM and I'm bored stiff i made your tutorial into a little E book. I attached it along with the question 'is this worth me doing more of or is it a useless waste of time'? I'll probably make more for me, and keep them on a file for times when I can't be online and if anyone finds them useful I'll attach more. Sorry i had to zip such a tiny file but the forum wouldn't let me send it as an exe

Thanks Gms9810. =)
You are as bad as me staying up all night.

BRAVO ROD!!! Nice TuT.

I sort of cheated and used the brushed aluminum for the background, then didn't like it so I messed with it like using all sorts of different filters on it...lol, it would have been faster and easier to just follow the tut for the metal plate.

Those are all real nice results folks! =)

It's time to visit (or revisit, as the case may be) some of the older tutorials.

There are many great ones here for sure Mike.

I'm slowly discovering old posts and I think it's great to keep some of those tutorials up front. I haven't seen this one before and it looks really good. The good thing about these is not so much what it is specifically about, but more the processes involved. You learn a lot about Gimp and its uses by following these.

Nice tut Rod! I especially like the low end settings for the brushed metal. Looks good and as they say, sometimes less is more. Layer Effects is one of my favorite sets of tools and is really GIMPS answer to some of the PS functions. Good job.

Here are a couple more of mine if your interested.
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=542&start=0&hilit=leather
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=321&start=0&hilit=realistic+gears+in+gimp

Always interested in learning new stuff. Thank you.

I try to take a daily dose.

The 'Gimp-pills' still look pretty big.