This is a short tut on how to make a hatch filled font. Elaborate hachures were often found in old map titles and advertisements. Hachures are also the curly scribbly lines on maps to denote shadows of mountains or other relief features on maps or old stamps. Mostly this method was used before colour printing was commonly available.
Basically, A largish fat font is used so that the "hatch/ hachure" can be included within the outlines of the font. The font is stripped of the fill colour and the outline is used as a path or selection to stroke with Black or Colour. The selection is shrunk and is filled with parallel lines, either in black or in colour.
This method of embellishing a font is only good for titles or headings, a small letter will not be suitable.
1) Make a new image 800 X 600 (300 dpi) - if you intend to print your image later. sh01


2) Select a large fat font eg.Bodoni MT Heavy and type something, enlarge it as much as you like or what you can to fit as your title or caption. I centered my caption. sh02


3) Click on the text layer and select text to path. This will put a black filled path in the paths dialogue. If you open up the paths dialogue you can duplicate the path, make the path visible (a faint coloured line) if you click the eye. Make the path visible by clicking the eye. sh06


4) If later you want put in a drop shadow then you may want to duplicate the path. Do not make it visible. Otherwise do not do this step. sh08


5) Click on the text layer and select "Layer to Image Size". This makes the text layer the same size as your image. When you do this step the text information is lost and you will have a transparent layer with the black text and the faint coloured outline. sh13


6) Select the Text layer and do a Select by Colour on the black and cut the selection (Ctl-X). You should now have a white image with a faint outline and marching ants. The marching ants are the selection and the faint line is the path. If you now Select None , you will be left with a nice faint smooth outline . sh14 sh15


7) Stroke the path with a colour or black . This depends entirely on you. This tut will use coloured outlines and hatch, because it adds to the learning experience. If you prefer black then use black. This tut will use a sepia tone. I will use a stroke width of 4. You may want to use another thickness. It depends on the size of your message. You may want experience with the stroke width as each font needs different stroke widths. sh16


8) Turn off the path visibility (remove the eye)and select path to selection. Shrink The selection by 5 to 8 (depends on your font and message) sh17 sh18


9) At this stage you will have your latest colour and white or just black and white if you decided to stick with black and white.Now the shrunk selection will be filled with a striped pattern. The striped pattern is made with using a gradient in repeat triangular mode, adaptive supersampling. Turn on magnification to 400 and experiment to get your results. You need to have a very small stroke to make a nice ripple and it depends on your font and text. Turn off selection visibility to look at the result.(Ctl-T) Set angle control can be effected by using the Ctl key.sh19 sh20


10) You will notice that the white between the sepia is quite contaminated. You can eliminate this to some extent by altering the gradient . (duplicate the gradient and play with the sliders, more white)sh22


11) if you want to add a drop shadow now use the saved path in step 4 . (filters/light and shadow/drop shadow) sh24


You should end up with something like this in Black or your desired colour sh25


This is only an initial idea, you can add all sorts of additions. You can add flowery images behind, You can change the direction and thickness of the fill, add additional layers with grunge or colour, distress the gradient layer selection, run a second gradient at another angle to get a Cross Hatch fill, move the gradient layer to fake mis-registration. Instead of using the gradient method to fill, you could fill with patterns or brushes to get the effects you desire.
Dont take this too seriously, It is a guide not a test.
Pdf post #3

nice job he4rty, I haven't started it yet, but will PDF below.

Thank you so much wbool63 for your tut. Create a very nice text and I like it.
Molly thank you very much to do the tut in PDF. It's easier for me. Thanks

Thanks He4rty for trying it out , nice job.
Thanks Molly for the pdf file
Looking forward to see ing your result Issabella

Hi wooble, your tutorial was very well written. The only problem I had was the gradient one. I had my settings exactly like yours and the gradient just kept filling in the whole selection with color. I ended up using the diagonal striped pattern but then I couldn't get the coloring exact. Anyway, I am pleased with the results. Thank you.

I have to repeat it to take the point in the gradient. Anyway, I wanted to do a first go to it. I like the effect a lot. Thank you so much wbool63. You did a good tut.

Perhaps this one may be a little better. Please, your opinion would be appreciated.

Nice tutorial and an even better use of the blend tool.

Great tut WBool63, lots of ways to go with this idea. Here's my go at it.

He4rty, yours is perfect in my opinion, and the firs one to get it!
Good job! Wallace. Nice your favourite colour in your text.
Kellyman, your outcome is great! I love the colour of the your text.

Issabella , Great Job, The colour is nice, the fill is crisp and clear, the choice of font is good and I like the black drop shadow .
Wbool

Wallace, I sort of expected that colour combo from You . Great job , Thank you for trying.
Wbool

Kellyman , You have certainly taken it beyond the tut, It looks like recessed glass letters in a colourful wire frame. Very nice
Wbool

No problem. nice tut!

Molly, I apologise for the late reply . I have been trying to find why you had a problem with the gradient. You said it kept filling the selection with color. Did you mean one colour ? Could you somehow have wound up with the same colours in Foreground and Background , so there was no actual gradient. The only other way to fill the selection with one colour would be to accidentally use the bucket fill tool to fill the selection with one colour. You are an experienced Gimper, so I have problems thinking that either of these are the problem in your case. Perhaps there was a glitch in your Gimp?

Fact is, you were able to fill the selection with a pattern , so there was no problem with your selection. In any case filling the selection with a brush or pattern is a legitimate way to achieving a good result. And your result is very nice.

You are always one of the first to try tuts of members, Thank you for trying my tut and making the PDF of the tut!

Cheers Wbool

wbool63, thanks for your words. I'm happy with the final result. I'll use this kind of text in my photos albums, sure. Thanks again for sharing your great ideas!
Molly, your text is very good, I like it so much. Your frequency in lines is good with the pattern too

Thanks Wbool63 this is another variation I threw together.