In this tutorial, i will show you a technique how to make easy glossy text, without any complicated 'Lightning Effects' filter programming, and you will have full control over each step.

1. Write your text, i used the font 'Cairo' size: 205 color #1cc318
http://www.dafont.com/cairo.font



to make it more rounded, gaussian blur the text (i used 10) and then apply some curves to the alpha channel, until you get nicely rounded but sharp text



2. alpha select your text and save it as a path

3. For the inner shadow, create a new transparent layer over your text,
alpha select the text and invert the selection
fill the layer with a darker shadow of your text color (i used #052404)



deselect and gaussian blur your layer (i used 22)
alpha select your text again,



invert and then cut
deselect



set the mode to 'Multiply' and the opacity to 75%

4. For the gloss:
alpha select your text and shrink (i used a value of 4)
fill, on a new transparent layer with a whitish shade of light green (i used #ecfbeb)



deselect
go to your path tab and switch on your path
go to your move tool and set the mode to path
offset the path (i used 14 vertical and horizontical)




in the paths tab click 'Path to selection' and then delete (if your selected path overlaps your gloss, use the eraser instead, to only partially erase what you dont want)



deselect and turn off the path
gaussian blur the highlight (i used 5) and set the mode to 'Screen', turn down the opacity to 75%



finally we tune the gloss a bit:
go to Colors → Curves and set it on alpha, drag the curve so that you get a nicer gloss



....using different curves, gives you other effects. Experiment !



i applied a second gaussian blur (8 this time) to my text and this is the result


A revised pdf file of the tutorial is attached.

Very nice. Easy to follow. Great results. Just goes to show, sometimes less is more. This is a nice way to do a quick gloss.

Another nice job Esper

very nice tute Esper.

Nice tutorial Esper easy to follow as usual

Outstanding, Esper. Very nice! I added an attached pdf document of your tutorial in your first post.

i updated the tutorial to get rid of the mistakes i made

I tried it with a patterned bg. First I lightened the fill of the main letter with Colors > Hue & Saturation. Then darkened the Inner Shadow the same way. The gloss layer I lightened it several times using Hue & Saturation.

That is really cool "0"

Kinda reminds me of what happens when you roll up and form modeling clay. That pychedelic look, you know.

esper: you're like a tutorial machine right now . no way i'm going to get time for this in a while, but it's on the ever growing list.

nice results, everyone! O, that psychedelic "O" is simply delicious, i love it. looks a little like an intricate art bead.

thank you AnMal, but four tutorials hardly make me a tutorial machine

Thanks AnMal. I've been pondering that "O" wondering how I could make it look like cloisonné. It needs some gold on it and maybe flowers instead of a random pattern. Putting up some examples, not my work.

O: oh cloisonné beads! i love those. great idea to try and make some in gimp - i can feel the gears in my rusty brain moving ...

why is that molly ?
make sure you set your curves on alpha, the rest is really dragging the curve around until you get the sweet spot, where it looks good

your result looks lovely imo !

I liked it until I saw all the rest of them. I just can't get it as shiny as those. I have curves coming out my ears from messing around so long with it.

I added the one I did this afternoon.

im not sure im following...

did you omit the inner shadow on purpose ?

another way to make it shine more is instead of using the innershadow:
alpha to selection -> shrink -> fill with gloss color -> gaussian blur -> turn opacity down
as we did in the plastic text tut
http://gimpchat.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=5726

the curves thing is really just for tuning your gloss (making it a bit tighter) - its not necessary, except when you want the contours special effects look

I must have spent way too much time away from gimp...I feel like I am relearning stuff...someone please remind me how to save to a path please..

oops...should read save as path

finally had a chance to work on this...I really like learning how to do things manually. Then I understand scripts better that do a similar thing. I like the rounded 3-d look to this when you fill it with a pattern rather than a solid color.