GIMP Version: 2.6.11
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

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Hello,
Some of you have seen the manipulation I've been working on in my post about making a glass window look realistic. Thank you all for helping me with that! Now I'm adding text, and I have a few questions about it. I'm trying to achieve a nice, fancy yet readable text that glows. I am horrible at text by the way! Basically I know how to type it in the box and change the color. Oh, and I can change fonts... Anyhow, I really would appreciate any tips on making cool text!

Also, I heard from someone once about a site called dafont.com. I guess you download fonts then you can use them on GIMP. I wondered how you use this, and if this doesn't work on GIMP (I have version 2.6.11), is there a tool/site I can use instead to get better fonts?

Below is what I have currently, tell me what you think, and what I can do to make it better! Any font suggestions...?

i think the text looks good the way it is !

maybe it would look cool if you applied the same perspective as the rest of the picture but i dont know how to do that in Gimp
Wallace probably does

you can get glowing text by applying an outer glow
just duplicate your text layer and blur the lower one
you can use it just a tiny bit (5) or a lot (30), depending on how strong you want your glow
then you change the mode to something like 'Screen' (for light colors) or maybe 'Grain Merge'
and reduce the opacity to make it subtle


when you download fonts, mostly you have to unzip them, then put the .ttf or .otf file in your fonts folder
restart Gimp or refresh fonts if you have that

The text to me looks okay but a little harsh. It needs a slight blur to soften it up a little.
Or try some of the different layer modes on the text layer.

Ok, thanks guys! I will blur it slightly as you both suggested.

When you say 'unzip' Esper, what do you mean?

I didnt suggest to blur, i suggested making an outer glow
so its the lower duplicate that is blurred, the original text stays the way it is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_(file_format)

you can open such archives with a program like win.rar or 7zip (google it)

Goodness! That wikipedia article was Greek to me!

If you use windows and download a font file it will usually be compressed (zipped to make it smaller size).
Download 7zip a windows unzipper. - http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
Install it and when you download a zipped font right click the font you downloaded and select extract here.
There will be either a OTF (open type font) file or a TTF (true type font ) file or BOTH.
Right click each one or select both with the left mouse button and right click and choose install.
Delete the files you downloaded and unzipped or if you are like me and hoard everything keep the zipped ones in a separate folder somewhere.

When you download fonts from dafont.com or any other font website, most of the time the files are contained within whats called a compressed zip folder.

I think the text could be a bit smaller. It overpoweres the imagery a bit, makes it look a bit top-heavy. The font is nice.
I might Capitalize Dance, so the D has the flourishes of the Caps for that font. I think it would look more prominent and ornate.

Your reflections need a bit of work, however. From this perspective you need to ad reflections from the other dancers, and the railing too, to complete the illusion. Maybe add a fake reflection for the back of the room as well, since (can just be white to transparent gradients.

You might even play with a reflection in the glass for the text as well. That would fit nicely into the scene without overpowering.

One other to try; remove the quotation marks. The T will look much better and your eyes will focus more on dance without being distracted by the black closing mark. If you'd like to keep the quotes I'd suggest hanging them.

For me:

• The pink for "Dance" makes it less visible that the rest of the text, due to the pink tones in the sky. I don't see much point in the change of color and size, since given the rest of the picture, the important word is rather obvious. At best I would give it an uppercase "D" as suggested.
• "Dance" is also a couple of pixels above the baseline of the rest of the line.
• The double quotes aren't necessary unless you add the author's name.

Don't try t be too fancy; if the text is too ornate, it becomes the whole image and should fly alone.

I will remove the quotations, thank you Odinbc.

I found a smaller font I like better, so I will change that out, and shrink the size. I still can't make it glow though!

Yes! I downloaded a font from dafont and it worked! Thanks for your help.

@ofnuts
That helped a ton, thanks so much for taking the time to rate the manipulation and help me out!