If you click on any number of pages listed in my menu, you will probably see labels. Labels that look something like this:
They were quite easy to make, so I thought today it might be fun to show you how I did it.
First, I use Paint Shop Pro 8 to make these. If you don’t have your own program and don’t want to pay for one (I managed to get a free copy while I was in college), Gimp is pretty good and it’s free (I hate their website, though–it looks like a giant ad). If you want to try Paint Shop Pro 8, you can download a free trial of it. If you don’t know how to use Gimp, there are many tutorials. I will be giving instructions for PSP8, since I have never used Gimp and don’t know how to do anything in it. Keep that in mind if you’re looking at my directions and then going to Gimp and saying, “I don’t see that here.” The programs are quite different, but if you can figure out how to use Gimp then you can translate this to use it there.
Now, on to the tutorial!
Step 01: First, make a new image that is 300 x 50 pixels. To do this the easy way, you can click CTRL+N in Windows (if you have a Mac, you’re on your own, sorry). Or you can just go to File –> New. A box should open. So you set width to 300 and height to 50. Make sure the drop-down box under “Units” says “Pixels.” Under Image Characteristics, look beside Color. Mine is white, so I unchecked the box next to “Transparent” and clicked the box with the color in it to set it to white. Your settings should look like this:
Click “OK” and you should have this:
Step 02: Now, do that first step over again but change the color to #6E6460, or whatever your color is. Ideally, you’re not copying mine exactly. (The option to use the hex code would be beside “HTML.”)
Step 03: As you can see, my text isn’t in one color. I used a texture for that effect. The texture I used is actually a background that WordPress has saved for the theme I’m using (though you need a paid account in order to use it on this theme–otherwise, it’s white). If you have a texture in mind that you want to use, open it in PSP8. If you don’t have one yet, there are plenty out there if you do a Google search (just remember to credit the person who made it). Or you can do a solid color, if you prefer. So mine is now open.
Step 04: Now the word begins. Go to you Color Swatches, which should be on the upper right part of the screen.
You can see that I have two colors there. The bottom one is grey (for some reason) and the other is the brownish-color that I used for my second image. Make the top one (the brownish-color) transparent. To do this, you just click the transparency icon directly underneath the color–the one that is a circle with a line in it.
That color is hidden now, which is important.
Now click the grey color. A box should have appeared. Click on the tab that says “Pattern.”
It will take you to a tab with many preset patterns plus the one you currently have open. Click on the drop-down arrow and find your pattern (it should be close to the top).
Once you have selected your pattern, click “OK.”
You can also minimize the pattern you opened, by the way. I find it makes working so much easier if I have fewer things sitting in front of me.
Step 05: Now, we do text! Go to the menu that is trailing down the left side of the program and click on the text icon.
At the top of the program, you can change your font, size, etc. My font is called DazzlingDivas (for new free fonts, go to dafont.com) and my font size is set to 36 px. Make sure “Anti-Alias” is checked and that the drop-down menu under “Create As” says “Floating.”
Click anywhere on the darker image and a text box should appear. Type whatever you want and click “Apply.”
By hovering over your text, a cursor will appear. That means you can click and drag your text to move it anywhere on the image. So do that. I just center mine as well as I can. You will also notice all the shimmering lines moving around your text. That exists because you created a “floating selection.” You can de-float it by pressing CTRL+D, but I don’t recommend that. It’s important to float for this next part.
Step 06: With your text centered and still floating, go to the top menu and click Selections –> Modify –> Expand.
Another text box will appear saying that you must defloat the image. I know, this seems weird. Just click “OK” and it will defloat the image for a second while you make the change, but then afterwards it will be magically floating again. Whatever.
The important box should open now. All you will change here is the number of pixels. I keep mine at “1” for this.
Change yours to whatever you want and click OK. What this does is outline your text. The bigger the number, the bigger the outline.
Step 07: Your floating image should still be intact, but it will now have a line around it. You might not be able to see it, though, because the line is the color of the background. Copy this text by pressing CTRL+C and then click on your white image and press CTRL+L. What this does is it pastes what you copied as a new layer, which should subsequently center the text for you.
You are now finished! If you want, you can add extra features like a drop-shadow (Effects –> 3D Effects –> Drop Shadow), but I’m pretty happy with what I have. Therefore, I’m going to merge my layers.
To merge, go to Layers –> Merge –> Merge All (Flatten).
The program will merge the image and you can now save and upload it. This is mine:
It’s not exactly the same as the original. The one I posted at the top of this page is the one I’m actually using. For that one, I used a smaller font size and the text is bold. But they’re pretty close.
I know this tutorial was really long, but the process is very easy and very quick once you know what to do. 🙂