Good morning everyone and welcome to my very first webgems tech blog post! Today I am going to quickly share a neat trick that I am using while making a promotional graphic image. I will be creating a text-border or outline around text in the graphic so as to make it stand out and look more prominent. Lets dive in!

Downloading Gimp

First we will be using a free graphical software package called Gimp. It is very similar to other graphics software like Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw. You can download Gimp here for Windows, Linux & Mac. I will be using gimp on Linux Mint 18 (Sarah).

Creating text-border outline

1. First, we will open our background image in gimp. Open gimp from the start menu and drag your background image into Gimp.

   

2. Next, select the text tool (shortcut T) and apply the text as required.

   

3. Notice how the text is a bit hard to read on that background. Lets make it more legible by applying a white border outline.

   

4. Highlight the text and right click. From the right-click menu select “Path from text”
5. Go to the menu and select Layer then New Layer. Make the layer transparent and give it a name.

   

6. Go to the menu and choose Select then From path. Your text will now be highlighted with ‘”marching ants”.
7. Now go to the menu choose Select again and then choose Grow. Choose how wide you want your border. I made mine here 2px.

   

8. Select the bucket tool (Shift+B). Choose the color your want for your outline. Use the bucket tool to fill the selected area.

   

   

9. De-select your selection. Ctrl+Shift+A or menu Select and None.
10. Now use the layer box (Ctrl+L) and move the layer with the outline down. You should now have a nice outlined text.