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This is a nice effect like the glow of neon-tubes.. And it's easily done..
1. Take a 16,7 M color picture with white foreground
and black background..
2. Type a text, which individual character width
is large enough. DO NOT RELEASE THE SELECTION...
click on the thumbnail for larger rendition of this example.
3. Invert the selection using SELECTION/invert selection
4. Modify the Feathervalue of the selection to 40.. in the menu Selections/Modify feather.
If the complete image is selected, the feathervalue is too large. Try something smaller..
The new selection should be inside the text, approx. in the middle...
When using a smaller more 'thin' font, the feather needs to be smaller, try 10 or 15.
Note: I had to use feather value of 6 for Arial Bold. When working with the smaller file sizes
required for the web, you can't use a font large enough to feather the selection to 40. lbc
5. Copy and paste the selection to a new image, like Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V (I love keys!)
Choose SOFTEN MORE, and
6. Go to the Colors/Adjust color/Highlight-Midtone-Shadow section..
Set Highlight to 30, Midtone to 60, and Shadow to 0. If you like a less GLOWIE-THING,
set highlight and midtone to a lower value. Try decreasing them with steps of 10, and
see which one you like..
7. Select SOFTEN MORE once again, because the highlighting nearly vanished our soft effect
from 6. The "soften-more" from 6 was necressary to get thicker lines to do our highlighting
correctly...
Note: I also found that with the smaller font sizes, you can get a cleaner image if you use
soften as opposed to soften more. lbc
8. Final PHASE: Select your favorite GLOW-color out of the 16,7 M pallette by pressing
the color-boxes or choose Edit palette. Remember the HUE and SAT value, and type them
in the COLORIZE dialogbox. This avoids endless seeking for the right color...
I've used 24 and 204 which gives ORANGE, and also nice is, 160 and 240 which is BLUE.
9. Sharpen More and save.
Last tip: You can still make your neon-tubes shine brighter (if you like) .. Just follow the steps for the GLOWIE-THING at 6. Choosing 30 and 60 again, will even hurt your eyes !!! :) BRIGHT LIGHT! BRIGHT LIGHT!! (From the movie Gremlins I) ;)
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