This text effect was created and tested with Paint Shop Pro 4.12

The Scratch Text Effect

Submitted by: Avenger

BallisTiC Software

1. Fire up Paint Shop Pro.
2. Click the New Image button
Background: White
Image type: 16.7 million colors
3. Select the color black (make sure it is the true black 0,0,0)

4. Click the text button. Click somewhere near the center of your image. Find a thick font. I used keyboard Font, but there are many others. Set the size to about 100.
5. Click on the colors menu... click Grey Scale.
6. Select the color white (255,255,255)
7. Click the Line tool. Width: 1. Draw quite a few lines over the text to resemble scratch marks.

8. (This step is completely optional) If you want part of the text to be covered by colors later, click the retouch tool.
Mode: Lighten
Size: 50 (approximately)
Shape: Round (doesn't really matter)
Opacity: 20
Texture: None
Apply this to an area that you want to be covered. Stop when the area appears slightly grey. It doesn't take much. Refer to the next pic to see what will happen. I applied this to the letter S.
9. Open the Selection menu, then click Select None. Or just push Shift + N
10. Open the Masks menu > New > Click From imgage...
Source Window: This Window
Create mask from: source luminance
Make sure "invert mask data" is NOT checked.
Click OK
11. Click Colors menu > Increase Color Depth > Click 16 million colors.
12. Select the Paint Brushes tool
Brush type: Normal
Size: 5
Shape: Round
Paper Texture: None
13. Now select a desired color to fill in the cracks (not black or white!)
14. Now, go over the crack carefully to fill them in. Try not to go outside of the letters. When going over any "lightened" area (as described in step 8) set the size to 2 or 1. Repeat for all letters. Varying the colors looks best. Try doing several shades of one color.

15. Select the Dropper tool, click on a crack with the color filled in (take advantage of the zoom feature to hit the cracks). Make sure that correct color comes up as your current color.
16. Now change to the Airbrush tool (spray can).
Size: 30
Shape: Round
Opacity: 30
Paper Texture: Marsh
Now go around the particular letter that you go the color from and fill in the space around it.
17. Repeat Steps 15 and 16 until all letters are done.
18. Click the image menu > Normal Filters > Sharpen.

Here's another one I did with shades of blue and purple...

Thank you for joining me on this tutorial. This tutorial is brought to you by BallisTiC Software.
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Please send comments to Avenger

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