NaArMaMo, day 06 AND offer of fic

[mistraltoes]

For day six, I made my very first proper icon. I mean, with borders and text; the most I'd ever done before was resize a chunk of jpg.

Comments

[entropy_house]

There are all sorts of things you could do in Photoshop to make the words more distinct. I've got to get ready to go out, so just off the top of my head, you can use a one-pixel black 'stroke' around the letters, you can select a box on the background larger than the letters & lighten it (various ways, brightness & contrast is a quick one), you can use the 'difference' blend mode on the letters, which should change the color depending on the color underneath.

Ok, now my fic request. Blakes Seven, Avon & Dayna , Sentence 'I thought you had turned it off!' and a small, green frog.

[mistraltoes]

Thank you! I'll try those--at least whichever ones are available in the version I've got, which is only Elements.

Blakes Seven, Avon & Dayna , Sentence 'I thought you had turned it off!' and a small, green frog.

Oh. Dear. ::cackles evilly::

[kerr_avon]

Ok, I've also got an old version of Elements for Mac myself. In mine you can't do a stroke by itself or a drop shadow, or any of the bits that make up a style by itself, but you *can* try applying the given styles to the text layer & see if any of them give an effect that you like.

The other two suggestions I *think* are possible in Elements. I've not used it much lately, so I'm not sure.

Another thing you could try if all else fails is to duplicate the text layer, change the color to something contrasting and nudge it slightly so it shows as a shadow/ highlight beneath the original text.

Or duplicate the text layer, change to a contrasting color and increase the font size slightly. I *believe* you can put in a custom size- try making it a pixel larger than the original.

****

I'm looking forward to the frog. *giggle*

[mistraltoes]

Okay, I'll try all those. This is fun, everyone's suggestions are so varied. :)

I'm looking forward to the frog. *giggle*

Be careful what you wish for...

[izhilzha]

Oooo, fic. :-)

Numb3rs, Larry and Alan, "That was...unexpected," and an origami crane.

[mistraltoes]

How amusing--I'm seeing origami everywhere this week. Okay, your wish=my attempt. Not sure I can do Alan, but I'll try.

[izhilzha]

Not sure I can do Alan, but I'll try.

I didn't give you Alan to make it *easy* on you, you know. :-D But I have every confidence in you!

[mistraltoes]

::sigh:: I'm glad somebody does. Though how long it will last after this is a mystery...

[kerravonsen]

I use GIMP rather than photoshop, but many techniques are probably common

[rahirah]

Blur in Photoshop is under the Filters menu (and then pick whichever of the several blur types you like.)

Drop shadow is accessed by double-clicking on a layer in the Layers palette, and then checking off "drop shadow" from the ticky boxes on the left. (There are many other interesting ticky box options.)

[mistraltoes]

Ah, the GIMP. I did have that, but when the hard drive died, it went bye-bye; I could never get the new build to work on this computer. Not that I ever did anything useful with it, but it was fun to play with.

I'll try your suggestions and see which ones I can make work. Thanks a bunch! I'm beginning to think I might be able to get somewhere with graphics at last.

Now... ficlet request!

::headdesk:: Okay... I like both requests, but let me point out that if you give me characters I've never written, your chance of having the fic turn out well are... significantly diminished. Anyway. I shall do both of them, but I only promise to do one of them during NaArMaMo. Probably the Who, and then I'll use the other one for my Labyrinth fanfic100. Okay?

[kerravonsen]

I like both requests, but let me point out that if you give me characters I've never written, your chance of having the fic turn out well are... significantly diminished.

Well, you don't have to do either one, you know.

and then I'll use the other one for my Labyrinth fanfic100

I thought you might.

[rahirah]

There is an easier way to make a border--use ctrl-A to select the entire layer, and then use the Stroke command under the Edit menu. It lets you select pixel width and whether you want the border inside or outside the selected area. (In this case, inside.) You won't have problems with odd-pixeled edges that way.

[rahirah]

Although now I re-read, I'm not sure if those options are available in Elements or not; I've only used the full program.

[mistraltoes]

It's still good to know that method, though, even if it's not in Elements (I haven't checked yet). If I ever wind up being able to use Elements effectively, I may spring for a copy of the full thing on eBay. And I appreciate the help, I really do.

[vilakins]

That's excellent for a first icon. I had to get snowgrouse to fix mine. What I did in PSE2 (the cheapo version of Photoshop) was to crop the icon, then scale it 2 (or 4) pixels less on each side than what I wanted. Then I'd set the background colour and change the canvas size to 100 x 100, centering the image.

Ooh, requests! Right, B7, Vila, Jarriere, "That was no' what I meant!" and a tartan pair of underpants.

[mistraltoes]

Thanks! I'm using PSE2 as well. I have some other graphics programs that I bought on clearance, but since I know several people with Photoshop, I thought I'd try it first. I'll try your method.

Vila, Jarriere, "That was no' what I meant!" and a tartan pair of underpants.

LOL! ::headdesk:: Ummm... okay. :)

[vilakins]

[evil grin]