3d text effect in inkscape

3D Text in Inkscape

Spurred on by Nicu’s challenge on my reflective text tutorial to recreate the same effect using inkscape, i have come up with a simple procedure to create the 3D effect to text, that the bevel edges or bump map might do when using the GIMP.

So here goes:

Step One:
Write the text on the screen, set the font, position it and all that jazz.

Step Two:
Convert the text to a path.
This is done by selecting the text object, and choosing from the Menus:
Path > Object to Path.

Step Three:
I used layers when i made it because it made life a lot easier for myself.

to view the layers dialog box choose:
layer > layers…
from the menus

The current layer, i renamed to text.

Then i made 2 layers above them: being light and dark (these will be the shadows on top of the text that will create the beveled effect.)

Step Four:
Back in the text layer…

I selected the text object, and right clicked, and chose Duplicate
with that still selected, i went up to the menus and chose:

layer > move selection to layer above

then repeated this again, so i have a duplicate of the text path in each of my three layers.

Step Five:
Okay, now choose the light layer.

duplicate the text object again, and change it to a different, random colour. (it can be anything it does not matter…)

now, choose one of the objects, and move it down and right an even increment both ways. (i did this by using the arrow keys to move the object - if you do this you may need to change the amount it moves with the arrow keys in File > Inkscape Prefs)

Once you have done this, select both the text objects in the layer and choose:

Path > Difference

Now, repeat this with the dark layer, but when you move the object with the arrow keys, move it up and to your left rather than down and to the right.

Step Six:

Colour the path in the dark layer black, and the light layer white.

Then adjust the blur and transparencies of the light and dark bevely objects till your happy…

Step Seven:

I played around with relections and backgrounds:

This Tutorial is:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License

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