stinger bell! you know i love some stringer bell. i might jack that one.

even better. that one i will jack.

Create a layer below your text layer.

In your Layers palette, command-click (if you're on a PC, it'll be control or option or something, just experiment) on the thumbnail of our text layer. This should select the area of the text but in the new blank layer.

Choose Select > Modify > Expand and expand the selection by one pixel.

Fill with black.

I can read four of those.

It has become clear that we enjoy many of the same programs.
I am excited for the return of the program with the m.f. conspiracy.

I recommend that you stick to white-colored type. And turn off anti-aliasing for type that is 10pt or smaller only.

OTHERWISE I LOVE THEM

for leonard:

Edited at 2008-05-16 05:09 pm (UTC)

It's one of his two lines in the series. The other was, "he seemed nice."

I HOPE you saw the finale last night.

nice

Do you do these in PAINT?

have you thought about adding an outline to the text kind of like what those lolcat memes are doing?

I can do it in paint.net, not a clue if photoshop has that option available.

Dude these are awesome. How 'bout:

George Bush doesn't care about black puppets.

Cirsumvent the law.

I'll go get my tiny teddy.

Leonard, I made this for you:

MORE LEBOWSKI PLEASE.

.
.
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Please? I can't even imagine the context in which an icon about White Russians or pulling the room together would be in any way useful to any of my posts or comments, yet now I feel my life is diminished without one.

ROCK.

'Tis mine. Not that I have any clue how to properly make one, but I have any number of friends who do know how and who are desperate to diddle away the remaining hours of their Friday on anything but work. I should just pass out all the pictures of the boo making icon-worthy faces and issue a Lebowski icon challenge.

OK, so I'm going to be an asshole and repeat yesterday's advice, because it looks like you're making a lot of icons in which the text appears on a non-solid background, and this has been really helpful to me to know how to do. This time I'll actually explain what I'm talking about, though!

OK, so you have your text layer. Select that layer in the layers palette. (The little window at the side of the screen that details what is in each layer. If you don't have the layers palette open, go to "Windows" in the top bar and open it.)

Next go to the "Layers" option in the top bar. Scroll down to "Rasterize". This will make the text layer editable like any other layer.

Then go down to "Layer Style..." (I think that's what it's called. I'm typing this from a non-Photoshop computer because my Photoshop-having one is defunct.) You'll see the option "Drop Shadow". Click it.

That will bring you into a new screen. What this is going to do is, well, drop a shadow beneath the text, which has the effect of giving it a solid-color background to appear on. You can mess around with the settings in this drop shadow window, to make the shadow look the way you want it to.

Some tips: The drop shadow will start out at 75% opacity, several pixels' distance from the text, and on "multiply".

-The opacity is just what it sounds like -- the degree to which the shadow is opaque. If you don't want any of the image to show through the shadow at all, increase it to 100%; if you want it to be more transparent, bring the opacity down.

-The distance from the text means that the shadow looks more like a realistic "shadow", but if you're just trying to get the text to show up and nothing more, the distance can hinder this goal -- if the shadow is casting to the left, the right side of things won't show up against it.

-"Multiply" is a setting that essentially means that the shadow will darken the background it is on. This is good for white backgrounds. If you're trying to get something to show up on a dark background, you should switch "multiply" to "screen". That will make the background lighter.

-There is also an option to change the size of the shadow. The bigger you make the shadow, the more your "shadow" will look like just a big blotch -- but this can make the text show up better against a complicated background, too.

The rest of it you can figure out by experimenting.

A much, much simpler solution (but sometimes less effective) is to go to "Stroke" in the "Layer Style..." options. This will just put a border around your text, which can help to highlight it.

The icon I am using with this post shows the effect that an opaque drop shadow can have -- on the "cutest ever" part. That's a white shadow set to "screen"; the shadow's size is fairly large. (I also increased the "noise" on the shadow, which just means that it looks fuzzy and staticky at the edges instead of rounded.) The shadows are usually not that visible, but that's what it looks like at the extreme.



I believe that one uses a drop shadow too, but it's set to multiply, and it's smaller and more transparent. It just makes it a little more legible. That also uses the "stroke" feature.

Also I am not using these particular icons to advertise my pervy Carol Burnett/Julie Andrews fixation, but just because they were the best ones I had to demonstrate these two techniques.

Also also I am sorry if the "good intentions" part of this got lost in the "know-it-all asshole" shuffle. You can make me an icon telling me to fuck off if you want, heh.