Pink Poogle Toy Forum

There's probably a topic on this already, and if so, lock this, but how do I make a grid fade away around my text? I'm trying to make a new LJ Icon, and I have it pictured in my head, but I can't do it! Can anyone tell me how to do it?

Ok, I'd never done that before, but I experimented in PSP, and came up with this:

Start with four layers.

Put your background on the first layer
Put your grid on the second layer
Put your text on the third layer
Put your border on the fourth layer

Return to the third layer, select the text in it's entirety (use the rectangular selection tool to select a large area around the text, then click again so the selection goes down to just the text)

Once the text is selected, expand the selection by a few pixels.
Now feather the selection by a few pixels.
(play with both numbers, using anywhere from 2 to 6 pixels in either place to get different looks)

Keeping the area selected, go to the second layer (the one with the grid) and go to Edit > Cut. You can click Cut again to take off slightly more of the grid, or go back and play with the numbers.

Final result:



(It's a bit wonky, especially the text, but it's just an example)

Or you can just do it by hand (what I'm writting is for photoshop, so some things will be different if you are using psp)

1. Convert the grid layer to normal layer (create a blank layer under the grid layer and merge them together)
2. Take an eraser tool, lower the opacity to about 50-80% and carefully erase the area around the text.
3. Add a few more effects and you are done. =D

Hope that helps