In this Gimp tutorial we’ll create some neon glow effects in the form of neon lines and neon text, we will actually create two different types of neon in this tutorial.

FINAL IMAGE PREVIEW

This is what we will be creating:

Step 1

When making neon text the font is very important, you want a round, and somewhat bold font. The font I used is a Ray Larabie font called Spongy. It can be found either on 1001fonts.com or on MyFonts.com. (on MyFonts.com you can’t just download it, you actually have to purchase the TTF version for 0.00 dollars.)

Step 2

Create a new image with a black background, size 600×375.

Set your FG color to white, then select the Text tool, set the size to 200 and write “Gimp” in the middle of the image.

Step 3

Click on Path from Text. (if the button is grayed out, you have to doubleclick on the text layer in the layer dialog first).

After you’ve done that you don’t need the text layer any more so just delete it.

Step 4

Doubleclick on the path in the Paths Dialog so it becomes active, then click on Selection from Path. This will give us a selection of the text.

Step 5

Create a new layer and name it “outer glow”.
We need to make the selection larger, so grow it by 5. (Select->Grow).

Now set your FG color to 5bff00. (bright green).
Use the Bucket Fill tool to fill the selection.

Get rid of the selection. Select->None.
Next, Gaussian blur the layer by 25. (Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur).

Lower the opacity of that layer to 75.

Step 6

Create a new layer and name it “tube”.
Repeat step 4 to get a selection of the text. (basically just doubleclick on the path, then click on Selection from Path.)

Fill that selection with white (ffffff).

Get rid of the selection. Select->None.
Now Gaussian blur it by 2. (Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur)

After that, reduce the opacity of the layer to 75.

Step 7

Create a new layer and name it “inner glow”.
Repeat step 4 to get a selection of the text.

Fill the selection with that bright green we used earlier. (5bff00).

Shrink the selection by 3. (Select->Shrink)

Next, feather the selection by 5. (Select->Feather).

Now hit the “delete” button on your keyboard.
Our image should look like this now:

Now get rid of the selection. Select->None.
Then give the layer an ordinary blur. (Filters->Blur->Blur).
It should look like this now:

Step 8

Now we’re going to create that line underneath the text. Create a new layer and name it “line selection”.
We’re going to create a path consisting of two components, or in other words, a path that is not one continuous line, but two separated lines.

So select the Path tool, and create a path somewhat like in the image below:

To create the other component on the path we hold in Shift, and click just to the right of the “p” in “Gimp”, this will create the starting point of the new component:

Now let go of Shift and create the rest of the path normally:

Click on Stroke Path.
Set the line width to 10px, and cap style should be set to rounded.

We should have this now:

Step 9

Choose the Fuzzy Select tool (looks like a magic wand), hold in Shift and click once on each of the two line components, this will create a selection of our line:

Because of some strange way Gimp handles anti aliasing, we have to do a strange workaround to avoid getting jagged edges on our line:

First, go to Select->To Path. This will transform or selection into a path.
Next, get rid of the current selection, Select->None.

Then doubleclick on the path called “Selection” in the Paths Dialog so it becomes active, then click on Selection from Path.

Now we have a selection that is properly anti aliased, in other words a selection that will give us smooth edges:

Step 10

Delete the layer called “line selection”.

Now that we have a selection to work with, we’re going to do the same as we did when we made the text. So create a new layer and name it “line outer glow”.

Grow the selection by 5. Select->Grow.
Then fill the selection with that green color.

Now get rid of the selection, Select->None.
Next, Gaussian blur it by 25. (Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur), and lower the opacity of the layer to 75.

Step 11

Create a new layer and name it “line tube”.

Get the selection from the path by doubleclicking on the path called “Selection” in the Paths Dialog, then click on Selection from Path.

Fill the selection with white, then get rid of the selection. (Select->None.)

Next, Gaussian blur it by 2, and also reduce the opacity of the layer to 75.

Step 12

Create a new layer and name it “line inner glow”.

Get the selection from our path. (Doubleclick on the path called “Selection” in the Paths Dialog, then click on Selection from Path.)

Fill the selection with green.
Shrink the selection by 3. (Select->Shrink)
Then feather the selection by 5. (Select->Feather)
Hit the “delete” button on your keyboard.

It should look like this now:

Get rid of the selection. (Select->None).
Then give the layer an ordinary blur. (Filters->Blur->Blur).

Our first type of neon is finally finished:

Step 13

So how do we make the other type of neon?
Easy, just make the layers called “tube” and “line tube” invisible by clicking on the eye next to them in the Layer Dialog.

The result is this:

That’s it, the end of the tutorial, for the final image I placed both types of neon text next to each other: