Etched text on scratched metal background

[BarrySumpter]

Hi all,

I've got a scrarched metal background.
I'd like to place text on the background that looks like its been etched in or chiseled in.
Anyone have a technique for LiveCode?

I thought I had addressed this topic before but can't find the post.

tia

[FourthWorld]

You may find some good results playing with the options in the Graphic Effects pane of the Inspector.

[BarrySumpter]

Hi Richard,
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Much appreciated.

I did have a play around with all those misterious setting but nothing jumped out.

Took a break mowing the lawn.
Remembered a technique in VB.
Copy n paste the Label.
Change the new label font color to white.
Move new label order (zOrder) behind the original label.
Move new label down 1 pixal position from the original label position.
Adjust fonts, colors and positions as needed.

[FourthWorld]

I think the key is to set the foreColor of the field to a mid-gray, somewhere in the range that looks similar to the dominant gray in the metal background. After that I just clicked the "Inner Shadow" option in Graphic Effects and it looked pretty good with the default values. Fine-tuning those controls for Inner Shadow, possibly also with Inner Glow, may get you exactly what you want with a little experimentation.

[BarrySumpter]

Yes!
Nice, that works as well.
Many thanks.

If anyone else has a technique please post here.

tia

[sturgis]

Its not an lc thing but you could probably get some smashing affects using blender3d or gimp or another external program. When I can get it to work right I LOVE blender, then theres the rest of the time when the complexity just gives me headaches.

Found an interesting gimp tutorial here. http://www.freshpage.co.uk/inset-typogr ... -with-gimp

If you want your fields to look inset also you could probably use the same techniques to inset simple rectangles where you want them then plop your fields in those locations.

[BarrySumpter]

Hi Sturgis,

Thanks for that.

I use Xara for my vector graphics like the button.
I've posted the how too for the button here somewhere.
It ain't free and its like learning livecode after being a developer for 30 years.

Using exteral graphics apps list Xara is for building static images.
(in this context anyway. explained below)

I was hoping I could change the text content kind of on the fly.
So doing it in LiveCode is where I'm coming from at the moment anyway.

It's always a pleasure reading your posts.
Thanks again.

[BarrySumpter]

I'm sure it's me.
But viewing the graphics on a 22" screen
compared to the HD2 4.3" screen
looks so different.