Outlining Text in GIMP

[thestudent]

This is simple and probably noobish for you guys, but I had a hard time figuring out how to do this for a while, and couldn't find an online tutorial for it, so I thought I'd share what I learned:

If you want, say, white text with a black outline (on a blue background, perhaps):

1. Create your text, using white for the font color (just for this tutorial). From the tool options, click the 'Path from Text' button. (This creates a path that outlines the text.

2. Create a new transparent layer called 'Outline'.

3. From the menu bar, choose 'Select... From Path'. (This selects an outline of the text on the new 'Outline' layer.)

4. From the menu bar, choose 'Select... Grow'. Set the growth to 3 pixels. (This expands the selection in all directions by 3 pixels. Adjust as you see fit.)

5. Using the Fill tool, with black as the color, fill in the selection on the transparent 'Outline' layer.

6. Move the 'Outline' layer behind your text layer. Choose 'Select... None'. Then you can anchor the text layer down onto the outline.

You're done! Congrats!

Like I said...simple, but it works, and once you get the idea, you can find other applications for it.