How To Create Drop Shadow Effect on GIMP

This tutorial is from Matt Cutts himself found here. It’s unfortunate though that the tutorial presented there are for GIMP Ver. 054. Pretty old version. This little tutorial is a little more up to date using the latest version. As of this writing it’s Ver. 2.2.17

A little Intro

GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Like any other Open Source application, GIMP is a free. It is robust, powerful program for painting, image processing, and manipulating pictures.

It tries to complete with Adobe’s Photoshop in very obvious functions. If you enjoy using Adobe’s Photoshop ® program you’ll love the GIMP. The GIMP is a project of Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Tutorial

Alright, let’s get into it. We will be needing a sample image.

Open it up in a new layer and let’s start.

First thing to do is to create a new layer initially on top of the image. We will be creating the shadow effect there.
You create a new layer by clicking the blank piece of paper on the corner left bottom part of the Layers, Channel, Paths window. Or right click on the existing layer and click ‘New Layer’. As shown below.

New Layer window will appear. Make the layer transparent.

Right click the ‘image’ layer and select ‘Alpha Selection’. This will select the outline of the image.

Now, select the new layer (i assume you named it ‘shadow’). Now drag the black color from the color pallete to the new layer. This will fill the selection with color black. This will become the shadow of our image.

Key in ‘Ctrl+Shift+a’ to deselect everything. With the shadow layer still active, let’s apply the Gaussian Blur effect on the black image. (Click the image below for bigger)

Play around with the setting until you’re happy with the amount of shadow.

Drag the ‘shadow’ layer below the ‘image’ layer

Now, using the ‘Select’ tool, move the shadow layer a few pixels down and right till the effect of a shadow is obvious. Don’t forget to select the ‘Move the current layer

And here is the final piece!! Nice eh?

Alright, we’re done!

Download GIMP and try it! Enjoy!