Neon signs with Paint Shop Pro

Paint Shop Pro text effect (Version 5 and above)

Making neon signs in PSP is quite easy. However, the final effect depends a lot on the font selected and the color used. Here we use the standard neon pink and a font called "Las Vegas". You can find the font at www.fontmagic.com. (This link will open another browser window).

Step 1
Start Paint Shop Pro and open a new image 300 X 150 pixels with transparent background.

Step 2
Using the fill tool , color the background black (R=0, G=0, B=0 or #000000).

Step 3
Now add a new layer by clicking on Layer - New Layer. Name this layer glow and click "OK".

Step 4
Make pink as your foreground color (R=255, G=0, B=255 or #FF00FF) and black as background.

Step 5
Select the text tool , and click on the image.
From the fonts selection list, pick out Las Vegas or any similar font. (I've assumed that you have downloaded Las Vegas and installed in on your system)
Set the size to 72 and style to bold. Type your text and click "OK".
Your image should look something like the one below

Step 6
Interchange your foreground and background colors by clicking on the small arrows in the color palette so that your foreground color turns black and background becomes pink.

Step 7
Use the Chisel effect (Image - Effects - Chisel...) and in the pop up window selected "Background color" and set size to 10. Click "OK" to continue.

Step 8
Your image now looks something like

Deselect the image using the key combination Control - D. (you can alternatively click on Selections - Select none).

Step 9
Apply the Gaussian Blur filter (Image - Blur - gaussian blur...) and set the radius to 3.00.
Click on "Ok".

Step 10
Add another layer and name it top.
Change your foreground color to light pink (R=255, G=192, B=255 or #FFC0FF) and using the text tool , put the same text with the same style (refer step 5 above) once again on the image.
Place the new text right on top of the old.
Click on Selections - Modify - Contract and put 3 in the "Number of pixels" box. Click "Ok"
Click Selections - Invert then click Edit - Cut (or alternatively use Control - X key combination).
Align the text if required so that it is directly on top of the blurred text.
Deselect the image.

Here is the result: