Newsgroups:  gmane.comp.video.image-magick.user
Date:        Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:14:54 +1000

| I'm trying to tweak Anthony's helpful Text to Image Handling Examples to
| create a glowing effect, character strokes are as if glowing in the dark,
| like the neon-lights.

That is simple. First a black (or dark) background is needed.

Second a 'soft outline blur' compound font is used of the same color rather than a different color!

http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/fonts/#soft_outline

With the right font it sould come out quite good.

For example…

convert -fill dodgerblue -background black -font Anaconda -pointsize 72 \
         label:' I M  Examples ' -bordercolor black -border 30x30 \
         \( +clone -blur 0x25 -evaluate multiply 2 \) \
         -compose screen -composite    neon_sign.gif

This has been added to IM Examples, Compound Fonts, Advanced… http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/fonts/#advanced

With more work you can even do some shading on the base font itself to make it look more 'tube' like, or rather than use -multiply, you could layer two or more blurs of different sizes to produce a more realistic effect.

Of course the result is idealised, and you may need to add some 'unlit tubes' to connect up the individul letters.

Alturnativally. you can find GIF animated letters of flashing neon tubes. This could be appended together, and may give be the oppunity to actually write 'animated append' for the simple case of animates that are time syncronized. (the next example I need to write!)

| But I realize that it might be too ambitious to me.

Not at all.

| So I lower my anticipation to achieve something like what real camera
| imprint date onto the films, not digital camera imprint date on
| pictures -- the difference is the glowing effect. But looking at my
| result, I guess I've failed this also. :-)

Nope. though to overlay on images, you whate to invert the 'glow' to make the text standout.

An example of this is the very last IM Examples on the annotation page… http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/annotating/#practical

 | Hope that it can be done so that my annotated photos would look superb. :-)
 |
I hoep so to.. This is what Im is all about.

| BTW, here is how I did,
|
|   bg=aquamarine4
|   fg=green4
|   wd="Neon Title or glowing date/time"
|   fs=12
|
|   convert -size 320x100 xc:DeepSkyBlue4 -font Candice -pointsize $fs -fill $fg -gravity center -annotate 0x20+0+0 "$wd" font_outline_soft-$fg.$bg.$fs.jpg
|
|   convert -size 320x100 xc:DeepSkyBlue4 -font Candice -pointsize $fs -gravity center -annotate 0x20+0+0 "$wd" -blur 0x3 -fill $fg -annotate 0x20+0+0 "$wd" font_outline_soft-$fg.$bg.$fs.jpg

Not bad, though the colors are a bit glary, and you should use a thinner font.

The problem is a thin font produces very little outline effects. that can be solved by using a thick stroke for the outline parts, See Denser Soft outline font… http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/fonts/#denser_soft_outline OR by useing a fast evaluate to increase the results of the blur as was done in the annotation example.

The trickyness is that you create the font on a transparent canvas, and only when you are finished do you actually overlay it on the image.

Anthony Thyssen