This is a very simple and easy way to make a woodcut using a decorative font to give the effect of carved wood. This tutorial is designed for Paint Shop Pro and ultilizes the cutout and drop shadow effects. To get started you will need to download the font that I am using as an example.

Click on the link at the left for Sassy Rose's decorative fonts. Click on Dingbats. Select the Indian Designs font and download the zipped file. Unzip the file to your windows font folder.

Pattern 1

Pattern 2

Next right click on each of the wood pattern graphics at the left and save picture to My Documents on your hard drive.

Step 1: Open your PSP. Go to File and cick on New. Set your new image dialog box to width 300, height 300, background color white, 16 million colors. Click ok. Open the two woodpatterns in your PSP and minimize them to the bottom of your screen. Click on the Paint Can and open the tool box. Select Pattern and highlight woodpattern1. Flood Fill your image with that pattern.

Step 2: Click on the Text tool and place the cursor where you want your font to appear and click to open the Text Dialog box. The entries for the Text Dialog box should be set as follows: font name Indian Designs, font size 200, create as: selection and antialias should be checked. Type the upper case letter L in the text box and you should have your selection. Click ok. Click on the Paint Can and open the tool box. Select Pattern and highlight woodpattern6. Flood Fill your font design by clicking on one of the pie shapes in the selected design. DO NOT DESELECT YOUR FONT DESIGN. The font design will stay selected throughout this tutorial. Your image should look like the one below.


Step 3: Click on Images to open the Images pull down menu. Click on Effects to open the Effects pull down menu. Click on Cutout to open the Cutout dialog box. Type in these settings in your Cutout dialog box: Shadow Color black, Opacity 60, Blur 2.4, Vertical 2, Horizontal 2 and click ok. Remember your design is still selected.

Step 4: Click on Images once again. Click on Effects to open the Effects pull down menu. Click on Drop Shadow to open the Drop Shadow dialog box. Type in these settings in your Drop Shadow dialog box: Shadow Color black, Opacity 50, Blur 12, Vertical 6, Horizontal 6 and click ok. Your image should now look like the one below.


If you are using PSP 5 and only want a carved wood design, you are finished and can deselect your design now. If you are using PSP 6 or higher and would like to experiment further then keep your design selected and go to Step 5.

Step 5: When using PSP 6 or higher you can acheive a 3D carved wood effect by adding a third special effect to your design using the inner bevel effect. Click on Images to open the Images pull down menu. Click on Effects to open the Effects pull down menu. Click on Inner Bevel to open the Inner Bevel dialog box. Use the screen capture below of the Inner Bevel dialog box for your settings. Once you have set all the settings to match the example click ok. Your Inner Bevel selections will now load onto your image.



Now you have a 3D carved wood effect. You can now deselect and you will have an image like the example below.



Try experimenting with the 3 special effects used in this tutorial. You can change the settings of all three and see what interesting special effects you can come up with. Have Fun.