Gimp Tips - Stamp

This is a trick I figured out to make some text look like a bad stamp transfer. I saw a font that did this same effect but didn't really like the look of the letters (ignoring the bad transfer) so I figured out how to use the GIMP to apply that look to any font I wanted.

  1. A blank manilla envelope sort of color First, make a background for your image. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. A solid color works just fine.
  2. The word "SECRET" with a box around it on a transparent layer Make a transparent layer on top of that with your text and whatever else you want the stamp to have. I've added a box around my text because that just seemed sort of stamplike. Use whatever color you want the ink of your stamp to be. Add a layer mask to this layer, but leave it white for now.
  3. Staticy looking layered Perlin noise Add a new layer on top and fill it using Filters|Render|Clouds|Solid Noise. Set both sizes to 16, and the detail level to 6.
  4. Scattered noise Mix it up a little with Filters|Noise|Spread at 10.
  5. Noisy layer, like TV static (for those of you with out cable) Now we'll turn this noise into a splotchy layer mask. Go to Colors|Curves and move the lower point to (64,0) and the upper point to (128,255).
  6. White with black splotches It will end up looking like this. Copy this layer and hide it.
  7. Poorly transferred stamp Go back to the layer mask we added to the stamp text and paste.
  8. Mostly white, with a few random vertical dark lines Nobody ever stamps perfectly straight so I used the rotation tool to tilt the stamp layer a bit, and we're done.