First of all I would like to say that I take absolutely no credit for
the following tutorial.
It was made by TanMan, you may know him from
forumotion. He has given me permission to use his tutorials.
Again I take no credit, full credit goes to TanMan.
Thank you.

Inset Text/ect.
Application Used: Gimp

Level: 3
Estimated Time: 1-10 Minutes


Instructions

Inset Text/Ect:

1. Create a new image. (I'm using the defaults. 640x400px)

2. Use paint-can and fill it with the color you want. (I'm using #707070 [gray])
3. Use the text tool. Write whatever you want.
-Font: Any (I'm using Arial)
-Color: Any (I'm using Black #000000)
-Size: Any (I'm using 100)

4. Select the text layer. Click >Layer >Transparency >Alpha to selection

5. Click >select >grow - 1px

6. Select the background. Click >layer >new layer (Defaults)

7. Select the gradient/blend tool.
8. Change the foreground color to a color darker than the background of the image. (I'm using #4b4b4b [gray]) Change the background color to a color lighter than the background of the image. (I'm using #b8b8b8 [gray])
9. Now Make a straight gradient inside the selection.
10. Click >Select >none.

*Extra step*
11. (I have some extra space in my image so I am going to crop it.) Select the rectangle select tool.
12. Make a selection around the text.
13. Click >Image >crop to selection

14. Click >Select >none.


There you go. You should have something along the lines of this:


This also works for circles. (Haven't tried squares and other shapes.) Tell me if something doesn't make sense. Enjoy!