this tutorial was not writen by me it was writen by fencepost at gimp talk

Note, that the text actually looks like it was part of the original surface prior to being "crumpled."

When it comes to the Displace filter, I'm an absolute newbie. So, I won't even pretend to baffle you with my "knowledge"; however, I can tell you that the displace filter uses a layer (a.k.a Displacement Map) to move (displace) pixels on another layer based on color. From what I've read, black, white, and gray images work best as displacement maps, but you can utilize color. This will give our images an appearance of depth....similar to the Bump Map filter.


http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/8199/cr...perstep12qo.jpg

Noclayto also has a similar tutorial on "Foil Paper" here: http://www.gimptalk.com/topic.php?a=v&t=329&f=8

I recommend you that make your own surface to follow along with. But, if you don't have time (or are just really lazy ) you can download my blank image and open it in GIMP.

The first thing we need to do is add a text layer:

Double-click your text tool (looks like a large capital "T").
Set the font color to black (you can use other colors, but until you get used to the technique, please stick with black)
Click anywhere on the crumpled paper image and add your text.
Use your "Move Layers & Selections" tool (4-headed arrow) to position the text as you want it.

This is my result:


http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/6406/cpaddtext6xa.jpg

Notice that there is a dashed box around your text. This is the current size of your text layer. For the Displace" filter to work, we have to make it the same size as the background layer. This is very important. If you don't do this step, the "Displace" filter will not work.

To resize, go to Layer | Layer to Image Size.... menu option. Here's a graphic to assist you:


http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/6501/cp...erresize6dn.jpg

Here's where the magic begins!

Go to Filters | Map | Displace


http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/4427/cpdi...cefilter7cq.jpg

Make sure you set the dropdowns in both the X Displacement / Y Displacement sections to the paper layer. In our example, the background is the Displacement Map. For the purposes of this example, my background is called "crumpled_paperStep1.jpg/Background copy - 393". Yours will not have the same name. Choose the appropriate background layer
Notice my X / Y Displacement settings are 0 (zero) & 5, respectively. This is what happens to work for my tastes in this particular example. Try my settings for now and then experiment on your own http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/4427/cpdi...cefilter7cq.jpg

Now, set your text layer blend mode like so:


http://img459.imageshack.us/img459/5826/cpblendmode9ul.png

Again, these settings are what looks good to me. You could easily set your blend mode to normal and lower the opacity as you want, but this is what I'm using for the example. I also used a blend mode to accentuate how the text fits to the surface. Ink probably wouldn't show the paper behind it, but you get the idea.

Here's my final result:


http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/5874/cr...perfinal0sj.jpg
How did you do?

You can use the displace filter to move things other than text, but I just wanted to get our feet wet with some lettering!

Suggestions, comments and criticisms are always welcome. Looking forward to seeing your creations.

Keep on GIMPing![/center]