7. The Menus / 7.8 The Effects Menu

7.8.34 Distort/Outline Warping

Outline Warping is a layer distortion (see chapter 2.6). The active layer will be distorted to fit into an outline given by the user. In contrast to most layer distortions Outline Warping can be used with image layers, too.

Shape is the outline in which the active layer will be forced. Normally this outline will be scaled to the size of the active layer. This may lead to a distortion of the outline. By selecting Keep Proportions the proportions of the outline keep unchanged.

Rotation allows to rotate the outline by any angle. Additionally it is possible to scale the left or right edge of the outline. If Hor. Scaling is smaller than 0, the left side will be reduced, otherwise the right size. Vert. Scaling works analogous with top and bottom. If there are curves in the outline they can be flattened by using Bending or mirrored, if Bending is smaller than 0.

Outline Warping creates a 3D-like effect. Therefore, if the active layer is an image, the result can be lightened.

The following example shows a text layer, that is warped by a circle:

The text is still editable. You can change the color of its characters or modify the font.

If the shape displayed in the dialog above is used to warp an image and the image is additionally lightened, the result may look like this: