Making outlined Numbers
Contributed by: 1.JaVA_Serval

This tutorial shows how you make outlined numbers like used during World War 2 by the Luftwaffe and Finnish Air Force to name some examples. I start with an image with a drakgreen colour as background and a black number. Note that it is not pitch black, but a bit lighter since matt black appears lighter then gloss black.

 As shown in the image below select Layer - Layer Style - Stroke

Select the size of the border/outline around the number. Often 1 or 2 pixels are enough, but since I use a big number in this example I selected 3 pixels size. I have selected to place the border completely outside the number. You can also select it to be inside the number or half inside and half outside the number.

Then you select the colour you want to use. I picked White from the RLM list, which looks a bit creamy.

After clicking OK the job is done. If you are after a brand new look you are done now allready. Note in the Layers window that the layer with the Text 5 has an Effects line under it. The effects are a seperate property which you can enable and disable with the Eye in front of it. You can also easily drag and drop the effects of this layer to other layers. That really saves you a lot of work when you need the same effect on more layers. This layer property has two disadvantages: You can not weather the white border with the eraser tool, and when you try to weather the black inside it will be replaced by white. Since the white outlines were painted around the numbers, we do not want this. I will show how to get around this.

Select the layer below the layer where you applied the Stroke effect to, and insert a new layer there.

Now select the layer with the Stroke effect again.

From the Layer menu choose Merge Down. This will cause the layer with the effect to be merged with the blank layer you just made below it. The layer is rasterised and has lost the effect properties. But it has also lost it's text properties. So, you are now unable to change the text.

But, we now can use tools like the Erasor to weather the numbers.

The Layer styles like Stroke work on all objects you have on a layer, so it works with something you mada with the brush, shapes, etc. Also the trick with merging layers to get rid of the layer properties when they bother you works with all effects. Just be carefull when you aplly then, since you will not be able to make corrections to previous work anymore. So, use it at the last moment or keep a backup of the layer in it's original state.