This tutorial will show you how to put a simple, font based, custom decal in your map using GIMP.
What is GIMP and why should I use it? GIMP is a free, open source, photo editing program. I found it a little easier for this purpose, rather than using Photoshop, because GIMP automatically does the Alpha channel. My file also came out smaller using GIMP. Currently there is not a plugin available to export .vtf files from GIMP (like you can in Photoshop), which is where VTFEdit comes in. *Notes are located at the bottom of this tutorial. If you have Adobe Photoshop, you can use the tutorial located HERE. Tools needed - GIMP - VTFEdit - Unique Font (optional) Creating the Image- Run GIMP and create a new image. Make an image with the size 512x256 pixels and under Advanced Options choose Transparency for the Fill With option. *Note 1
- Now we are going to enter the text you want. Select the Text tool and choose your font. For now, make the font size 100 and we'll adjust it later. (The font I'm using in my example is NOT Sans as pictured below)
- With the Text Tool selected, click on your blank image and the GIMP Text Editor will pop up. Enter the text you would like, I'm using my name. *Note 2
- Select the Move tool and select the "Move the active layer" option. Select the layer of text found on the Layers, Channels, Paths window. Go to your image and move that layer to the top left.
- Select the Font tool again and click on the text in the image. Adjust the font size so your text will be the best fit. It does not have to be perfect.
- Now we save. On the image window, select File > Save As. In the save image window, choose a location and unique name and set the Select File Type as TarGA (.tga). I used DravenTag for my file name.
Use your own unique name and remember to replace "DravenTag" throughout this tutorial with your decal name.
- An Export File window will pop up. Make sure Merge Visible Layers is selected and hit Export. A Save as TGA window will pop up. Both boxes should be checked and hit Save.
You can close GIMP now.





- Run VTFEdit and choose File > Import. Browse to your .tga file and open it.
- The VTF Options window will open, just press OK. If you used black text, your texture will look solid black. *Note 3
- Choose File > Save and choose the name of your tag. Mine is called DravenTag.vtf
- Close VTFEdit and move the .vtf file to your "counter-strike source\cstrike\materials\decals" folder. Make the decals folder if necessary. Leave this folder open for the next step, Creating the VMT.
- Open a folder to "Steam\steamapps\yourname\sourcesdk\bin\ep1\bin"
- Find Vtex.exe then right click the file and select "create shortcut"
- Copy or Cut the shortcut
- Open a folder to "Steam\steamapps\yourname\sourcesdk_content\cstrike\materialsrc"
- Make a New Folder in the materialsrc directory named decals
- Paste the vtex shortcut in this directory
- Move your .tga to this directory
- Drag your .tga on to the vtex shortcut.
- A command window will open; press any key when done. If everything worked a txt file will appear with the name of your decal.
- Open a folder to "Steam\steamapps\yourname\counter-strike source\cstrike\materials\decals". Make the decals folder if necessary.
- While still in the decal folder where your VTF is placed and make a new Text Document (just right-click New > Text Document).
- Open the new text file and copy and paste the info below, replacing DravenTag with your VTF name (Notice there is NOT a .vtf extension below): "LightmappedGeneric" { "$basetexture" "decals\DravenTag" "$decal" 1 "$decalscale" 0.25 "$translucent" 1 } You can change the "$decalscale" if you want. If you make the decal bigger, it will not be as clear and sharp as it is at 0.25. This number should be be between 0.1 to 1 (10% to 100% of the original image size) *Note 4 **ADVANCED NOTES** Multiple VMTs for single VTF file (Skip to Step 3 the first time you read this tutorial!!) You were warned :) You can make mulitple materials off one VTF because the name of the VMT does not have to match your VTF. The Hammer material browser looks for the VMT file and the VMT defines what VTF to use and how to use it. Notice the above definition for our decal. The $basetexture is asking where the .VTF is located inside your cstrike/materials folder. You are telling it that it is in the \decals\ folder and the VTF is named DravenTag. You can copy your VMT, edit it with notepad, change settings, then save it with a different name. For example, you can make 2 VMT files for this decal we just made; one with decalscale of 0.1 and one with 0.25. So you can name the .25 scale vmt something like DravenTag_L.vmt and one with a scale of .1 and name it DravenTag_S.vmt. Once in hammer you will see them both.
- Once finished we need to save it. Choose File>Save As in notepad and save it with the settings below; again replacing "DravenTag" with your decal name. (Notice Save as Type is "All Files")


- Open Hammer and Open your map.
- Select the Browse button from the Texture Tool.
- Type your tag name *Note 3
- Select the Decal Tool on the left hand menu.
- Click somewhere on your map in the 3D view
