How to take an image of text, and 'imprint' it onto a plane to create raised text?

Question

If I have a black text on white background image... Is there a way to have a plane and then 'apply' the image to the plane, but where the black text is, have the mesh 'pop out' of plane to make it look like the text.

Kind of like "Brail" but actual text and not dots

Answer 1

After you have suitably divided the plane, you can

• Use the image as the texture for a Displacement modifier,
• Use the image as the height for a Bump map, or
• Use the image as the height for a Displacement node (in Cycles)

This will give you a very sharp division between the raised and base height if the image is black and white.