Back in the day, when I did graphic arts with ink and film and stuff, I used to employ a darkroom technique called stretch and shrink, or something like that. What you did was use layers of vellum between litho film to "thicken" the image area or, conversely (using a negative on top), "thin" it out. One application, for example, was making outline type from a solid face. Now I am sure there must be a way to do this with Photoshop, but I can't figure it out. I even have Deke McClelland's books in front of me and I can't see anywhere where this is mentioned. But the method is similar to what must be going on when you make drop shadows (for example). Anyone have any pointers?