Sorry, I don't have any links to X Files pages here, but I do have a step-by-step guide on creating grainy text with a mysterious glow, à la X Files. I originally got the idea from issue #12 of Swanson's Photoshop Techniques newsletter on creating rough, weathered graphics. The instructions below are specifically for version 0.99.5 of the GIMP, an incredible freely-available image enhancement and photo retouching software tool for UNIX. If you are capable of running a recent version of the X11 Window System, you must get this tool, or else you won't know what you're missing!

Create the letter `X'

Create a new RGB document, 250 by 250 pixels with a white background. Use the Text tool to create a single 200-point Courier medium `X' and position it at the center of the document. Anchor the text layer to the white background layer.

Use the Fuzzy Select tool to select the `X'. The default threshold should work fine, as long almost all of the X is selected. Choose the Select->Grow menu item and grow the selection by 5 pixels.

Change the background colour to black and choose the Edit->Fill menu item to fill the selected region with solid black. Clear the selection by choosing the Select->None menu item, or by clicking outside the selected region with any selection tool.

Create the background glow

Choose the Dialogs->Layers... menu item to bring up the layers control dialog box. Create a copy of the working layer with the Ops->Duplicate Layer menu item. Select the top layer and make sure it is visible (the eye icon should be displayed).

Invert the top layer with the Image->Map->Invert menu item. Set the foreground colour to a bright green, then select the Bucket Fill tool. Fill the white `X' with green.

To create the background glow effect, use the Gaussian Blur filter and blur the layer by 30 pixels horizontally and vertically. The glow may not appear to be substantial enough at this stage, but the extent of the green will be adjusted later.

Hide the top layer by clicking on the eye icon, then reselect the original layer (with the black on white `X'). Only the bottom layer should be visible in the canvas window at this point.

Apply a grainy look to the `X'

To produce the grainy texture of the final image, choose the Noisify filter. Uncheck the "Independent" option box and set Channel #0 to 0.80 (the higher the value, the grainier the final image).

The Noisify filter overlays random noise pixels on the image. This will be used to give the `X' a grainy, spotted appearance.

Using the Gaussian Blur filter, blur the image by 3 pixels in both directions.

Choose the Image->Adjust->Levels menu item to bring up the image levels dialog box. This tool allows you to smoothly alter the shadows, midtones and highlights of an image. We want to fade out the light coloured pixels around the `X' (represented by the rightmost hump in the profile) into the white background. Do this by dragging the white input level triangle to the left until the rightmost hump is completely in the white area. Experiment with all three sliders to produce the desired coarseness and contrast in the `X'.

The resulting image should have a solid white background, with random dropouts in the `X' and at a fairly harsh contrast.

Merge the `X' with the background glow

Reselect the upper glow layer and make it visible again. Then choose the Mode->Multiply menu item. This will cause the contents of the upper layer only to appear in the white regions of layers below it, effectively making the lower layers a mask.

The resulting image combines the noisified `X' with the green glow and black background.

The extent and intensity of the glow can be controlled by the image levels dialog box. Once again, experiment with the three input sliders to produce the desired effect.

The final product

Voilà, you now have a chunky, grainy X surrounded by a spooky green glow!