Post by Adrian Ivashkov on Aug 13, 2011 3:23:11 GMT -5
I've been feeling the need to make a banner tut for a little while now, this I would say, is mainly for beginners who want to learn the ropes but I wouldn't say that advanced people can't do it too (hey, you might just want to have a little look at how I make stuff in general) but I'd mainly say for beginners because it does use just mainly the basics.
I'll be using the program GIMP, which you can download here.
HOW TO...
1. Open up the image that you want to use. As a general rule: the better quality the image the better the banner.
2. Scale the image Look at what the image is scaled to (it should be at the bottom, 100% is the proper image size) if the image scale is less than 100% then you'll need to scale the image down, to do this go to Image>Scale Image. Try going down by 100s, but really it's just personal preference on how big you want the image, but because we're making a banner we want the image to have a height of at least 200px* or a width of at least 450px.
*Note: nearly all internet graphics measurements are done in px (pixels) so make sure that you do all scaling and cropping and such in that measurement
3. Crop the image to the right size, using the crop tool (the scalpel on the toolbar) in the tool options there should be options for you to put in the size* so put in the size that you want to crop to in the size options. Position the box in the right place and crop. If the crop turns out badly, that's fine just use the undo button.
*Note: if you're making a banner for a particular board then that board would have signature banner size guidelines, LEB has a max banner size of 425 by 200. Sig guide lines
4. Edit your image (OPTIONAL) This can be done at the start too.
A)I like to duplicate the layer, just in case anything goes drasticly wrong then you can just delete that and your problems are gone. To duplicate, press the button at the bottom of the Layer Toolbar which has the image of two little pictures on top of each other or you can go Layer>Duplicate Layer or you can go Shift+Control+D. (I generally just use the first option)
B) If your image is dark or if you just want to lighten the image: duplicate it and set the layer mode to Screen and then fiddle with the opacity.
BA) On the other hand if your image is light instead of setting it to Screen try setting it to Multiply (You hardly ever need to go darker)
C) I would strongly suggest doing this no matter what your image is, but a little trick I've learned is that if your image is low quality then Duplicate it and set that layer to Overlay and then fiddle with the Opacity. That will usually give you a boost of quality.
LAYER MODES are very very useful but slightly hard to get your head around if you've never used them before. You can set the Layer Mode, in the Layer Options part of the Toolbox. It should say Layers, Mode: , Opacity: , Lock. The mode is always set to normal to change it just click on the drop down box and select which option you want it at.
5. Add Text To add text just click on the text tool (it's the letter 'A' on the Toolbox) I'll be using a font from Dafont.com type in your text and edit it to your hearts content.
TIP: Some of the downloaded fonts are a bit thin to use over an image and because they're downloaded they don't have the option of making it Bold/Italic/Bold Italic, so to make the text seem stronger and bolder I duplicate the text layer and if it's really sharp then I blur it a bit (Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur, usually set about 0.5)
6. Add Border to add a border just go Filter>Decor>Add Border edit the colour option (usually you'll
just want to keep it a simple black (000000) or white (ffffff)) and then change the px size (usually about 1-3)
NOTE: With borders in GIMP they add on the px size onto the edge of the Canvas size (overall size) so if you are doing a banner for a certain site then you'll need to re-crop the image minusing the border size from the original sizing.
7. Save I would usually just save it at this point but feel free to add in any extra effects. I would usually go File>Save as a Copy because that way I keep the original image on the hard drive. For most sites JPG is the best format to save as but some do specify another one. I usually just use the automatic save options.
Hope you learned something and that it worked for you, any questions post them here. Also I'd love to see what you come up with if you do do this.
I'll be using the program GIMP, which you can download here.
HOW TO...
1. Open up the image that you want to use. As a general rule: the better quality the image the better the banner.
2. Scale the image Look at what the image is scaled to (it should be at the bottom, 100% is the proper image size) if the image scale is less than 100% then you'll need to scale the image down, to do this go to Image>Scale Image. Try going down by 100s, but really it's just personal preference on how big you want the image, but because we're making a banner we want the image to have a height of at least 200px* or a width of at least 450px.
*Note: nearly all internet graphics measurements are done in px (pixels) so make sure that you do all scaling and cropping and such in that measurement
3. Crop the image to the right size, using the crop tool (the scalpel on the toolbar) in the tool options there should be options for you to put in the size* so put in the size that you want to crop to in the size options. Position the box in the right place and crop. If the crop turns out badly, that's fine just use the undo button.
*Note: if you're making a banner for a particular board then that board would have signature banner size guidelines, LEB has a max banner size of 425 by 200. Sig guide lines
4. Edit your image (OPTIONAL) This can be done at the start too.
A)I like to duplicate the layer, just in case anything goes drasticly wrong then you can just delete that and your problems are gone. To duplicate, press the button at the bottom of the Layer Toolbar which has the image of two little pictures on top of each other or you can go Layer>Duplicate Layer or you can go Shift+Control+D. (I generally just use the first option)
B) If your image is dark or if you just want to lighten the image: duplicate it and set the layer mode to Screen and then fiddle with the opacity.
BA) On the other hand if your image is light instead of setting it to Screen try setting it to Multiply (You hardly ever need to go darker)
C) I would strongly suggest doing this no matter what your image is, but a little trick I've learned is that if your image is low quality then Duplicate it and set that layer to Overlay and then fiddle with the Opacity. That will usually give you a boost of quality.
LAYER MODES are very very useful but slightly hard to get your head around if you've never used them before. You can set the Layer Mode, in the Layer Options part of the Toolbox. It should say Layers, Mode: , Opacity: , Lock. The mode is always set to normal to change it just click on the drop down box and select which option you want it at.
5. Add Text To add text just click on the text tool (it's the letter 'A' on the Toolbox) I'll be using a font from Dafont.com type in your text and edit it to your hearts content.
TIP: Some of the downloaded fonts are a bit thin to use over an image and because they're downloaded they don't have the option of making it Bold/Italic/Bold Italic, so to make the text seem stronger and bolder I duplicate the text layer and if it's really sharp then I blur it a bit (Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur, usually set about 0.5)
6. Add Border to add a border just go Filter>Decor>Add Border edit the colour option (usually you'll
just want to keep it a simple black (000000) or white (ffffff)) and then change the px size (usually about 1-3)
NOTE: With borders in GIMP they add on the px size onto the edge of the Canvas size (overall size) so if you are doing a banner for a certain site then you'll need to re-crop the image minusing the border size from the original sizing.
7. Save I would usually just save it at this point but feel free to add in any extra effects. I would usually go File>Save as a Copy because that way I keep the original image on the hard drive. For most sites JPG is the best format to save as but some do specify another one. I usually just use the automatic save options.
Hope you learned something and that it worked for you, any questions post them here. Also I'd love to see what you come up with if you do do this.
