I'm out of topic to discuss about today so I think this topic might help some of my readers. If you are already good at graphic design and producing gif and jpeg files etc then you dont need this tips!! You will however need to have your own website - not a free version, but a paid domain - to take advantage of banners, simply because you cant host the banners you have created otherwise.
There is a simple way to create your own basic banners by using MSPaint, which is already installed automatically on your computer. In this section I want to give you some hints as to how you can start doing it right away.
You will find the MSPaint program by clicking on Start: Programs --> Accessories-->Paint. Once you have the program open we can get started!! The steps to create a banner are as follows:-
1) Set the banner size - to do this click on image: attributes. You will then get a dialogue box which has 2 input boxes for width and height. For a standard banner you need 468 by 60. Where the dialogue box says "units" you want pixels, and where it says "colours" you want colors. When these setting are correct simply click OK. You should now have a blank banner which will be in white.
2) Color In Your Background. Its a good idea to colour the banner in with whatever color will be your background. For example if we are going to have a yellow background then - choose a color from the color box at the bottom of the screen, there are 2 rows of 14 colors. Once you have selected a color, click the "fill" button - this is the 2nd button down in the right hand column of buttons.
After you have clicked this button, go across to your banner with your mouse, and click anywhere you like and the banner will be filled with the color you have selected. You will notice the "fill" button image follows you onto the banner. You should have now have a banner with the background color set
3) Set The Border. Next we need to set up the border of the banner to make it stand out a bit. If you have a yellow background then you need something like red or black as a border color.
To do the border we need the following steps: Select View: Zoom: Custom - then click on 400% - this just makes the banner a bit bigger so we can see what we are doing. Select View: Zoom: Show Grid - or CNTRL G for short - this simple displays a grid to help us only color in the right cells we need.
Now we need to select the right color for the border - go to the bottom of the screen and select the color you want. Now to insert the color we need, roughly, about 2 cells of the grid from the edge of the banner. We need to color these in with the color we have selected. The quickest way to do this is to use the "brush" tool - this looks like a paint brush and is the 4th box down on the right hand side.
Now you need to be careful because there are lots of thicknesses of the "brush" so we need to select the right thickness. You will see some thicknesses appear lower down the screen in a box - the one you want is the 2nd one down and 3 across. This just looks like a dot but its perfect to cover a thickness 2 cells with in the grid. You can now go to the banner and run your mouse along the top, bottom and sides of the banner and you will have a good border We should now have our banner set up with a background and a border. All we need now is the text.
4) Add Some Text. To enter text click the "A" tool. This will give you a kind of cross as you mouse. Simply go to the top left hand corner of your banner and drag the text tool across so you have an area for your first line of text. This will give you a white background - often we don't want to disturb the banner background so you click on the button lower down the screen, after all the tools, which has some boxes in it - you want the second one down - this will change the background of your text to the color we have already set as the background for the banner.
You can now select the font you want for your text and the color. Note: you can only do one line of text at a time.
Tips: You might find the text and space gets a bit cramped if you have several lines - this will definitely happen if you have more than 2 lines of text. To overcome this problem simply select the text you have entered with the "select" tool - this tool is right at the top on the right hand side and has dotted lines round a box shape.
When you have selected your text, click Edit: Copy To - this will copy the text as a file on its own. You can then paste different lines of text into the banner by clicking Edit: Paste From.
Its often a good idea to set the banner background and border and then before doing anything else simply save it as mybannerformat.bmp. If you make a mistake and need to delete some text, the easiest way is to use the "select" tool - right at the top on the right hand side - and draw round the text and press the delete key on your keyboard. To move text that is not quite in the right position, simply use the select tool to draw round it and then move it. However you need to change the box below all the tools, from the second box selected to the first one. Otherwise you will find part of your text will disappear when you move it.
A useful idea is try and get the banner to integrate into the color scheme of the place where you will advertise it e.g. use the same background as the site where you will advertise it. This is because the best banners are those which don't look like a banner. If your banner just looks like a text ad then you probably get more clicks on it .
When you are happy with your banner then don't forget to save it MSPaint saves everything as a BMP file - this stands for windows bitmap. To use it on the web you must convert it to a gif or JPG file. To do this you need a FREE image converter program.
The best one I have found is IrvanView. This is a really good little program and is freeware, it will convert anything to lots of file formats so is perfect to convert you BMP file into a GIF or JPG. Once the file is converted you can use it in any web page and list it on Traffic Exchanges and start advertising your banner and getting all important "targeted traffic".
Adding "Wording" To A Banner Background Or Template
If you already have a "plain" banner, or "plain" header graphic i.e. a graphic with no writing on it, you can use IrvanView to easily add the text you want. You will find various packages where you can buy plain banner or header graphics where you just add the text yourself
With IrvanView you simply open up the plain image or template you have and then select an area where you want the text to appear, and then the program gives you a box for you to type in the text and bingo your words will appear. You can decide what type of font you want, the color and the size, and then you can just save the completed image, ready for uploading to your web space.
0 comments:
Post a Comment