{note: if it's in white writing, it's not part of a program tutorial.}Creating a nice banner can be quite easy if you know what you're doing, or it could turn out to be a complete mess! Creating computer graphics is partcially about trial and error, lots of it has to be figured out on your own, but we'll try to get you headed in the right direction here...

A banner can really be any size you want it to be, and depending on what your banner's for, will determine what size you make it. Typically a 'signature banner' is 500x200 pixels or 6.9x2.8 inches or smaller, but like I said, a banner can really be whatever size you want it to be.

Now making a banner in each program is usually different. So we're going to use what's pretty much the basic of the basic: MS Paint. It comes on your computer (unless you have a Mac), lots of us used it when we were little and then as we got a little older we figured out that we couldn't draw a whole heck of a lot with that gimp mouse and never really touched it again... well now, if you aren't like me and you haven't deleted that off your computer (yeah, I know, who the heck deletes paint?! I do.... but I reinstalled it... ) then you're going to open that program up again.... dunn dun dunnnnn!!!!!!!!!!

PAINT!!!!

1. Open Paint.
2. Open picture.
3. Go Image> Stretch/Skew and resize your image to the size you want.
4. If your image isn't already the size of the banner you want, drag the blue dots (found the corners and half way down each side) until you find the size you do want, this could mean that you have to either crop the picture a bit (if you want it smaller) or you'll get white out to where ever you stretched the blue dots to. (if you want it bigger.)
5. If you have white outside your picture due to dragging the little blue dots then you have a couple options, leave it (if you like how the white looks there) or take the eye dropper tool and click the background color of your picture and then paint bucket it.
6. Add your text, paintbrushing or whatever else you want to. Experiment with the different things in paint, it may be a basic program, but that doesn't mean you can't do anything with it!
7. When you finished, save it, post it and let us see!!!!

This is the one I just made in paint, I'm actually quite proad because I actually did give up on it and uninstall it from my computer and only re-installed it recently... I've hardly touched it.



I suggest visiting this site and looking at the stuff this person has on here, some of it is pretty interesting, I didn't know you could do on paint...
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/tutorial/mspaint

Of course, the way it works is pretty much, the more money spent, the more complicated the program gets, the more you can do with it. The two most popular photoediting/ graphic making programs are Photoshop and PaintShop Pro. Now, I can't do much of a lesson for PSP because I don't have the disk here to put that program back on my laptop, so I don't have an example of something I made in PSP because I never really used it when it was on here.... but I can do a lesson for it anyways...

PAINTSHOP PRO!!!!

1. Open PSP.
2. Create a new canvas with the dimensions you want your banner to be.
3. Open picture(s)
4. Drag picture(s) to blank canvas.
5. Figure out where you want your pictures, go to your background layer, paint it whatever color you want (if your picture(s) don't cover it all or you don't want your background white.)
6. Add your text, paint brushing, or whatever else you want to (this part really depends on how much you know about your program, you may find it useful if you look for some sort of tutorials or how to use guide within your program...)
7. Save it and then post it and show us!!!

Sorry I don't have anything to show you guys for this one...

A few handly little tutorials can be found here: http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Paint-Shop-Pro/Photo-Effects/1

which leaves, last but not least, my personal favorite editing program; Photoshop! this program is expensive (thankfully my step dad already had it to give to me...) trials of this program can be downloaded (read more about that in the 'the right program for you' thread. This also happens to be the program that I know how to do the most in...

PHOTOSHOP!!!!

1. Open photoshop (you may have to wait for a welcome screen to show up so you don't freeze it up)
2. Make a new blank canvas with the dimensions you want for your banner.
3. Open picture(s).
4. Make sure the move tool is clicked (it's the arrow with the little cross of arrows in the toolbar)
5. Drag your picture(s) over to your blank canvas.
6. Arrange and resize (ctrl + T) your picture(s) the way you want it to be placed on your banner.
7. Select the background layer of your banner and paint it (if your pic(s) don't cover the whole thing)
8. Add your text, paintbrushing ect. You may find it useful to look for some tutorials, there are some useful tips, tricks and how to's if you go to Help> Photoshop help in your photoshop.
9. Save it and post it so we can see!!!

All of my graphics are made in photoshop, other than the banner I made above for the paint tutorial... lol. so here's a simple banner I made in photoshop...



The main thing is EXPERIMENT!!!! have fun with it! Figure out what all the different tools are, it doesn't matter what program you're using! Keep making graphics because it's the only way you're going to get better! This stuff applies to all things graphics related, once you've mastered the basics, you've got to experiment to make things look even better!!!!!

Hopefully this was a useful lesson, and hopefully you could understand it all, if something's not clear, let me know!!!

and now it's after 4:00am.... I should probably be sleeping......meh. not that tired....