HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BANNERS USING MS PAINTBRUSH, COREL PHOTOPAINT, PAINTSHOP PRO, ULTIMATE PAINT OR SIMILAR PAINT PROGRAMS.

If you would like to make your own banners for the Internet but can't afford to spend a lot of money on expensive software. Here is what I do with good results. My printer came with Corel Photopaint and WIN95 comes with the Paintbrush program. With these 2 programs (or the shareware "Paintshop Pro" in place of Photopaint or in addition to it) you are all set. Paintshop Pro can be downloaded from most shareware sites. Ultimate Paint, is a relative newcomer and is available as
Freeware at: http://www.megalux.hu/upaint . Here are two sample banner backgrounds which were quickly made from
scratch with the Ultimate Paint Program:

All you have to do now is save the banner to your drive and then add your text. The Ultimate Paint Program will also let you include or add text.

For the adding of text, a very simple and easy to work with program is Window's Paintbrush.  Use File, Open, select file type, and bring in the desired image if you want to make changes to the banner's pattern. If you wish to design your own banner from a blank page you'll have to experiment a bit. Play around with "Attributes from the "Image" menu for the desired size of the background. "Pels" here means "pixels". Remember that the entire page is being measured. Save your creation with the correct size. Now you are ready to add text.

If you wish to add text you will have to follow these steps: Open Paintbrush, then click "File", New, Edit, Paste From". It is necessary to open a whole page so that you have plenty of empty space for your text-creation.

If you have saved a banner blank that will not open in Paintbrush you will have to bring it into another art program and convert it into .bmp or .pcx-format; it will then open in MS Paintbrush. The simplest method for getting the desired size for your banner is to bring a banner blank which has the correct size into MS Paintbrush. Add your text in MS Paintbrush and then export it to Photopaint, Paintshop Pro, Ultimate Paint, or another art program, where it must be converted into a gif or jpg format.
Note that you will first have to convert to 256 colors (found under "Image" in Corel Photopaint) in order to be able to make a conversion into a .gif image. Then click "File", "Save as", set file type to Gif, type filename and save! Check out the size of the banner and make sure that it still has the proper dimensions. If not, make an adjustment using the "Resample" feature under "Image".

To add text in Paintbrush make sure the Text Toolbar under "View: is checked. Click on the ABC-tool, then the rectangular Select tool and drag a dotted-line-square downwards from the left to the right as you press on the left mouse-button for the text, this drops down the Text-box and lets you choose a font. Type your text in a blank part of the screen. Lock in the text by clicking outsite of the dotted line. Drag another dotted line around the text after clicking on the Select tool. Now click on the lower cutout-section at the bottom-left of the Tool Box in order to select your text in the transparent format. Now when you place the cursor on the text which is still surrounded by the dotted outline a cross should form which is an indication that the text can be moved to another location. To do this hold down the left mouse button and drag the text to the exact final location on the banner. Lock it into place by clicking outside of the dotted line. If you click the right mouse button before you drag the text a menu pops up which will let you flip the text.

Save your work frequently as you go along. Otherwise a mistake could cause you to have to start all over again and waste a lot of time.

When your banner is finished you must export and convert it. Click on the Select tool and frame the banner exactly along the edges. With the dotted line around the edge click "Edit", then "Copy to" and name the banner. This will copy only the banner to your disk and not the entire page.
 
 
 

Blank Banners, Just Add Your Text

I have designed a few blank banners which you can freely use without conditions. Save the desired banner-image to your hard drive. Change the size with your art-program first before adding text if you wish to use different dimensions. Some of these banner blanks are in .jpg format which is fine as long as you do not want to animate. The animation programs accept only .gif images.

 
 

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For at least 170 additional banner blanks, many of which have picture-backgrounds,
click here.

If that's not enough and you are still looking for fancy backgrounds try Goodwebs.

.What About Animated Banners?
Once you know how to make regular banners you may want to make animated banners also.
There is a nice free service available which actually lets you convert a series of gifs into animations online!
An animated banner is actually an animated gif. Complete instructions are online. When you are ready for animated
banners go to: Imaging Machine. And bookmark this page when you do so that you find your way back.
Keep in mind that animations can easily become "overbearing". A banner is not necessarily better just because of the
animation factor. The creation of good animations can also be very time consuming. Animated banners use more
pixel-space than still-banners, they can slow down the loading of pages substantially.

Also try: ANIMATED BANNER MAKER                   Banner Creator                     Animated Masters                Animation Online
                Tripod's Banner Builder

Crecon Banner Generator (Nice backgrounds, but it is simpler to save banner and add the desired text with MS Paintbrush than using the online text feature). That is also true for Quickbanner. Quickbanner offers a large background selection with colorful pictures. You can make these banners animated by saving 2 or more copies of the same banner with different text in the gif format. Then combine them via the Imaging Machine or animation software into one animated banner.
At  keyscreen.com  you can download the Microsoft Gif Animator. It is freeware and works quite well.

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