LAST EDITED ON Oct-09-07 AT 08:26 PM (PST)
 
This thread is dedicated to modifying banners and headers using the FREE graphics program GIMP and XARA.

Download GIMP here:
http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

Note: You'll also need GTK+ 2 Runtime Environment...If you don't have it installed, you can download it from the same link above.

This forum and this thread are NOT intended to teach you extreme graphics...Instead, what we'll focus on is modifying existing headers and banners and creating basic headers using the most simple techniques possible that still give us good, professional results.

If your sites and pages are NOT getting traffic, or even better, making money, then your focus should be on marketing, not "decoration"...However, having a decent looking site is part of making money and can help you as you apply for affiliate programs, etc.

We won't get into making fancy buttons, either. Text links are not only faster and easier, they are BETTER for SEO.

Again, our goal is to make quick, decent and clean graphics for our pages. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Kurt's Quick Tips:

Your graphics should only be in either of two formats: .gif or .jpeg. Other graphic formats can't be seen in web browsers.

Your graphics should have a DPI (dots per inch) of 72 DPI. This is called "low resolution". The reason is, computer monitors only displays 72 dots per inch, so anything above 72 dots is a waste of bandwidth and time.

If you made your web graphics of a higher quality, it still wouldn't matter, as monitors won't show it. In this case, all you're doing is increasing the size of your image, which in turn takes more bandwidth and causes your images to take longer to load, all without any benefit.

(The higher resolutions are for printing.)

LAST EDITED ON Oct-15-07 AT 04:26 PM (PST)
 
Below is a video tutorial where I show how to modify premade banners/headers to produce good-looking graphics for your own site.

How to add text
How to add an "outline" to text (makes it much easier to read)
How to add a gradient to your text (adds color effects)
How to add a drop shadow
How to work with layers
How to "save as".

Master theses simple techniques and you can pump out appealing banners and headers quickly and easily.

If you have any questions or additions, please post below, but please do not quote this message. We don't need the video copied bunch of times. Thanks...

The video above was taken from this source:
http://gimpology.com/submission/view/how_to_outline_text/

You may find it easier to follow the text version...

Below is a video I got from YouTube showing how to make "flaming" text and it demonstates some advanced graphic techniques.

If you're a noob, don't waste your time trying to make these advanced graphics...However, spend the 5-6 minutes to get an idea of some of these techniques...

Here's another YouTube Video from the same guy that did Fire Text.

Below is a cool 3d text generator that gives you the ability to create a decent header in 5 minutes:

This demo is somewht limited, you can only have a white background, etc.

Also, mess with the font size to get your text the right width.
Then (optional):
-Copy the graphic
-Open GIMP, setting the project to be 770 pixels wide by 130 in height
-Paste the graphic into GIMP
-Add subtext and/or other mods
-Crop unneeded space
-Save the file

This is a fast, easy and fun way to generate a decent header for a number of your sites, especially blogs.

Also, you can use any of these to make quick text grahpics. I found these to be the best:

http://www.3dtextmaker.com/image_editor.html
http://cooltext.com/
http://www.flamingtext.com/start.html

Here's three excellent sites for finding free textures. All three allow use for personal and commercial use:

http://www.cgtextures.com/
http://mayang.com/textures/
http://textures.forrest.cz/

Textures are great to use as backgrounds for your headers and banners.

Paste them into GIMP, then use the techniques in the videos above to add text and you have access to unlimited headers for all your sites.

I can't remember who sent me this but it's from the makers of Xsite pro and it's completely free for making header graphics for your sites.

http://www.xheader.com/