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I'm trying to make a banner for my websales to become a sponsor on the OLF. I need a Jpg image that is 329 by 80 like Beachtonewood, above. How do I make an image that size?

The process is relatively simple but hard to explain. It will drive you nuts. I'm living proof.

The most important thing is to create a base image that's the right proportions, then lay your type onto it and resize it to the final dimensions. Forget about inches and all that, just work directly in pixels.

The absolute measurement of a pixel varies from monitor to monitor. If you end up with the pixel count you mention, arranged at 72 DPI, the actual size of the pixels won't matter — it will be the right size on every screen.

I can actually do it much faster than I can explain it! Here's a Q&D example:



Have fun!

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D..

Dennis, that's great, now how do I do it? I need a banner similar to this. What software is this done with? I tried Microsoft Picture It and Paint. This is very attractive.

Bruce,

Maybe you could use the one Dennis made. It looks pretty cool!

Jeff

If you can find software that lets you create layers that would be great. Photoshop is probably the most common tool, but it has a pretty big learning curve. Macromedia Fireworks is a good product too. I use that a lot.

You might be able to download trial versions of some of these software packages from the companies sites. Some offer 30 day trial programs for free.... or at least they used to.

Photoshop is Adobe.com
Fireworks is Macromedia.com

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Okay, Microsoft Picture it allowed layers. How's this? Thanks Dennis, Jeff and Brock. All I had to do was change the size from Inches to PIxels and that did it. I had no idea how to do that. Now I gotta go cut Sapele, my credit card's on fire and I gotta move a little stuff..... Also, I worked out a deal to sell K&K Pure Pickups if anyone is interested. That's why I need a banner.

Now you're cooking! Next see if the software will allow you to adjust the transparency of individual layers — and play with some of the special effects.

For example, you can create a layer with text, copy it, change the text to black, apply about 8 pixels of gaussian blur, make it 50 to 70 percent transparent, then paste your original text in place as a new layer — now you have shadowed text that looks like it's floating above the rest of the image.

As in building stringed instruments, you're limited only by your imagination — and patience.

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D..

Pixel Pushing can really take time, like making guitars, as you say. That was fun. Here is my newest:



Which links to my pickups and tonewood page.