Software for banner design?

[michaelday]

Which software is commonly used for banner design?

Thanks.

[mivox]

AFAIK, most people use their 'regular' graphics software, and just create a graphic of the appropriate size. In my case, I use PhotoShop... other favorites around here are Fireworks and Paint Shop Pro. No need to have a different program for banners, buttons, logos, etc., if one program can do it all.

On the other hand, if you're ONLY looking to create banners in standard ad sizes, there may be no reason to buy a high-end graphics program to do it...

Does anyone know of simpler/more specialized programs designed specifically for creating banner ads? I know there are some "create a banner online" web sites, but I'ce never tried them.

[michaelday]

Thanks Mivox,
I was looking at "create a banner online" sites but they require that link to them is placed on the banner.
I own PhotoShop but don't have much experience with it. I guess I'll have to start to learn. If it's not too much trouble can you tell me after I open new image and select the size that I need how do I insert the text and change the background of the image? Also do I save it as gif or jpg?
Thanks a lot for your help.

[mack]

The sites that allow you to create a banner online are not so good. they offer a selection of templates and you end up with the same banner as countless other sites.

i quite like ms image composer easy to use and has a lot of fairly good effects.
It is bundled with ms frontpage 2000.

[mivox]

I'd suggest taking a couple of hours to sit down with PhotoShop and play with it. Click on all the tool buttons in the right-hand toolbar, and don't be afraid to read the help files! The text tool is the button with the "T" on it... The two overlapping color squares at the bottom of the toolbar are where you select your background and foreground colors.

Just start clicking on toolbar buttons, and exploring the drop down menus... there's way too much stuff in there for me to explain it here! :)

Also... almost all ad banners are .gifs. Pretty much the only time you ever want to use .jpg format is on a complex/photographic type image.

[mivox]

they offer a selection of templates and you end up with the same banner as countless other sites

That's what I was always afraid of... It would probably be a huge hassle for them to actually offer a full-featured graphics program online, which is what they'd need for my preference.

I've never used any MS graphics programs... thanks for the suggestions!

[michaelday]

Thanks guys,
I appreciate your help.

[djankit82]

photoshop is not that hard as it looks like but u got to do ur homework u know. work with it play little biiit do some work with pictures of ur own and in that way u will learn some good things. i am just 18 and i alread know 70% of photoshop by my self on 6 months. now i am planing to buy some books just to see some advanzz level in photoshop
also firework is also good i am playin with that too but its more like for the whole web page designing like some bussizznezz sites which have just 4 pages but it can go far than that. i also tried some stupid software which don't work well that can do some little tricks with banner. but i have found this software name "HEADLINE STUDIO" and i haven't seen it i am going to get it soon its sounds like very good software just for banners and logos.

<promotional content edited by mivox>

(edited by: mivox on 5:02 am (gmt) on June 22, 2001

[mivox]

Welcome to WmW djankit! I couldn't agree with you more... I learned almost everything I know about PhotoShop by taking the time to play with it. :)

By the way... check your StickyMail (the link is at the top of the screen).