quote

Type: (banner, avatar, stamp)
Size: (in pixels)
Theme: (love, fantasy, whimsical, macho, book-wormish etc)
Font: (style of font you want)
Colours:
Image: (please provide a link to an image you want used in the graphic)
Other: (anything else you want to add)

quote

Type: (banner, avatar, stamp)
Size: (in pixels)
Theme: (love, fantasy, whimsical, macho, book-wormish etc)
Font: (style of font you want)
Colours:

quote

v. 1.0 - First created. This version had only images of the graphic I was making and text.
v. 1.5 - I added images of various icons and placed them throughout the tutorial. This makes it easier to see what I'm talking about. I also added images of the tool bar, the colour palette and the options menu. I added a little bit more specific information in a few areas that seemed too vague to me.

----------

1. Open up Paint. This is more or less what your Paint program should look like. It varies only slightly between versions:

Here's your tool bar, your colour palette, and your options menu. Learn where everything is in here well. I have smaller icons to help you learn where everything is throughout the tutorial.

Tool Bar ->

Colour Palette ->

Options Menu ->

*+*

2. Click File -> Open... [] and choose any kind of background you want that you've saved previously on your computer. Here's one that I'll use:


*+*

3. Now that I have that image opened in my Paint program, I can crop it to make it fit neoseeker's banner size. To do that, click the icon of the dotted rectangle [] and then use that tool to select a portion of your image. Once you've done that, your mouse arrow will change to a move tool and you'll be able to move the selected portion up to the top of the canvas (your work space or the area that isn't grey). Then click the dot on the bottom of the canvas and drag it up to touch the bottom of your selected portion. The part of your background that you didn't select will either be chopped off or covered by the portion you moved up.

*+*

4. Before going any further, you should make sure that your size doesn't go over neoseeker's limits. To check this, click Image -> Attributes... [] and then a small window will pop up. This window will have two small boxes displaying the height and width of your image in pixels. If your height is over 125 pixels, change it to 125 pixels. If your width is over 575 pixels, lower that as well (although 575 is very large. I wouldn't recommend making a banner that long. A good length would be 300 to 400 pixels).

*+*

5. Once you've done that, you should have your background completely set up. This is how mine looks:


*+*

6. Now that your background is set up, you're ready to add a stock image (a stock is just the main image of your graphic). You can have more than one stock image, but for this, I'm just going to use one. This is the stock image I'll use:


*+*

7. Before you can add your stock image, you'll need to edit it in another window. Save your background by clicking File -> Save As... []. Save it as either a gif or jpeg image and then close it, opening up your stock image.

*+*

8. I'm going to crop my stock image. Use the same method you used with the background to crop it to your liking. Make sure you crop it so that the height isn't larger than 125 pixels. Use the same method I showed you for the background to check and fix that.

*+*

9. Now you're going to have to zoom in on your image in order to erase any background. Before you do this, make sure you click the dotted rectangle icon [] and the click the transparency icon [] on the sidebar that pops up. Then click the magnifying glass [] and click on your image.

*+*

10. Now click the eraser icon [] and erase all around your image, making sure to be careful around the edges so it doesn't look choppy.

*+*

11. Once you've cropped and erased around your image, it should look somethiong like this:


*+*

12. Now that your stock image is edited, you can place it on your background. Open up your background again and be sure to save your stock image as a gif or jpeg before you do that by going to File -> Save As... [].

*+*

13. Once you've opened up your background image by going to File -> Open... [], click the dotted rectangle [] and select the transparency icon [] again.

*+*

14. Right click the background and click Paste From... then choose your stock image. It may have a white fuzziness around it, in which case, just drag the bottom of the canvas down and move the stock image down there to erase it. I'd suggest using the paint bucket icon [] to make the white on the bottom of the canvas a different colour so you can see better when erasing the white.

*+*

15. Once you've done that, select the stock image again using the dotted rectangle tool [] and move it back up to the background. Then drag the empty space on the bottom of the canvas back up.

*+*

16. Now your graphic should be starting to take shape. This is how mine looks:


*+*

17. Now you just need to add the finishing touches, like a border and text. Click the straight line icon [] and zoom in on your image with the magnifying glass []. Now carefully use that line tool to create a border around the edge of your graphic. If you want, you can select whatever thickness you want. I prefer the thinnest one but it's up to you, really.

*+*

18. Now for the text. Once again, click the dotted rectangle icon [] and make sure the transparency setting [] is on. Now click the A icon [] and use the tool that pops up to select whatever area you want to type in. The text tool won't work if you're zoomed in, so zoom out before you do this. Once you've selected where you want your text to go, a box should pop up with your usual text options, like font, size, bold, italicize and underline. Choose whatever settings you want and then use your keyboard to type in your text. You can adjust where your text is by dragging the edges of the area you selected for the text.

*+*

19. Now, if you want, you can change the colour of your border and text. I chose not to but if you do want to change the colour, go to the paint bucket, select your colour from the bottom bar [], zoom in with the magnifying glass [] and use the paint bucket [] to change the colour the way you want it.

*+*

20. Now that your text and border has been done, your graphic is finished. Just do a last-minute check to make sure the size still meet neoseeker's standards. If it's over the limit, fix it. Then save it again by going to File -> Save []. Mine looks like this:


IMPORTANT NOTES
- When creating your graphics on Paint, sometimes you'll make mistakes. It's natural. Just remember that Paint can only undo the last three moves you made in the program so if you make a mistake, fix it right away by clicking Edit -> Undo [].
- To create the [img] code for your graphics, I recommend creating your own free account on photobucket.com and uploading your graphics to your online album there. By uploading the images, photobucket will provide you with the necessary codes to post your graphics in various places.
- When using file types to save banners, here's something to keep in mind:
jpeg ~ Good for photographic-like images but can make some images blurry on Paint. Uses the least amount of disk space.
gif ~ Good for simplistic or cartoon-like images, but can make photographic-like images look pixellated and take away some of it's colour. Also uses a small amount of disk space.
png ~ This is the best file type to save any graphic and keep it's original quality but uses a lot of disk space and more than likely will end up going over neoseeker's 40 000KB limit. I don't recommend saving neoseeker banners as png images.
- Avatars on neoseeker can only be 65 x 65 pixels and can only be in jpeg or gif format.[/div]