The first step in
making a very cool banner
is deciding what you want it to look like
before you begin! You will
need several different items, all of which
can be found on the previous page, or you can
find and make your own. You will need a
plain background, sized to a width of 400
pixels, and a height of 100. It should look
like this: You will need
two images (the same image can be rotated to
appear mirrored when applied to the other
side) that have been resized to a heigth of
70 pixels and the width of your
preference. They will look something like
this: and or one that will look the
same on both sides like this: You will need a vertical
bar,
sized to a width of 15, and a height of 100
pixels, like this: and you will need a
horizontal bar,
sized to a width of 400 pixels, and a height
of 15. Like this: All of this resizing
can be done
easily at MyImager.<
br> Now that we have all our images, we
can go to Image Magick to put them all
together!
The first step is to get your plain banner
background image pulled up at Image Magick.
You do this by entering the URL in both of
the boxes and then select "View". Is your
banner there? I hope so!! Now select
"Composite" from the file menus at the top of
the screen. In the boxes (yes, both of them!)
type in the URL of your horizontal bar. It
must be at a width of 400 pixels prior to
this, or it will not show up when you do the
composite. After you type in the URL, for
location, select "North". For Composite
operation, select "Replace". Click on the
composite button. You should see this: Go up and select "Composite"
again. Your URL for your horizontal bar
should still be in the box. Leave it there!
Select "South" for your location, and leave
"Replace" as your operation. Click on the
composite button. You should see this
now: Go up and select "Composite" again.
Now you will need to change the URLs in the
box to the URL of your vertical bar. For your
location, select "West", keep it on Replace,
and click the composite button. Your banner
should look like this: Go up and select Composite once
more. Leave the same URL in the box, but
select "East" as your location. Leave Replace
as the operation, and click on the composite
button. Now you should have a banner with a
cool border: The next step, and this
is VERY important, is to save
this banner background with the border!! This
will save you some time later if you decide
you don't like the images you selected! To
save it, go up and select "Output". For
format select either gif or jpg, depending on
what the format of the plain background is.
Select "clipboard" and then click on the
output button. Click on your image and then
transload it to your site. If you are
using 2 different images you will want to
change the URL to the image you want to go on
the right side. In the location box you will
need to type +328+15. Select "Over" and then
click the composite button. This is what
your banner should look like now: The next step is to write on
your banner. Go up and select "Annotate".
Type the text you want to appear on your
banner into the box. You can select what ever
font style you wish and the size of the font
will vary depending on how wide your images
are. Select the color and click on
"Annotate". Your banner should look
something like this: Congratulations! You did
it! Make sure you save it same as before
and transload it. Good Luck and Have
Fun! If you have
any questions about this tutorial, please
Email
Michelle or Raven. We
will be happy to help you. Banner
tutorial created for me by
Michelle
Make sure you write down the URLs to all of
the images you will be using and know which
ones are which. This will save you money on
Tylenol for the headache you will have if you
don't!