There are
several ways to make a banner, and the way you choose depends upon what
kind of banner
you want. Regardless of the kind of banner, all you really need is a thin,
rectangular
image with some text (and perhaps a small picture to make it catch
the visitors
eyes) and some ingenuity.
Measurements
The
measurements of a banner vary (I have seen at least a dozen different
sizes). My
decorative
banners (which can be seen here)
are approximately 408 x 80 pixels. However,
if you want
the banner for use in banner exchange you need a different kind. This banner
(also known as
the ad banner) has three specific criteria to be met:
Dimensions
468 x 60
File size limit
Not above 10 kb
File type
Has to be a .gif
Step 1
Creating
the text
Keeping the
above-mentioned criteria in mind let's go on and make a banner. "Safeman's
Security
Equipment" needs to be advertised on the net and we are going to
make their ad
banner.
• Open a
new file with the dimensions set to 468 x 60 pixels
• Fill
the layer (Layer 1) with the colour white (This is to better see what
we are doing, and
most ad
banners are white anyway)
• Create
the first text SECURITY
Note:
It is not necessary to use the same colours as in the title we made
earlier, but it is
preferable to
do so. And we should use the same fonts as well.
I will try to
use colours as close to the title as possible
• First
text: SECURITY (Font: Arial Black; Size: 25)
• Second
text: EQUIPMENT (Font: Courier New; Size: 20; Character spacing: 190)
• Third
text: Safeman's (Font: Monotype Corsiva; Size: 30)
Before
clicking OK after we have typed in Safeman's let's take the
opportunity and make the
initial S
bigger (as in the title). Highlight it and choose size 40. Then set
the base line to -4.
• Now
click OK
What we have
got now doesn't look much like a banner (I've attached a thin border around
the image to
make it more distinguishable). The file size is only 4 kb so we are
well within
the limit.
Step 2
Adding a
picture (bitmap)
Next step is
to add the picture of a safe (Safe.bmp). If you haven't made any
graphic since
the title you
should be able to find the file in the short file list at the bottom
of the File menu.
If the file
isn't there you will have to use the Open
command to find it.
• Open
the file (Safe.bmp)
Then perform
the following:
Ctrl + A
to
Select all
Shift +
Ctrl + I
to
Invert mask (selection)
Ctrl + C
to
Copy the
picture to the clipboard
Ctrl + D
to
Remove mask
Close the file
and answer no to the question about saving changes (You haven't made any).
Now press Ctrl
+ V to paste the picture onto a new layer.
A new layer
was created automatically because the active layer was a text layer (Safeman's).
There would
have been no new layer created had the active layer been an ordinary layer.
This could
cause problems so pay attention to the layer palette!
NOTE:
Should you need to undo an operation (e.g. pasting onto the wrong
layer) you can do
so simply by
deleting the event (i.e. the operation you performed) from the Events
palette.
If you don't
have this palette visible you can bring it up by selecting Show
events from the Window menu.
Back to the
banner. We need to arrange the text and the safe to make the image
look more
like a banner.
• Move
the SECURITY and EQUIPMENT to the right hand side and position them centered
vertically
below each other
• Switch
to the layer with the safe and move the safe quite close to the text
you just moved.
Center it vertically
While the
layer with the safe is active we might as well add some shadow to the picture.
• Right
click on the layer (in the layer palette) and choose Effects
The Effects
box opens with Shadow as default effect.
• Choose
the default colour and set it to 2 pixels
• Click OK
Now the banner
should look like this:
File size is
now 5,4 kb. We are still well within the limit
