basic banner tutorial

Here's a simple guide on how to make basic banners in GIMP, using only the default brushes and fonts! A few simple steps, and you can make banners without downloading anything. Open up an image (in this tutorial a size of 380 x 100 is used) and follow these instructions for a cool, easy banner!

Alright, the simplest way to make a decent background is with a gradient. So, pick a foreground color and a background color. The gradient will be between these two shades.

After you select the gradient tool, drag your mouse across the image. You should now have a gradient background on your banner.

Now, time to use the brush tool. First create a new layer (by clicking this in the layer tab). Select the biggest round (not fuzzy) brush, and put a dot in the bottom corner of the screen. Then, just hover your mouse on the side above it and press shift. You should see this:

Click your mouse, and it will create a straight line between the two points, looking like this:

You can do that a few more times on the banner, just to create some noise, so to speak. You should have something like this:

Now select the biggest sparkle brush (which looks like this) and create another layer. Now, use the same technique you did to make the lines, but make these lines on top of the previous ones.Then, create a new layer. Use the circle select tool (tool #2 in the tool guide) to select a region at the top of the banner. You should see this:

Now simply fill the circle in with white, so that it looks like this:

On the layer with the circle, adjust the opacity. You can do that with the bar at the top of the layers tab, which looks like this. Now, you should have this as your banner:

It's textin' time! *shot* Select the text tool, and the color you'd like to use for your text. For the font, I'm going to use Eurostile (this should already be on your computer). Click on your banner to add text. I'm putting my internet alias, but you can put whatever you'd like. Now we've got this:

Now, let's add some more text behind that text. Do this by clicking on the layer below your text layer, then clicking on your banner (with the text tool selected.) Now make the font a bit bigger. I'm using white for my font this time, because it's easier to blend. I'll type the same thing, in lowercase, and move it near the middle of the banner. You should now see this:

Adjust the opacity of this layer the same way you adjusted the opacity of the circle. This makes the text blend in with the background. Now, add a border (if you'd like), and you're done!

finished result