Best for MAKING site buttons & banners with good img quality?

Question

I have heard of many programmes like Adobe PhotoShop & I have only used Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 & Photoscape to create site buttons like in :

http://s719.photobucket.com/albums/ww197/arieltan1997/?action=view¤t=arielbuttonc.gif

I did not make the button template, I only inserted the words, but the image quality is excellent!

But when I create banners using those programmes, they end up in bad quality image when I post them at my blog. Such as:

http://s719.photobucket.com/albums/ww197/arieltan1997/?action=view¤t=ONESTOPPBANNER.gif

What I want is to make my own button with a transparent background!
& to make banners with GOOD image quality.
Help?

Answer 1

When entering text, make sure you have anti-aliasing turned on. Always make the image at the size you want. Better to reduce image than try to enlarge it as you may have a pixelation problem.



Vector graphics is fine only if you are going to be resizing the image a lot. It DOES make a nice image, but most web formats, other than vectored images, are more popular. GIF/PNG is good for small images like buttons. They support transparency.



Larger images of good quality should stick with the jpg format and compressed for web use to keep file size down.



The program (Corel) is a very good graphics editor so any problems are in the making of the image.



Could try these if you think not.



FREE software:



http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ (Animation included)

http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/ (Animation included)

Blender for Dummies (PDF) Download: http://www.baydownloads.com/search.php?a=4megaupload&q=blender%20for%20dummies%20pdf

UnFreeze: http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/ (Animation)



FREE software (No Animation):



http://www.getpaint.net/ (Very user friendly)

http://www.inkscape.org/download/ (Very good for vectored graphics)

http://www.download.com/PhotoScape/3000-2192_4-10703122.html?tag=mncol

http://www.online-image-editor.com/

Answer 2

Do you see how some of the lines in the clipart in your banner is broken? This effect appears when you reduce a raster line. If your work has to be reduced, it's best to use vector graphics. Their size can be increased and decreased without any loss of quality. Make sure that you select Antialias with the Text and every other tool you use, too. Oh, with the Text Tool, make sure the Create As box up in the Options bar says "Vector".



For sources of vector clipart, google "vector clipart".



(Your banner is nicely designed and really cute. Have you ever thought about doing some digital scrapbooking?)

Answer 3

Photoshop.



Cheaper: Paint Shop Pro.