Creating a Custom Banner for your Gather Group Online

This tutorial will teach you how to use a free online graphics editor called LunaPic to make a custom banner for your Gather Group.  I can also do one for a graphics program like PSP (that being the one I have on my computer) if there's an interest.

I tried to explain clearly, but if  you're stuck on one of the steps, just comment and I'll explain further.

If you liked the tutorial, let me know! I can do some more on other subjects.

I'm going to try and take screenshots and add those pictures to this tutorial in the next couple of days- but my computer was very not cooperating tonight. I just wanted to get the basics down.

 

Create The Blank Banner

1. Go  http://www.lunapic.com

2. Scroll down to Create a new Image . Choose a background color. In the two boxes,  type 990 (the width) and 220 (the height). Click Go.

3.  Your screen should say New Canvas with (the color you picked) background sized 990x220 . You should see a rectangle of whatever color you picked. This is your banner to be.

 

Add Text

4. On the left hand side you will see some tool buttons. Press the T button to add some text to your banner.

5. Enter your text in the box above your banner marked Text.  Usually, this will be the name of the group you're making the banner for. (Like The World Is Crazy or The Chain Game).  Your text will appear on the banner.

6. If the text is too small (and it likely will be) increase the Size by typing a larger number into the box. Try 50, or 76. Click Update Preview to see this change take effect. Change size and update until you are pleased with the results.

7.  Choose a Font from the dropdown list. The text on your banner should update automatically here, but if it doesn't, click the Update Preview button again as needed.

8. If you want a an outline on your text, choose a color in the Text Border Color box. Otherwise, leave this blank. Click the Update Preview to see the changes as needed.

9. Enter the name of the color you want your text in the Color box, or click Pick to choose a color by viewing colors. If you Pick, a pallate will pop up, and you can click on the color of your choice.

10. Title gives you the option to fill in your text with an image from the dropdown list. Choose glitter, strawberries, money, etc. Image should update automatically, but if it doesn't, yep, it's our friend the Update Preview button again.

11. Now click on your text, and drag it around until it is the desired position on the banner.  If you want to include an image on your banner, proceed to step 12. For a text-only banner, skip to step 13.

 

Optional - Add Image

12. Next to the Title drop down is a link to Edit Clipboard image. Click this link, and a separate window will open. Click Browse to select an image saved on your computer, and Upload to upload it. The image should appear in this smaller window.

 

Apply Text

13.  Click Apply Text.

14. Congratulations! Your banner now has text.

15. If you did the image step and now have an image in the smaller window, continue on. If not, proceed to step 22 .

 

Optional - Working with the Image

16.  Mouse over the buttons on the left side to find the View Clipboard button. This should look like a clipboard with a piece of paper attatched. Click it. You will see the image from your smaller window, with two links under it. Click on Paste clipboard image into working image.

17. Look under all the buttons at the left. You should see a tiny, tiny copy of your clipboard image. Pick it up, and drag it over to the banner.

18. Once on the banner, you will see four yellow squares around your clipboard image. These are to resize it. Click and hold one of the squares and drag it until the image is the desired size. Position it where you want it on your banner.

20. There is a slide bar that reads Solid on one end and Clear on the other. Use this to make your image fade out if you desire. 

21. When you have the clipboard image where you want it, click Apply Pasted Image.

 

Save Your Banner
22. You now have a banner! At the top of the page, under the LunaPic logo, you will see gray dropdown buttons (Animator Home/ File/ Edit/ Draw/ etc). Click File , then Save File from the list that drops down.

23. You will see an icon that says Save File along with choices. In order to upload your image on Gather, you MUST choose to save as a JPG.  Click Save as JPG .  A box will pop up, asking you if you want to open or save the file. You want to save it, so click Save. The banner will then download to your computer.

24.  Unfortunately, your lovely banner saves with a long string of numbers as a file name. If you want to rename it to something more descriptive, open the folder that contains the file, right click, and Rename your file. Remember to keep the .jpg extention! If you remove that, the computer may not recognize it as an image file.

Congratulations! You've made a custom banner.

Tips:

You can click the UNDO link after most decisions you've made. You can also find Undo in the Edit drop down list (located in the gray row of buttons under the LunaPic logo).

Try to center the text in the middle of the banner, with some space on top and bottom. This is so when you upload it to the group, the buttons don't overlap the image.

There are a wide variety of other things you can do with an image at LunaPic. After you've saved the simple banner you've made with this tutorial - play around with some of the other options and see what you can discover.

Though you can use a .gif animation for a group, it is not recommended because of load time.

You can also use this tutorial to make an icon for your group! In the begining, just choose a different size - 400 by 400 , or 200 by 200 say - to start with.