Making a banner

[7sunshine]

I am not sure how to make a banner. Can anyone help? My Blog is called "Happenings at The Hope Chest. Thanks!

[vangogh]

It's probably not realistic to teach you how to create a banner in a forum thread. Could you provide us more details? What have you tried so far? What specifically is are you having trouble doing? A banner is simply an image so in general you open an image or graphics editing program and then use your skills to create the banner.

[Steve B]

Are you talking about a vinyl banner that is hung outside?

[Harold Mansfield]

As VG said, a banner is just an image. Typical banner sizes are 480x60, 300x250, 728x90, and 120x600. What you are seeing at the top of most websites is probably 480x60 ( small rectangle that usually sites top left or right and the most popular size) or 728x90 ( long rectangle that spans across the top). The first step is to determine what size you need in that area.

It's difficult to really teach you how to create graphics. I suggest some design blogs and tutorials if you need help with the basics of graphic design. If you are trying to create something animated or flash, Paint is probably not going to do it.

Also, I noticed that you are on Blogger. I haven't used it in a while, but you will need access to edit the header file on the theme that you are using to place the banner. Not sure how much control you have over that. If you can't edit the files, then you will probably have to be satisfied with placing a banner in your sidebar.

[vangogh]

You generally want to create an image with the right size in the image editing program. Ideally you have the dimensions you need and just create an image of that size.

It's hard for us to give you exact dimensions to use since there isn't really a right or wrong dimension. It depends on what you're trying to do. It sounds like you want an image that goes from edge to edge of the design. Doing a rough measurement it looks like the width of the page is 885px. You should be able to create an image of any height.

However it's also going to depend on how your particular theme was developed. It's possible that even with an image of the correct size you might be adding it in the wrong place. The theme should have come with some instructions for using and editing it, though it's possible it didn't

Could you show us an image you created so we can see if the size matches up with your Blogger theme? I think seeing one of your images will help us help you.