Friday, November 5, 2010

Off Topic:Tutorial: How to create a Signature

I know this isn't really gaming news or updates but I thought since many gamers are on some sort of forum that this would be a good way to help make the most out of their profile...

Friendly Greetings!
In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to create a signature for forums. You don't need to worry if you don't have the software
to do it everything will be explained.

Contents:
1: Software
2: How to download
3: Dimensions
4: Theme
5: Design

1: Software
You don't need to have the likes of Photoshop to create high quality signatures. There is loads of free software out there that will let you basically do the same stuff as Photoshop. The difference being PS has more tools and is really for more overly high detailed pictures.
We are going to use some software called GIMP. GIMP is short for the GNU Image Manipulation Program and GNU computer operating system
GIMP is 100% free and safe and has loads of the same tools that PS does.

2: How to Download
First of all goto: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
and Hit the download link. It will lead you onto another site and the site should automatically let the download come up. Click save file and if says there its a "potentially unwanted program" just click download anyway. It came up for me but yet GIMP suggested the site and McAfee had a green mark on the page so It will be safe. Run it and then its done.
When you run it first it make take a little while to load but that's just because its the first time

3: Dimensions
Some Sites might have a limit but I wouldn't suggest having it huge anyway.
Lets just start of with a nice size.
In this case we are going to start with 400 by 150 (Width 400). This is all up to personal choice but I think that looks good. When you have 400 by 150 entered in click "Ok" and your box should expand into that size. There is a little icon at the bottom that will allow you to either zoom in or out.




4: Theme
Avatars and Signatures are ways of showing of you. Whether it be your gaming style or something that reflects you personally or it can even be about a game you like or have an interest in. Its entirely up to you.
I am just going to use a Image I found online as an example.
To add a Image click File ---> Open as Layer. This will open the image as a layer instead of replacing the current dimension. Use the select tool to move it around.(Select tool is on the second row. Third one from the right)









5: Design
Now that you have a basic image created your next step is to make it your own. GIMP offers loads of different filters to change the image. Let add text first. To add text click on the A icon on the GIMP tool window and click on the image
(Don't worry if its not exactly where you want it to be, You can move it later)
To change the font and the colour. The text tool has a second section at the bottom half of GIMP. Mine has been set to Sans but by clicking on the Aa button a list will appear with all different fonts. Find the right one for you and then move down. You'll see a bar of colour. This will be the colour of your text. Pick anyone you want. In this case I went for Red. To move the picture just click on the select tool again and hold left mouse button while dragging.

Done!

And yes. I have used the same picture as I did for the background :)


Finished Product...
Keep in mind I put a lot more time into my signatures. This was only a tutorial on how to do it.


Feel Free to leave feedback
Remember to Keep up with the main Blog page
http://stretchg.blogspot.com/

-S