Banner design software?

by Dana_W
17 replies
I need a good banner design software product that will work on a Mac. I know how to upload a wordpress blog and how to do some minor tweaking. What I want to do is be able to design my own banners so that I can quickly and easily create my own sites without having to wait for a designer to do it for me.

I suspect that paid software products are best, which is fine with me. Any suggestions?
#banner #design #software
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    • Profile picture of the author Marty S
      Hi Dana. A cool trick here for basic, but rather impressive banner (graphic) designs on the Mac is using Keynote. Keynote is included in iWorks and if you are not familiar, I highly suggest you get intimate with the power iWorks has to offer.

      Anyway, all you do is open a new Keynote document and create a temporary (measured) border anywhere on your blank screen. You can even use one of their templates if you think the background would be good in your banner.

      Start adding text (use shadows, reflection, position, angles etc) and then search for your complimentary images like people, things, clouds, sky, whatever.

      When you find an image, you will likely only want to use part of that image. Instant ALPHA is an amazing feature in keynote and easily takes out unwanted portions of a photograph. For example if I wanted the Eiffel Tower in the background of my banner, I would just find a picture on Flickr and rip (ALPHA) out everything I did not need in it. Takes 3 seconds.

      There are several videos here describing editing the graphics in Keynote.
      Apple - iWork - Keynote - Create captivating presentations easily.

      Now when you are done editing your banner, you can choose to remove the border that you used for outlining, and then capture the actual banner size into another free program called Skitch. Skitch is a fantastic utility that allows you to grab, edit, save and publish anything you can see on your monitor.

      Save the Skitched image to your folder, and you got yourself a banner. Now this is NOT photoshop (which I do have) intensive in anyway, but if you are shooting out a lot of blogs - perfect. I have used this exact method to create a banner, eBook cover, website header, and numerous video headers... you name it. It works, and with many things Mac, its fun too.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
      Thanks! At some point I may consider Adobe or Corel but at this point I am not advanced enough to get my money's worth out of it. And since all I want is banners, I suspect it is more graphic design power than I actually need.

      Just checked those banner makers...as far as I can tell, unfortunately, they require Windows and I have a Mac. They do look great. Wish I could use them.
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
        I have found this to be very, very useful....

        Easy Banner Maker Pro - Easily design Amazing Banners In Minutes!
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        • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
          Originally Posted by EWGQDD View Post

          I have found this to be very, very useful....

          Easy Banner Maker Pro - Easily design Amazing Banners In Minutes!
          That looks useful. I would have to by Elements, but that's only $80 and would probably come in useful in general.
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          • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
            Originally Posted by Dana_W View Post

            That looks useful. I would have to by Elements, but that's only $80 and would probably come in useful in general.
            Correct, you would need photoshop elements which would take care of most of your graphics needs, unless you really wanted to get real professional, photoshop elements you can usually get for less than 80.00 also, I got it a while back, even though I do not use it anymore for like 65.00.... at bestbuy on sale....
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            • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
              Originally Posted by EWGQDD View Post

              Correct, you would need photoshop elements which would take care of most of your graphics needs, unless you really wanted to get real professional, photoshop elements you can usually get for less than 80.00 also, I got it a while back, even though I do not use it anymore for like 65.00.... at bestbuy on sale....
              I will check out Best Buy.

              I don't plan on designing websites from top to bottom, I just want to be able to quickly customize a wordpress template by plugging in a banner with a picture from istockphoto and a decent looking font that says the name of the site - like "Dog Training Secrets" or whatever the site name is.

              I'd have a designer do it for me if I could find someone who would have everything up and running as fast as I'd like - say, within one day - but I have to be realistic, that's not really fair to ask of a freelancer.
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              • Profile picture of the author JackPowers
                Originally Posted by Dana_W View Post

                I will check out Best Buy.

                I don't plan on designing websites from top to bottom, I just want to be able to quickly customize a wordpress template by plugging in a banner with a picture from istockphoto and a decent looking font that says the name of the site - like "Dog Training Secrets" or whatever the site name is.

                I'd have a designer do it for me if I could find someone who would have everything up and running as fast as I'd like - say, within one day - but I have to be realistic, that's not really fair to ask of a freelancer.
                Photoshop + istockphoto is really all you need and a read a bit about banner design in photoshop. If you don't have Photoshop then GIMP is free and almost as good for basic stuff.

                Anyway, I use Photoshop, get a good related picture from Istockphoto, add a background, text and use some layer effects and it looks pretty good in no time. Obviously it is not going to win any competitions, but works fine for smaller affiliate/adsense sites.
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                • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
                  Originally Posted by JackPowers View Post

                  Photoshop + istockphoto is really all you need and a read a bit about banner design in photoshop. If you don't have Photoshop then GIMP is free and almost as good for basic stuff.

                  Anyway, I use Photoshop, get a good related picture from Istockphoto, add a background, text and use some layer effects and it looks pretty good in no time. Obviously it is not going to win any competitions, but works fine for smaller affiliate/adsense sites.
                  Is Photoshop fairly expensive?

                  I've heard of Gimp, now that you mention it, I may play around with it to see if it's easy to use.
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                  • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
                    Originally Posted by Dana_W View Post

                    Is Photoshop fairly expensive?

                    I've heard of Gimp, now that you mention it, I may play around with it to see if it's easy to use.
                    The full version of photoshop you can get but its like 350 to 500 dollars, maybe a little less on ebay? Then there are different versions like CS3, CS4 and CS5 which is the latest.

                    If you knew someone who was a student you could get a student version for about 300. I think?
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                    • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
                      Originally Posted by EWGQDD View Post

                      The full version of photoshop you can get but its like 350 to 500 dollars, maybe a little less on ebay? Then there are different versions like CS3, CS4 and CS5 which is the latest.

                      If you knew someone who was a student you could get a student version for about 300. I think?
                      If I thought I'd get full use out of it I would get it, but I really only need it for banner design at this point. I need photoshop lite, basically.
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                      • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
                        Photoshop Elements isn't too expensive and it does a lot. I got
                        a copy with a drawing tablet I bought. All told it was about
                        $60 for the tablet and software.

                        There's some argument that these Adobe products load invasive
                        licensing schemes onto your computer that border on Malware.
                        I have Photoshop Elements on one computer and haven't had a
                        problem with the licensing software, but it is a resource hog so
                        for almost all day-to-day use I turn to Paint.net

                        Paint.net is free and actually quite powerful. It doesn't support
                        ecover templates or animated banners, but it loads fast and
                        is easy to use.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
    Seriously - that is an AWESOME tip! I am indeed not looking for anything super fancy and intensive at this point, and I do indeed have iworks. I can't wait to try this!
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  • Profile picture of the author Pooja Goyal
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
      Originally Posted by Pooja Goyal View Post

      Hey EWGQDD

      I did try the Easy Banner Pro but was unable to insert images...may be because i used the trial version. Could you please tell me if I buy the software, will it allow me to add images to the banner?
      Yes, you can definately insert your own images, but there is no trial version of the product that I am referring to that I know of, so you are maybe referring to something else....

      Easy Banner Pro is not the same product, thats is probably why you had issues....

      Are you sure you have this.....

      Easy Banner Maker Pro - Easily design Amazing Banners In Minutes!
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      Need Custom Graphics Work? - Message Me For A Design Quote!
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Dana, I don't know if you use any of the Windows simulators for Mac, but I have pretty good luck with X-Header, by the Xsite Pro folks...
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  • Profile picture of the author ebsit01
    If you want to design a banner for your website than you can use flash and photoshop to design a very attractive banner.
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  • Profile picture of the author tht222
    I rarely create banners or logos, but when I need some, I usually go to Google and run "create banners online" or something of that sort and then find at least 3-4 good sites and create banners in a matter of minutes. These banners and logos are quick and OK for my blogs and free sites; if you want something really eye-catching, then you can always contact a designer.
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