Custom Made Sig and Avatar [15]

nommy the first said:

I would how ever increase the ppi options to a higher amount of resolution,
It does make a huge difference resizing

Got it, will change the DPI to 300 rather than 72.

Look forward to it Stefan

So am I I made that part a month or so ago, and seeing it posted here does make me want to finish the tut
The only problem I really have is that SF only allows so and so much attachments, so I really need to look out there.
I really can't give an estimate as for when the tut will be finished, internship + moving to a new house really takes up all my spare time, but I recon that I can have it finished for the biggest past somewhere mid June.


Nommy

Awesome

Love the idea to start fresh,
This isn't just for me but others to enjoy,
GIMP will no doubt be the best tutorial option to make sigs and even avatars, Free-Free-Free no costs except your time
Even if you have to split the tutorial in two posts not to worry just refer to the next post
Cheers.

Nommy and TZ,

Feedback:

Thanks for the recommendations. Much better, for me, than just linking to a tutorial. Nommy, your dimensions deferred from TZs. Since it makes more sense, to me, to reduce a size than increase it, I chose to use TZs measurements. No offense.

To ALL - I appreciate all related assistance. I need all the guidance I can use. Advice I've always followed. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Hi Wizard,
Nommy used 2600-600 at one time, mostly in photo shop,
I believe he found out resizing doesn't go so great in gimp so he reduced the size to compensate for the loss in quality,
1300-300 will work fine but everything is smaller = a little harder to see clearly when making,
But with a higher resolution plus using Chasy's draw to resize the loss in quality is near Zero :)

I thank Stephanie for the Chasy's Draw tip = brilliant compromise for gimp's lacking
Cheers.
An example is this stuff wont happen,

Question: What about TEXT?

Is there a Win7 program that is good for manipulating text? I do not think Gimp is designed to be text friendly. I can't even identify which TTF style I want to use, because most of them are not displayed accurately before they are selected, or am I missing something? Thanks...

Exactly Mike. I always use 2600x600 in Photoshop, but due to GIMP's flawed resizing 1300x300 is more than sufficient. Plus, the tutorial will be made for people who have virtually no experience with the program. To explain them why 2600x600 is better quality wise but that 1300x300 will make it resize better is, IMHO, not necessary.

But, as said, the tutorial will only be a guideline. There is no need to exactly follow all steps to the letter. If anything I'd love to see people only use part one and three of my tutorial (how to set up GIMP + useful extensions - how to export sigs and resize them) and neglect part two (how to make a signature) and instead use their own imagination to make something cool.

Is there a Win7 program that is good for manipulating text? I do not think Gimp is designed to be text friendly.
I can't even identify which TTF style I want to use, because most of them are not displayed accurately before they are selected, or am I missing something? Thanks...

I must say I agree with you for the GIMP part. Photoshop is much "font-friendlier". E.g. When I create some text in Ps I can easily place layer styles in it, use filters and adjust all of those without really any trouble, but in GIMP applying even a simple bevel can be a bother. I must say that I don't really know of any photo editing software that specifies in editing text. Photoshop and GIMP are really the only ones that come to my mind.


Nommy

I'm not sure what your wanting to manipulate,
The controls are there if these are the ones your referring too ?

I believe the text editors are similar,
It's just a matter of using the Fonts tab instead of the Tool options in gimp,
Once the text is all selected you can use the Fonts tab and use the up and down arrows to scroll through the text menu,
The text changes as you scroll through them
Cheers.

ThrashZone said:

Hi Wizard,
Nommy used 2600-600 at one time, mostly in photo shop,
I believe he found out resizing doesn't go so great in gimp so he reduced the size to compensate for the loss in quality,
1300-300 will work fine but everything is smaller = a little harder to see clearly when making,
But with a higher resolution plus using Chasy's draw to resize the loss in quality is near Zero :)

I thank Stephanie for the Chasy's Draw tip = brilliant compromise for gimp's lacking
Cheers.
An example is this stuff wont happen,

Always work as large as your computer can handle (without going over board that is) just work in proportion to your finished output so as Nommy said 2300x600pxl @ 300dpi will work better than 1300pxl but remember working at 2300pxl 150dpi is the same as working at 1150pxl 300dpi, it's all relative. Also when saving, try and use a png file instead of jpg ... png format is a lossless compression file format, whilst jpg format is a lossy compressed file format (png is a better choice for line drawings, text, and iconic graphics at a small file size)

Gandalf said:

Question: What about TEXT?

Is there a Win7 program that is good for manipulating text? I do not think Gimp is designed to be text friendly.
I can't even identify which TTF style I want to use, because most of them are not displayed accurately before they are selected, or am I missing something? Thanks...

Text is a "vector based" image which is why the edges are so crisp plus you can resize text to any size without loosing quality. If you want to create fancy text and so on it's best to use a vector based package like Free Serif Draw (which is free) then export it to a high quality bitmap which you can import into the likes of Gimp etc. There's a bit more info on vectors and bitmaps over here if your interested Vector vs Bitmap

nommy the first said:

Exactly Mike. I always use 2600x600 in Photoshop, but due to GIMP's flawed resizing 1300x300 is more than sufficient. Plus, the tutorial will be made for people who have virtually no experience with the program. To explain them why 2600x600 is better quality wise but that 1300x300 will make it resize better is, IMHO, not necessary.

But, as said, the tutorial will only be a guideline. There is no need to exactly follow all steps to the letter. If anything I'd love to see people only use part one and three of my tutorial (how to set up GIMP + useful extensions - how to export sigs and resize them) and neglect part two (how to make a signature) and instead use their own imagination to make something cool.

Is there a Win7 program that is good for manipulating text? I do not think Gimp is designed to be text friendly.
I can't even identify which TTF style I want to use, because most of them are not displayed accurately before they are selected, or am I missing something? Thanks...

I must say I agree with you for the GIMP part. Photoshop is much "font-friendlier". E.g. When I create some text in Ps I can easily place layer styles in it, use filters and adjust all of those without really any trouble, but in GIMP applying even a simple bevel can be a bother. I must say that I don't really know of any photo editing software that specifies in editing text. Photoshop and GIMP are really the only ones that come to my mind.


Nommy

Nicely one Nommy & well explained

TZ - what if I wanted to make an Avatar with the Username appear like a horseshoe? Something tells me that Gimp will not let me do that. Yes, straight line text might be OK, but what about weird ideas?

Another free vector program is Inkscape. That has a text along path facility so you can make text in any shape you want.