Anyone good with graphics?

[jimnyc]

I have Adobe Photoshop and Paintshop Pro, but I'm too stupid to learn how to make a 'good' website logo.

I'd like to change the logo that is at the top of this board but I'm having trouble using these programs. To be honest, I haven't tried too hard, but it looks like you need to be a scientist to do any good with those programs!

Anyone know of any software that is specifically designed for images/logos? (for dummies)

 

[DKSuddeth]

It all depends on what you really want to do Jim. MicroGrafx is also a good graphics suite but any of those three are more than adequate. PM me with some ideas and maybe I can send you some short examples.

 

[jimnyc]

I'm not really sure what I want.

I like what is there now, but I'd like to make it better. I tried opening the image in Paintshop Pro and editing it but I was having trouble NOT making it look like a 5th grader did it!

I guess I'll just have to learn the program.

 

[SinisterMotives]

Can you describe what you want to do or maybe scan some sketches and post them, Jim? I have this weird knack for logos. I made my new logo by accident while playing with my previous ho-hum logo in Paint Shop Pro, and I think it's pretty cool (see below).

EDIT: Oops! I just saw your previous post where you said you weren't sure what you wanted.

 

[jimnyc]

I want similar to what is being used already. The size of the current graphic is 364x65, I'd like for the new one to be just a tad bigger - not by much at all though otherwise it will distort the screen (look at the top of the screen, higher the height, the lower the buttons on the right will go)

Maybe a similar 'patriotic' picture on the left (perhaps some sort of World Trade Center pic?), but of better clarity. And the words on the right are ok I guess, maybe just a more suitable font?

Neater, tighter and maybe a bit more professional looking.

Make sense?

 

[SinisterMotives]

Yes it does. The picture in your avatar would work well there, and it's about the right size if you want to use it. I'm not thrilled with the stock Photoshop bevel effect on the current logo personally. Perhaps a gradient background that fades into the page background would work well.

 

[jimnyc]

Originally posted by SinisterMotives
Yes it does. The picture in your avatar would work well there, and it's about the right size if you want to use it. I'm not thrilled with the stock Photoshop bevel effect on the current logo personally. Perhaps a gradient background that fades into the page background would work well.

Damn, never even thought of my own avatar!

Yes, that would look good. Do you think the height is too high? And I agree about the stock effects, but that's all I could figure out how to do! LOL

The fade sounds great. I tried something similar but couldn't get the colors to come even remotely close!

Hell, look what I put up there, I couldn't even get the text aligned properly. I suck.

 

[SinisterMotives]

Don't be so hard on yourself. The new paint programs are obscenely complicated, which is why I use Paint Shop Pro 3.11 (yes, the 16-bit Windows 3.11 version!) whenever possible.

I think the avatar image is about the right height. If you find that you want the buttons on the right to be higher, you can change this line in your vBulletin header template:

<td valign="bottom" align="right" nowrap background="images/menu_background.gif">

to read:

<td valign="middle" align="right" nowrap background="images/menu_background.gif">

That will align them with the middle of the logo image.

 

[jimnyc]

Outstanding! How did you know exactly what template it was? Do you use vBulletin?

I tried so many ways when I first opened this board to adjust things in the header and forumhome, and every time the buttons, time or member information got all screwed up.

I just printed out your code, thanks!

 

[SinisterMotives]

No, I usually write my own message boards and stuff. It was just an educated guess. Most Web applications of this type have a header + generated page + footer structure.

 

[eric]

Most web pages are layed out in tables the valign command set the vertical positioning in the row of the table.

 

[eric]

Though I would not use the term Web application. The board is written in PHP which is a server-side scripting language. The page is still in HTML, what happens is when the appache server sees the php extension it passes it to the PHP parser which in turn processes the php tags and creates an HTML page for the browser. If you look at the source from the page you will find no PHP tags, it is pure HTML. This is more DHTML than a Web App in the pure sense of the phrase.

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by eric
Most web pages are layed out in tables the valign command set the vertical positioning in the row of the table.

True, a lot of designers still do it that way. However, DIV tags positioned using stylesheets have begun replacing table-based layouts in recent years. Either way, dynamically generated pages (e.g., Perl, ASP, and PHP applications) usually split the layout into three separate parts and use an include function to "pull in" the static header and footer sections.

 

[eric]

Agreed Div tags are becoming very popular as did CSS. Though a lot of pro designers still like the good old tables.

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by eric
Though I would not use the term Web application. The board is written in PHP which is a server-side scripting language. The page is still in HTML, what happens is when the appache server sees the php extension it passes it to the PHP parser which in turn processes the php tags and creates an HTML page for the browser. If you look at the source from the page you will find no PHP tags, it is pure HTML. This is more DHTML than a Web App in the pure sense of the phrase.

Thanks, but I am well familiar with the way PHP and other server-side scripting engines work.

I generally use the term "DHTML" to refer to client-side DOM scripting via JavaScript, but you're correct in that the term is commonly used to refer to dynamically generated HTML and other content as well.

 

[eric]

Ever work with ColdFusion, awsome for intranet apps.

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by eric
Agreed Div tags are becoming very popular as did CSS. Though a lot of pro designers still like the good old tables.

It's now generally understood that CSS-positioned DIVs are the way to go because of the enormous savings in bandwidth they allow vs. multiple nested tables. I tend to use a hybrid approach myself: a few DIVs for the major sections (masthead, sidebar, content, etc.), with simple tables layouts within each major block to get more precise contol over the alignment of elements within each block.

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by eric
Ever work with ColdFusion, awsome for intranet apps.

No, I'm strictly a hand-coder, but I've seen some killer sites written in ColdFusion.

 

[eric]

Thats a good strategy !

 

[eric]

Yea I know what you mean about hand coding, I still use assembly language for many system utilities I write. Most of my other dev. is done in C++ or VB for business logic. Nothing like having control !