Adv Tech Course: Banner Creation

Long story short, to create the banner for this blog I messed with using both MS PowerPoint© and Pixlr©.  In fact, I made simple banners in both, just to compare and contrast. But in the end, to make the "real" banner for the blog, I made an image in Pixelmator©, which is a graphics program like photoshop for Mac, and then added it to the banner template in PowerPoint© (since that was one of the two programs we were to use). Frankly, I would not use to PowerPoint© or Pixlr© create images for a course.

PowerPoint© is very limiting. You can make shapes, do simply coloring (most advanced you can get outside of presets are gradients), and import images.  Pixlr, by the simple fact that I need to make an account, or sign in with Facebook (which then wants to import my profile information so it can spam me), etc., is just inconvenient from the start, and slow depending on your web connection.  Yes, it has interesting effect presets and such, but I didn't find it user friendly, and it bothers me from a privacy standpoint that I am creating images online, especially since I like to use my own drawings (like I did here with my drawing of a Triceratops skull, complete with retro effect applied) or photographs in my graphics creations.

So in the end, I decided to, in a way, do what the course instructions for Pixlr suggested... Used more than one program to make my banner. I first use a graphics program that I am familiar with to make an image (text included), and then added that image to PowerPoint© to create the banner.  If in the future I decide to make images for a course, I'd just skip the PowerPoint© step and make the banner in its entirety in a graphics program (off line)... maybe to spice up lesson pages with banner titles, etc. The hardest part was getting the size right for the blog (so the entire image would show up correct). But once you figure out the size you need, the process is a snap.

And FYSA... Pixlr© can also be downloaded as an "extension" to Chrome.