Signature pictures

[Richard-Essex]

I've had a few pictures in my signature over the last few months, mainly of my A35 outside interesting old buildings, but is there an easy way of making a sig out of several (maybe 3 or 4) pictures joined together? (Like WAC_Paul's if you don't know what I mean!) I'd like to get pictures of my three Austins in my signature if possible, but do it properly without faffing around with several different image codes trying to get them to fit.

[WAC_Paul]

depends if you are any good at photoshop etc. that's how I did mine.

If your not I'm more than willing to knock you one up if you want to email me the pics?

[troutrunner]

depends if you are any good at photoshop etc. that's how I did mine.

If your not I'm more than willing to knock you one up if you want to email me the pics?

Paul, why not do a little bit of a tutorial to help us incapable types be a good idea I think

[WAC_Paul]

depends if you are any good at photoshop etc. that's how I did mine.

If your not I'm more than willing to knock you one up if you want to email me the pics?

Paul, why not do a little bit of a tutorial to help us incapable types be a good idea I think

I have loads of tutorials on linking in pictures and using tomtoms etc :0

I can have a go but the whole photo shop thing is a very very big subject.

Main pointer is that a pretty standard used size for them - that looks good but doesn't take too long to load etc is 500 by 100 pixels.

I will go and have a go but it might be hard to explain.

[troutrunner]

Ok, in your own time, no rush and in the most simple format possible.

[WAC_Paul]

ok - lets try a quick guide.

I use photo shop elements 2 which came free with my camera a few ago. The latest version is up to version 8 but unless you want to get serious then this would be overkill. I can find used copies of version 6 from just £13.93 on Amazon so for a beginner it doesn't need to cost a lot. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adobe-Systems-I ... 106&sr=1-6

There are lots of other programmes that will do the same thing but photoshop is the industry standard. Paint on your pc is hard to use as it only allows one picture at a time to be open and worked on (unless I'm missing something?)

Firstly open a new picture. A box will appear asking you to choose the dimensions of the new image you want to create. Change the values to width 500 and height 100 and the units to pixels - as in the picture below.


So now you have your basic frame of your signature - all you need to do is add the pictures and text.


Next step is to open the and resize the picture/s you want to use in your sig. Open those in your usual way after locating the folder in which your store them - usually my pictures. Choosing your pic will have a huge impact on the finished article. Preferably you want a good clean image with little or now background fussiness as this can be distracting. Landscape pics are usually better as your sig is a long thin landscape image. Choosing a picture with the car in the centre but a lot of free space to each side can really work with sigs - don't worry about how much space there is above and below as the next step is to crop the picture ready for the sig.

I found the pictures I have used in this tutorial so they are not mine and are not of my car! just thought I would post that up!

Using the crop tool crop the picture to show only the parts you want to use for your sig - this is a simple click and drag exercise and you can then drag the borders before the final crop to get things how you want them.

In this pic the clear areas show what will be left after cropping - all the shaded areas will be removed during the crop.


The easiest way I like to use to make the picture fit the signature is to resize it before putting it in the sig. You can resize it other ways but this way means its the right size and therefore simpler for beginners.

So to do this go to the image tab on the tool bar and select resize and then image size from the drop down menus. Resize the image to 100 pixels high - the same as the signature. Make sure the constrain proportion button remains ticked! Click OK and job done - your image is ready to go into your sig.



Then you simply drag the picture into your signature picture - the new image you initially created. You do this with the move tool and by clicking and dragging then centre circle that will appear. Alternatively , if you are more used to this, you can copy and paste it in.

As you will see in the picture I have positioned it where I want this image - in this case over to the left but this is where your personal creative juices come into force.


Then all you need to do, if needed, is repeat the last three steps until you have filled your sig with all the pictures you want as here.


Then you can add text if you want to - simply click the text tool and type in what you want. You can edit everything by selecting the text and then you can change the size, font and colour. You can move the text in exactly the same way you did with the pictures by using the move tool.


Don't forget to save your finished signature!

Finally upload your finished sig to a hosting site - like photo bucket or flickr etc. Then add it as your signature in the signature tab of your User Control Panel on here using img tags as like any other picture you post on here from an outside source. Job done



Any problems give me a shout

Paul

[troutrunner]

Thanks Paul,

So first step is to get the photoshop 6 and have a go, I think with your info I could get one of my lads to assist me as well.

[Richard-Essex]

Thanks Paul. I'm a tight git so I will have to look out for a cheap copy of photoshop. I did make a sig in paint a few months back but I was never that happy with it, now I know why.

[A40FARINAGURU]

Thanks Paul. I'm a tight git so I will have to look out for a cheap copy of photoshop. I did make a sig in paint a few months back but I was never that happy with it, now I know why.

i use www.photobucket which can crop etc

[Richard-Essex]

Thanks Paul. I'm a tight git so I will have to look out for a cheap copy of photoshop. I did make a sig in paint a few months back but I was never that happy with it, now I know why.

i use http://www.photobucket which can crop etc

The problem I find is that there is limited space in the signature, and if you have, say, 3 or 4 different image codes side by side in the sig box you quickly go over the character limit. What the photoshop allows you to do is put several pictures together so you can then save it and you only have one image code, which means you have plenty of space in the sig box and as as many pictures in there as you want.

There is probably a way of doing it through photobucket or similar, but I haven't figured out how to yet.

[WAC_Paul]

and also you can add text and effects too which you couldn't do with an on-line photo host

effects I have used in the past include picture fading


Using pictures and blending them together with a background


Using a fading back ground and the same pic cut out and revered


Jokey cartoon sig blending in two very different cartoons and re-creating the the hedge along a new section to look as one


Cropping this original image - my roof design off the MINI (unique and designed by me and the graphics company)

To make a plain and simple sig