***** HOW TO MAKE EONS BANNERS V2 ***** Posted by: BluesPlayer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Change History 7-10-07: V1 Original file 9-8-07: V2 Dreaded "white space" instructions ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION Your banner is the space right above your name and picture; it goes all the way across the page. The banner itself is a placeholder for any image that is 940 pixels wide and 100 pixels high. Anything bigger gets chopped off; anything smaller gets repeated. Eons does this auto- matically. The first step in creating a banner is deciding what you want. You can have a repeating pattern across the space or one solid block made up of one or more images. So once you have decided, you have to create or modify the image you want to use. PS: In this document, "image", "picture and "graphic" are used interchangeably. *********************************************************************************************** CREATING YOUR BANNER: REPEATING IMAGE The easiest way to create your banner is to pick a small graphic or image that you like and wish to have repeated across the banner space. Find the picture/image/graphic and OPEN IT using any photo editor. Adobe Photoshop, MS Office Picture Manager, the software that came with your digital camera or the free image editor available via the link in this group's header announcement are all options. Once you have the picture in the editor, RESIZE it so that it is 100 PIXELS HIGH. Make sure that you keep the same ASPECT RATIO so that the width of the picture changes in proportion to the height. You don't want a distorted image. I can't give you specific "click by click" instructions because there are sooooo many editors out there. Take some time and make it work. SAVE the modified image as a JPG file under a different name!!! Things that work great are flowers, clouds, water, etc...anything that seamlessly repeats itself. *********************************************************************************************** CREATING YOUR BANNER: SINGLE IMAGE This where you can get very fancy and creative. However, you will need more than a photo editor program; you will have to have one that lets you CREATE images from scratch. If you have such a program (like Photoshop), perform the following steps... 1. Open the program 2. Create a NEW blank image 940 pixels wide by 100 pixels high 3. Save the blank image; that's your template that you can use over and over again 4. Load it up...that is, add whatever you want to the blank image: color, pictures, text, transparencies, overlays, glitter, it doesn't matter. Be as simple or as wild as you want to be. Just make sure it's 940 x 100!!! 5. Save the image as a JPG file under a new name. You're done. *********************************************************************************************** GETTING YOUR BANNER ON TO EONS: DIRECT UPLOAD The first method for displaying your banner is to upload it to Eons like any other photo. This is done through the "Edit My Photos" link on your profile page. Just follow the instuctions to upload a picture. After you have done that, click the tab "Edit Profile Banner" in the same photos section. You will now see all of your uploaded images. Just click on the image you just uploaded and save it as your banner. Eons will repeat the photo across the whole banner space or display the big single banner you created. Pros - Simple; easy Cons - The banner image is mixed in with your uploaded photos *********************************************************************************************** GETTING YOUR BANNER ON TO EONS: WEB LINK The other method for displaying your banner is to copy the image file to another location on the web and then link it, that is, tell Eons where to find it. For this, click the "Edit My Photos" link on your profile page and then click on the "Edit Profile Banner" tab. You will see a section labeled "Or use an image stored on another web site". Under that section name will be an empty box. Click in the box and type in the address (url) of your banner image. It should look something like... http://www.att.net/johnspace/pictures/eonsbanner.jpg This is some private space on the web that you use for your own personal files. It could be supplied by your ISP or you may use something like PhotoBucket. Doesn't matter. After you enter the url, click "Use This As My Banner Photo". You're done. If the banner doesn't show up, you typed in the wrong url or left off the "http://". Pros - The banner image is NOT mixed in with your uploaded photos Cons - Need other web space to store the image; have to know the correct url of the image *********************************************************************************************** THE DREADED WHITE SPACE 1. FACT: The banner area is 940px wide by 100px high. 2. FACT: If you create a banner that exact size, put it somewhere else on the web and link to it, the banner fits and looks absolutely perfect. 3. FACT: If you create a banner that exact size, upload it to your Eons photos section and use it as your banner...you get the dreaded WHITE LINE at the top. It happens ALL THE TIME!!! WHY? Eons takes every photo you upload and AUTOMATICALLY makes it 150px high if it is smaller than that vertical height. It does so by putting white space at the top and the bottom. I've told them about this but it must be a pretty low priority on their To Do List. SOLUTION: *** This only applies to people uploading their banners to their Eons Photo area *** Step 1: Create your banner 940px wide and 150px high. Step 2: Put ALL of your banner material IN THE UPPER TWO-THIRDS OF THE SPACE, that is, the upper 100 pixels. Step 3: Save you banner, upload it to your Eons Photo Section and designate it as your banner. Eons will now display only the top 100 pixels of the image which will be the exact banner you want. Yes, this is a pain in the #%@, but it works. *********************************************************************************************** CONCLUSION So it's pretty simple to put a neat banner on your profile. For people unfamiliar with graphic and photo editors, DON'T BE AFRAID!!! Jump in, get creative! You'll be suprised what you will be doing in a short amount of time. After all...we all started somewhere... JC