10-03-2008, 08:47 PM

I have designed print ads but never done any ads for the web and now I have been asked to create some web banner ads and I need to do them fairly quickly. Any suggestions for good resources and design ideas. I usually do my print ads in Illustrator but am wondering if Photoshop is better for web ads? Is the color RGB? What resolution? See, obviously this is new territory for me! Thanks for any tips.

10-03-2008, 10:20 PM

get Bannerzest

10-03-2008, 10:45 PM

Well since it's for Web most likely 72 DPI.

10-03-2008, 10:57 PM

Originally Posted by podraig

get Bannerzest

These are going to be super simple banner ads for a startup website - so I don't need Bannerzest quite yet - but thank you!

10-13-2008, 08:36 AM

I always use photoshop for my banners and designs.

10-13-2008, 09:52 AM

I ended up using Illustrator and the "Save for Web"option that
created a .gif and my webmaster was happy but I still have a lot
to learn I think!

10-15-2008, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by Annie524

I ended up using Illustrator and the "Save for Web"option that
created a .gif and my webmaster was happy but I still have a lot
to learn I think!

That is one way of doing it. Photoshop can be the better tool though, its meant more for this stuff. Saving for web is crucial no matter what though, and playing around with the settings to get the best file size/quality balance is helpful as well.

Do you have fireworks? If so, you might want to start playing in there. Its not to hard to make animated gifs with that program. Animated banners can catch more attention that static ones. I usually use a combination of photoshop and flash to make those, but fireworks will work well too. I think you can even do it with a photoshop/image ready combo, but I am not too familiar with that way.

10-15-2008, 10:13 AM

Thanks! No, I don't have Fireworks - is it expensive?
At this point, I can't even imagine getting into animation -
I am still recovering from creating the "static" ones!

10-15-2008, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by Annie524

Thanks! No, I don't have Fireworks - is it expensive?
At this point, I can't even imagine getting into animation -
I am still recovering from creating the "static" ones!

Its part of one of the creative suite packages, not sure which ones. I guess not the one you have.

Making animated gifs is fairly simple, all you do is make a screen for every aspect of the animation. So, if you wanted the word The to move from the left to the right of the screen, you would make a series of versions of the web banner with the word "the" moved slightly right in each one until its reaches its destination. If you are doing something complex, it could be a pain in the ***. There are other ways to do it in flash and what not, but what I am saying is pretty straight forward.