If you want to design Website graphics with the Gimp, and make your site look as though it was designed by a professional, you can do so easily and completely free. Good web graphics can be all that is needed to persuade visitors to stay and find out what else your website has to offer. The problem is that most people have no idea how to design them themselves, and rely on free graphics images that are hardly unique.
While you might want lovely website graphics on your webpage, there’s not a lot you can do without good graphic design software. What if you want a new purchase button, or a nice looking header and footer for each of your web pages? What about an eBook cover for your new product? You won’t get any change from $100 for a decent eBook cover, yet the software that will enable you to produce your own is available free online.
Perhaps you use a clipart bank, but the problem with these is that you pay for the graphics, and if you do use free ones they usually have an advert watermarked into them. In any case, standard graphics are not always suitable for your site, and need some editing before they look good. Most clipart is no good for eBook or report covers, and you will struggle to find any that offer a decent website header.
There are online graphics software packages that you can buy that will enable you to design website graphics, but they can be expensive. You can join a graphics club where, for a monthly fee, you are sent a whole host of graphics that you don’t need. Alternatively you download The Gimp, which is free software available online at absolutely no cost whatsoever.
What is it with some people that they look down on free software? They would rather pay $500 or more than use free software that offers them everything they are likely to ever need. Is it because they believe that a free version can’t be anything like as good as the real thing? In some cases the free version is the real thing, and the paid version simply a copy of it.
There is a lot of Open Source software that has been hijacked, tarted up and sold in a fancy eBox under a different name. People will pay $199 for that, yet refuse to download the same thing free, and the only difference is the fancy box and fancy name. Take Gimp. Sometimes referred to as The Gimp, it is free online and yet is practically a clone of some of the best graphics software you can find.
You can use it to design your own website graphics, your own headers and footers, buttons, bullet graphics, eBook covers and even use it to edit your photographs. It is every bit as good as the best professional photo editors. So why don’t more people use it? Perhaps they have never heard of The Gimp graphics application, or maybe they just believe that graphics design software is beyond them. If you use a mouse or touch pad, then you can use Gimp!
Others believe that there must be a catch and that once you download it you will find that it isn’t much use without this enhancement or that plugin that you have to purchase. Not so. The Gimp download is all you need, and you are all set. Nothing else is needed to design your first web page.
Maybe you have heard about free software being associated with Adware and Spyware. Now that is true, but only if downloaded from dodgy sites, and the better free stuff is guaranteed free of this sort of malware. Gimp is certainly free from it, and you will have no problems with the download. Many think that free downloads are generally faulty, and don’t work, but The Gimp is not available in a paid version. If you are being charged for The Gimp, then you are being scammed. It is free for Windows and Mac and most people download it fine, with no problems at all.
You can download the Gimp from a number of sites, although some only give you the basic building blocks, not the fully installed package, and you will also need the documentation that goes with it. Nevertheless, the rewards are fantastic because you will have downloaded and installed a graphics package that rivals Photoshop for its features and it is all free. You don’t have to spend a dime. Not a red cent.
To download the Gimp and its manual free of charge, and learn more about using it, visit Pete’s website at The Gimp Download Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/web-design-articles/web-design-graphics-with-the-gimp-1283428.html
