The Gimp: new custom header
Ahhhh, the joys of the GIMP!! For those of you that are not familiar with it, GIMP is a program similiar to PhotoShop. The huge difference is it is freeware! I've had this program for a few months, open it up and play with it, but never really could figure it out. Plus, I didn't feel like reading directions. So, it went unused.
This week I felt the need to get a new, better, more personalized header. The ones you make online are pretty good, but, sadly, not what I was looking for. So, once again I fired up GIMP and gave it another look. After much mouse clicking, head scratching and guessing, you can see the result in my brand-new heading above!
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GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
"
But, this I can tell you. If you are trying to put an image in the 'Minima' template header, you have to delete a couple of borders in the header and description. Plus, you have to get rid of the title somehow in the 'Settings' area. Blogger won't let you not have a title. So, I put a title in, made the color white to match the background and made the font 0%. The code looks like this:
#blog-title {You will notice that there is no code for a border color. Leave the description box empty in the 'Settings' area. Blogger doesn't care if you fill that out or not.
font:Georgia,Serif;
margin:5px 5px 0;
padding:20px 20px .25em;
border-width:1px 1px 0;
font-size:0%;
line-height:1.2em;
font-weight:normal;
color:white;
letter-spacing:.2em;
}
What fun! I can't wait to play with GIMP again.
Labels:
Classic Blogger,
Design,
GIMP,
Graphics,
Header
12 Comments:
Back from the days when I still used blogger, I seem to remember that you can replace the title with an image by hacking your template. I know you can in wordpress (my favorite). The Gimp kicks ass; I use it constanly (Check out worth1000 dot com if you like playing around with graphics).
By the way, I use IE sometimes, like now, and you still seem to be suffering from float drop.
Thanks for the link! I checked out my site on IE and the sidebars were where they are supposed to be. Maybe it is the resolution. I don't know. :-( I did notice that in the permalink post pages, some of it is out of whack. One sidebar instead of two...I don't know why again. I'll look into it.
BTW, I love GIMP also!!! It does all that I could ever want.
peace...
annie
This has helped me customize my header a bit but I am still having trouble getting rid of the blogger title in the new blogger.
Any suggestions? and thanks for these helpful tips!
@eve, Look in the dashboard, settings, basic, description. Then remove the text in that box.
this is super helpful but i am well -- a COMPLETE novice to HTML and don't know where to put the bit you've highlighted here. and then once i do that, where do i put the host link to my header?
@linda, that code will go in the CSS Style Sheet which is between the <head> and </head> tags.
For more help with headers and learning how to make them and how to get them in your blog, look at the posts I have written on Headers. That will show you where to put the header link after you have uploaded it to a webhost.
HI,
I'm trying to get rid of the title but it's still there. What do i need to do?
Thanks so much.
@french, this post will tell you how.
Blogger Beta: Adding a Header
@french, this post will tell you how.
Blogger Beta: Adding a Header
Thanks very much for the tutorials. I really appreciate it.
They helped me create the logo for my 52 Books Blog.
http://books52.blogspot.com/
Feedback would be awesome if you have the time.
Great use of graphics and fonts!
Man I love gimp. It is such a great alternative to Photoshop. Much like openoffice and Word. The only issue is that no one knows what GIMP is, everyone knows about Photoshop so sometimes I tell people I have Gimp on my computer and get some very fun looks. Sometimes i get winks, this is much worse! In all serious Gimp has a steep learning curve, but I think it is so worth it.