Handy Tools For Making A Website: Round Two
It’s been a long time coming, but this is the very belated second part of the Handy Tools For Making A Website series. In this edition, I am going to write about colour resources and image generators.
Colour Palettes
One of the first things you will need for designing is an idea for a colour scheme. Google “color palettes” and you can find all sorts of sites with palette generators and pre-made palettes. Sites like ColourLovers and Kuler allow you to see palettes of five colours, and how they work with - or against - each other. ColourLovers also has a neat feature where you can make many, many background images from your palettes.
Stripe Generators
Stripes are a very popular background these days, and they can range from thin to thick, bright to bland. Whatever your choice is, making repeating stripe backgrounds (or at least the ones that are of a diagonal) can be a difficult task indeed. So instead of taking the time to make a stripe - only to see that it looks horrible - simply input your colours and your widths and see instantly how it looks!
Of all the sites I could recommend StripeGenerator.com is probably the most popular, and in my opinion the best.
Tabs Generators
Tabs are a common way of making site navigation, but they can be fiendishly difficult to create. But once again there are ways of creating them without spending ages in Photoshop or the GIMP. You can stay online and use TabsGenerator.com (by the same people of StripeGenerator.com) or you can download CSS Tab Designer.
80×15 Button Generators
We’ve all seen those tiny pixel buttons, like over at Steal These Buttons, and there are plenty of generators out there that make them. Adjust the colours, the position of the divider, and the text. Adam Kalsey’s button maker is simple and clean, while micro.button-banner.com has the added function of adding tiny icons to the button.
Favicon Generators
Favicons are useful little things, but the problem can be making them, or making the .ico filetype. There are two main types of generators for favicons. One: those that allow you to draw the image on the screen using pixel art, such as Favicon.cc or Degraeve.com’s generator. Two: Sites that allow you to upload a pre-designed (square) image and converts it to the standard 16×16 .ico file, like Favicongenerator.com or Web Script Lab.
As I said in the previous entry, designing websites is kind of like cooking. The previous entry was the measuring bowl and other equipment; this entry is only some of the ingredients. Next up: more ingredients.
RP Dict and Stuff
Cleaned up the visitor page and added an RP dictionary
Go With The GIMP!
Two common phrases tossed about are “the best things in life are free” and “good things come in small packages”. And these two phrases are the best ways to describe the GIMP, a small but powerful piece of open-source software.
Imagine if you took just about everything that was great about PhotoShop, and turned it into a small but extremely powerful program. And then, if that was not awesome enough, made it free. How’s that for awesome? This quick-start guide will hopefully introduce you to not only the first installation of the GIMP (for windows, as that is what I run it on), but also some extra pieces of information and resource links.
In The Beginning
Installation of the GIMP is rather simple, and is explained very well on the official site; however it can be boiled down to two main steps:
- Install the GTK Runtime Environment, which enables the GIMP to run on a Windows OS.
- Then install the GIMP itself, using the supplied installer.
If you have any experience installing other programs, you should have no problems with this step. This entry is more about the add-ons that make the GIMP even better than what it is now.
Brushes
With image editors such as PhotoShop and Paint Shop Pro, brushes are standard; the GIMP is no exception. The GIMP comes with 48 standard brushes, plus facilities to create new ones. To install new GIMP brushes, simply move them to the brushes folder (generally it will be located somewhere akin to GIMP-2.X\share\gimp\2.0\brushes), and restart the program/refresh the brushes window.
Those familiar with using PS will know that PS brushes use the file extension .ABR. The GIMP uses .GBR which means that PS .ABR files are rendered useless - this is one of the annoyances of the GIMP - because so few people use it, the number of resources available for it are minimal when compared to, say, PS resources.
But there is hope: GIMP users can download ABR files and run them through ABRViewer.net, a program which allows ABR files to be saved as PNG files. From there, these PNG files can be saved through the GIMP as GBR files through a simple process:
- Convert the image (generally it will be black on white) to greyscale. If you do not do this, the brush will not paint in colour.
- Then, save as a brush.
There is an easier and much faster way for doing this on mass, but it will be explained later, as it requires a second addition which does not belong in the brushes section.
.XCF? Where’s My PSD?!
One of the main issues with those switching from, say, PS is the difficulty in jumping from one set of file formats to another. I personally remember being in a panic because I could not make PSD files (or, at least, I thought I could not).
With the GIMP, the main thing to remember is that it does pretty much the exact same things as PS, just under a different name. Here the main thing to note is that the GIMP does have a file format which keeps all the information and allows for later editing - it’s called XCF, and it’s exactly the same as a PSD.
What’s A Script-Fu?
Script-Fus are wonderful little things that can be added to your GIMP. These light little scripts (in the format of SCM, which can be saved through a text editor) can add many wonderful little features to your GIMP, so instead of having to go through a dozen steps, it does it automatically. All you need to do is move the SCM file to your scripts folder (GIMP-2.X\share\gimp\2.0\scripts) and refresh them. Ta da!
My favourite script-fu has to be Brush Batch Converter. This script takes all your PNG/JPEG images and converts them to GBR files at once (I told you earlier there was a faster way!). Combined with the ABRViewer.net mentioned above, you can quickly and easily convert PS brushes for use with the GIMP!
There are many other script-fus out there, ranging from text-effects to colour effects to more. Look through DeviantArt and you will find more!
And that’s the end of this very very basic little intro to a few of the extras/quirks of the GIMP. These things were the ones that bothered me in the beginning, and the ones that I’ve found that people need to know from the start. Expect more soon. 
Disdainful-Soul.net
D-S.net is the personal blog of Catherine, a 22 year old girl from New Zealand with a love of modern tech and ancient history and with aspirations to become a published author. 
