Take Charge of Your Etsy Shop – How to Make an Easy Etsy Banner Using GIMP

I love GIMP for photo editing. Fixing photos for a small business like an Esty shop is the perfect use for free, pro-level  software like GIMP.

But did you know you can do your graphic design work in GIMP too?

You can make shop banners, logos, avatars, sale signs, make headers for your personal website and a lot more, all with GIMP.

Since I’m an Etsy.com seller myself, I thought it would be cool to highlight some of the things you can do with GIMP specifically for your Etsy shop, starting with the banner.

Get GIMP

First thing’s first. If you don’t already have GIMP installed on your computer, go do that now.

GIMP is a free program, but It’s much more powerful than other free photo editing programs like Picnik or iPhoto. It’s actually more like Photoshop than anything else. You can do Amazing things with GIMP, things you might have thought were only possible with Photoshop.

It’s easy to install,  especially now that Software Pantry offers easy installation for Windows users (they’re working on Mac installation too)

• Windows Users Go Here Add GIMP to your cart and check out. Don’t worry, they won’t ask you for any credit card information and it’s still free.

• Mac Users Go Here You must have Tiger, Leopard, or Snow Leopard on your Mac, and you must have X11 installed as well. Don’t worry, you probably have X11 already… just use the finder to search for it. I f you don’t have X11,  it will be an optional installation on the Startup Disk that came with your computer. Install X11, then install GIMP.

Once you get GIMP up and running on your computer, it’s time to make some decisions.

Three Basic Banners

Before we do anything else, now is the time to think about the kind of banner you want. I can think of three basic kinds of Etsy banner:

1. A solid color background with text (that’s this tutorial)
   
2. A photo background with text
3. A plane background with graphic images (like drawings, cartoons, stamps or clip art) and text

Since the steps to creating these banners are different, I’m writing three different tutorials.  The first one, A solid color background with text, is here. The other two are linked above.

No matter what kind of banner you choose to make, it’s a good idea to make a simple practice banner first, with just a solid colored background and simple text. It will help you get to know GIMP a little, and help you imagine what’s possible. Simple banners can work really well anyway, so you might even decide to stick with it!

Etsy Banner with Solid Color Background and Text

Two quick things to remember:

1. When you see instructions written like this “Go to File > New“  you should click on File in the Main Menu Bar to expand it’s nested menus, then click New.
2. There are two GIMP windows at first, the Toolbox and the Main Window. Only one window is active at a time. You can switch between the Toolbox and the Main Window, or any other window, by clicking anywhere on the window once.

Make the Banner the Right Size

Etsy banners must be 760 pixels by 100 pixels. If you make your banner the wrong size it can look fuzzy, pixelated, stretched or squished. We’ll avoid all of that by starting with the correct size from the get go.

• Open GIMP and go to File > New
• When the New Window pops up, choose a width of 760 pixels and a height of 100 pixels
• Leave everything else the same and click OK
• A new, probably white rectangle will appear in the Main Window – That’s your banner so far

Choose the Color for Your Banner’s Background

• Go to the GIMP Toolbox and click it once to activate it (if you can’t see the Toolbox press Ctrl B to make it appear)
• Click the Foreground Color icon (if you can’t see the Foreground/Background color icons, go to Edit > Preferences, on the Left side of the Preferences Window choose Toolbox, Then choose Show Foreground and Background Colors,  click OK)

• After you click on the Foreground color, A color picker window will pop up – To choose a new color, make sure the Tab at the top is open to the little wolf-monster with a paintbrush in his mouth

You only have to pay attention to the left side of this window.

• Choose a basic color (like green, yellowish-green, red etc.) from the tall bar that looks like a rainbow
• The Big Square to the left will become shades of the color you picked – If you picked a yellowy-green in the Tall Rainbow Bar, the Big Square will turn into shades of yellowy-green
• Then just click anywhere in the Big Square to choose the shade you want -  The “current” color under the Big Square will update to the shade you chose
• If you like the color click OK – If not, you can choose another shade from the Big Square, or a new color from the Tall Rainbow

You can choose shades of gray like this too. Just pick colors from the bottom edge of the Big Square.

Fill the Banner with the Color You Chose

• Go back to the Toolbox, click it once to activate it (if you can’t see the Toolbox hold Ctrl  B)
• Then choose the Paint Bucket Tool by double clicking it’s icon -it looks like a paint bucket
• Go to the Main Window (click it once to activate it)  and click in the 760 x 100 rectangle you created earlier to fill it with the color you chose

Yay!! The background is done!!

Type Your Text

• Change the foreground color in the Toolbox to the color you want your text to appear by following the same steps above -If you don’t change the foreground color first you won’t be able to see what you typed on your banner since it will be the same color as your background

• Grab the Text Tool (looks like an A) form the Toolbox – click the Toolbox to activate it, then double clicking the Text Tool Icon  – if you can’t see the Toolbox hold Ctrl B to make it appear
• Then click on the rectangle you just colored in the Main window – a little square will appear where you click, that’s the starting point for your text (it doesn’t matter if you click EXACTLY where you want the text to appear… we can move the text later)

At the same time you click, a little window called GIMP Text Editor will pop up.

As you type, words will appear in the Text Editor, and on your banner. It looks like you’re typing directly on the banner, but technically you’re typing in the GIMP Text Editor, so if you need to move the cursor around remember to move it in the text window, not directly on the banner.

• Start typing the text you want your banner to say in the GIMP Text Editor

Now,  your text is probably the wrong size and font, and it might still be the wrong color, but this is all easy to fix.

• Open the Text Tool Options Window by double clicking the Text Tool in the Toolbox (if it doesn’t show up at first double click again)

• To make the text bigger or smaller use the up and down arrows next to the word Size
• To Change the Font, click on the current font, next to the word Font, to reveal a list of font options – The list will include most if not all of the fonts you have installed on your computer so you can choose anything from Areal to Wingdings
• Make the Font a different color by clicking the Color Bar and choosing a new color just like you chose a color for the background
• All of the text you typed will update as you make these changes in the Tool Options Window

Moving the Text

Once you’ve got your font, size, and color worked out, you can move the text anywhere you want by using the Move Tool.

• Grab the Move Tool from the Toolbox by double clicking it’s icon (remember to activate the Toolbox Window by clicking it once first, then double click to grab the tool) – The Move Tool looks like a four sided arrow
• The Move Tool Options Window should pop up (if it doesn’t just double click the Move Tool icon in the Toolbox again)
• Choose Move Active Layer in the Tool Options Window
• Click on the banner once to activate the Main Window, then click on the text and drag it to move it anywhere you want on the banner – you can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the text

Save Your Banner for Etsy

Etsy requires that the file be either a .PNG  .JPEG  or  .GIF  and the best format for a text banner like this is .PNG.

• Go to File > Save As – the Save As Window will pop up
• Type in a name for your banner in the Name Bar at the top of the Save As window – choose a name you’ll remember like Etsy-Banner
• Since we’re going to save as a .png file name the file Etsy-Banner.png

• Choose where you want to save the banner on your computer in the middle of the window – Main places of your computer like Desktop or Documents are on the left side of the window under the word Places – Click once to choose a main place
• If you want to save in a specific folder in those places, double click the folders  in the middle of the Save As window to navigate to the specific folder you’re looking for
• Click Save – but don’t close your file yet
• If you open your file and the color comes out too bright, you might want to  re-save as a jpeg. Follow the steps above, but instead of naming the file Etsy-Banner.png, name it Etsy-Banner.jpg – that should make the colors go back to normal

There’s A Lot More You Can Do With This Banner!

There are a lot of  techniques for making text more interesting or lifelike.  You can add drop shadows, reflections, rotate text at an angle, make the text more transparent, and add textures and other effects. Click the image above to see the examples larger, and get a better idea of what your Etsy banner can look like!

If you’d like me to do a tutorial of any of those effects, leave a comment and let me know!

Here’s the best part… we haven’t even gotten into adding photos and graphics yet! A simple text banner can look as cool as the examples above with just a few tweaks, so just imagine what you can do when you add images to your banner.

I’m really excited to add to this series and I hope you find it helpful. Subscribe to Pare and Focus using the buttons at the top of the page so you don’t miss any tutorials or tips. And tell a friend or tell your team that these resources are here, I know lots of us could use a hand and I’m always here to help.

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