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You don’t need a lot of cool graphics for your website,
but a few, especially one nice one at the top of your homepage,
can be nice.
Just how do you make smooth, clean-looking graphics with
features like a drop shadow?
Paint
Shop Pro is a good graphics tool to begin with. You can
get it for less than $75. and it can do most everything. Try
the free trial—you may even find the trial version to
be sufficient.
After you get the program, type “paint shop pro tutorials”
into Google and you’ll be on your way!
Of course, there are lots of sites out there that have free
graphics you’re allowed to paste into your site—just
search for “free graphics” on Google.
If you want some really professional-looking photos and artwork
for your site, sign up for an account at www.fotolia.com.
For as little as $1, you can buy the rights to photos and
other images, download them, and then insert them into your
web pages. They have some great stuff, and the price is right.
Also, it's easy to find what you're looking for with their
image search tool.
For a brand new web page, search Fotolia
for "website banners." Choose a graphic you like,
use Paint Shop Pro to add the name over top of it, insert
it at the top of your "index.htm page, and presto--you've
got a neat-looking homepage!
Unlike many other stock photo sites, there are no strings
attached at Fotolia.
I highly recommend spending a few bucks on some quality photos
and graphics for your website--it will really help create
a credible, authoritative, and professional look!
Something to remember: Before inserting images/graphics
into your pages, save them to your “images”
folder on your computer.
Then, don’t forget to upload (put) them
into your “images” folder on you website
host account. If you don’t, you will
not see them on the internet!
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