A Newbie Needing Help, please with image banner project

[Jillian]

I'm overwhelmed by the tutorials and still can't answer my questions. This is what I am trying to do with Paint.net:

I have to make a banner 550x75. I have a png background image with colors I want to use.

I have no problem inserting this into paint.net and resizing it. I got that much.

I have another image of a hat and magic wand that is large and is a jpg. I want to insert this image onto the background.

I need to crop out the hat and wand and make the background disappear.

Then I need to resize the hat and wand and then lay it over the top of the background that I have resized.

I am able to take out the background from the hat and wand image but when I resize it, it looks terribly distorted.

So that is my first problem.

Then I want to take that image and place it on top of the background I have already resized but I can't seem to do this either.

Finally, I want to use the text feature to write on the banner.

Can anyone please help?

Thank you so much.

Jillian

[Sarkut]

If you resize by -

Image > Resize...

be sure that there is a checkmark in

Maintain Aspect Ratio.

If you are resizing with a rectangular selection,

hold the Shift key down and resize using a corner

adjusting node.

==================================

Once you have your resized hat-and-wand

saved as a PNG file, open your background

image in Paint.NET.

Next, bring in the hat-and-wand image -

Layers > Import From File...

=================================

Make a new layer for your text -

Layers > Add New Layer...

=================================

Help file:

http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/en/index.html

=================================

Here is some info on layers.

http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/en/LayersMenu.html

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Paint.NET/ ... rs_Example

[Jillian]

Thank you, this is great help and I was able to get the image sized and placed on the background. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your assistance.

Now I am typing the text but no words are appearing. I have read through the help and all my settings seem to be correct..font, size, color, etc. But no words are visible.

Last question...on the hat, which I have resized per your instructions, there is a tail of pixie dust which comes out. It's a magic hat and a wand photo. I need to make the pixie dust more prominent. It is not visible when I reduced the size of the photo to place on the back ground. Is there a way to do this? I think I need to pull out part of the photo...the part with pixie dust and make it white color or gold so it stands out but I don't know how to do this.

Thank you.

Jillian

[BoltBait]

Before using the text tool, press the Escape key on your keyboard. You probably have an active selection that is preventing the text from showing up.

Also, it is always best to put your text on its own layer.

[Sarkut]

For the text, usually it is one of three things:

There is a selection active and you are trying to

place the text outside of the selection.

Press, Ctrl D. to deselect.

==================================

The wrong layer is active -

In the Layers window click the layer you want the text to go on.

==============================================

The mouse pointer is hovering over an icon or menu item -

Move the mouse.

Boltbait types faster than I do

Edited April 11, 2010 by Sarkut

[Sarkut]

On the hat-wand-pixie dust layer, make a selection around

the pixie dust.

Next, press Ctrl C to copy the dust,

then, Ctrl + Shift V.

This will paste the dust into its own new layer.

Changing the new layer's Blend mode to Additive should brighten it up.

Layers > Layer Properties...

[Jillian]

I want to thank both of you for helping me out with the instructions for getting this banner ad completed.

Here's the final result. I still had some trouble with the font and resizing the little hat and wand but I'm pleased with my first attempt.

Again, I appreciate your help.

Jillian