Here's a "how-to" from our very own Paint expert, Tippmann98.





Getting started on a sig

First off, decide what you want your sig of and find a good quality image to use. It can come from the internet or your computer (see the other sig help thread for more on that.) You'll want to copy and paste the image into Paint. It's very possible to put more than 1 image together in a sig but sometimes it looks sloppy.

I usually open up 2 or 3 different Paint sessions so I can keep my main image in one, the text in the other, and the beginnings of my sig in the last one. This way you don't have to do a lot of deleting of your image, just transferring.

Once you paste your image into Paint, chances are it'll need resized. Remember, your sig can't be more than 575 pixels wide or 150 pixels tall. This means your image should be less in both aspects.

Once you get image your image to the desired size, you can work on a border. Experiment with different colors and sizes until you find what you like best. Also, borders aren't always necessary. Sometimes an sig will look better without a border.

I usually add the text after I get everything else done because then I know what color shades to use to match my sig.

The best advice I can give you, is EXPERIMENT! It may be confusing at first, but just mess around with pictures and use all the tools so you get a feel of what each one does.



If you have any questions or need input, PM Tipp or post your questions here. Feel free to test your results out in this thread too. Happy sig making!

Question

Say I were to paste this picture into Paint



Is it possible to remove the backround, leaving only LeBron in the image?

Yes, you can do it. You can either fill in the background with a color of your choice or you can extract the image. Here's how to extract it by selection:

To select part of a picture
In the toolbox, click Select to select a rectangular area, or click Free-Form Select to select a freeform area.
Drag the pointer to define the area you want to select.

Notes

-The rectangular tool allows you to define straight-edged areas you want to move or change in your picture.
-The freeform tool (the one that looks like a dotted line star) allows you to define exact areas of picture you want to change. You can trace a shape, drag it to another area of the picture, rotate it individually, or remove it.
-To turn off the selection box, click outside it.

I did it here really quickly (AND SLOPPY) because I'm super busy with the holidays, but just to show it can indeed be done. It helps if you do it under magnification to get the cleanest outline possible, then remove the pixels you don't want with the pencil tool.




Good luck!
Looking forward to your result!

i have the sig ready on microsoft paint but i don't know how to get as my sig, or i don't know how to get the url for it. do you know what i mean?

You'll need to upload it somewhere.

I use www.photobucket.com but you have to create an account. It's free but you may just want to use: www.imageshack.us where you don't have to create an account.

Then, get the link and put these tags around it

[IMG]link goes in here[/IMG]

ohhh. thanks that helps a lot

Thanks for the great guide, Tipp. Just had some free time, so I did an Al Harris sig in paint. Took me a long time because of his hair, lol, and I painted all around the numbers so they were up to my liking. Not sure how good it is, but it took me a decent amount of time. Thanks again, Tipp.

I'm having trouble getting my sig to the actual size. I download the newest flash player, but then it said that it wasn't new enough to re-size my thing. I used imageshack and I'm having some problems, as you can see by the tiny sig in my above posts.

Help would be appreciated, thanks.

I would suggest making an account on www.photobucket.com

I know Juice and I both use it and I'm sure many others do too. We never have any trouble with the wrong size.

All you have to do is register, it's free and very easy to use.


When using imageshack, you'll want to scroll down to the very bottom after you upload the link: and copy and paste the "direct link to image". Then throw some tags around it. The best part of Photobucket is, they already have the image tags around it so you just copy and paste it. Real easy.

If you continue to use Imageshack, this is what you're looking for:



I would highly recommend creating an account on Photobucket though. Everything you upload is saved into your album so you never have to worry about losing a sig.

Thanks for all the help, Tipp. Photobucket was better for me. Didn't have any size problems.

Thanks again.

the future, go to sportslogos.net and you can find a .gif of the packers logo. save it to your computer , paste it to paint and theres no bg on it, its already cut out

Well, I fooled around with Paint a little bit more and made a very basic Donald Driver sig.



What do you think?

Nice Future. You did a nice job with cutting out the Donald Driver pic. I think plain and simple like the sig you made is always better in paint.

It's a great cutout. I would've tried to get a GreenBay logo and put it in there somewhere. Just so it's not too plain. I understand it's Paint, but you can do a lot with Paint too if you know what you're doing. When you paste an image, like the logo, you'll want to use the bottom box of the "select tool". It'll take away the white background when you paste it leaving just the logo. I talk about it way up there. ^ ^ ^

guys, go to sportslogos.net if you wanna put in a logo. its a .gif so its already cut-out so you can use it in paint

Yeah, I'll use the logo next time. I just saw collyflower post a good website for a logo when I posted this second sig, so I'll probably use that next time. Thanks for the advice, collyflower.

As for the cutout, thanks for the approval. It was a relatively easy image to erase around, IMO.

This sig didn't take me nearly as much time as the Al Harris one above. Cutting around Al Harris's hair was kind of a pain. Also, I copy-and-pasted Word Art from Microsoft Word in the Al Harris sig, so I had to spend a lot of time erasing around the letters.

Just one question, though. I used to take a Photoshop class last year in school, and there was a way to make the eraser smaller and bigger and what not. Can you do the same thing in paint? And if so, how? I think that a smaller eraser could really help me, because even when I zoom in, I can't get some areas with the eraser without erasing part of the picture.

Help would be appreciated. Thanks.

When you click on the eraser, there's 4 lil dots that pop up. Choose the smallest one for the smallest eraser.

quote:

When you click on the eraser, there's 4 lil dots that pop up. Choose the smallest one for the smallest eraser.

Alright, thanks for the help, Tipp.