Signs, Make and import

OK, I relatively new. I want to make signs like name of business, info banners, etc. What rl application do I need? And then I use the upload for 10 Lindens? Also, what rl application is needed to add text to a jpeg or other pictures before uploading them?

Thanks

The best but most expense program is Photoshop, or that combined with another graphics package like freehand or illustrator, can be easy to learn or difficult depending on previous programs you have used

The cheaper is Paint Shop Pro. Gimp is free but it can be difficult to use.
Inkscape has interesting features for making squares, caligraphy
but its not that great for fonts.

Apart from that, you just create a sign in whatever programme you fancy and upload it as a texture. Then you slap that texture on a prim and resize it to your heart's content.

I make SL signs for US$ and I'd say that the best program for signs is Adobe Illustrator. But, although I do occasionally use AI and Photoshop and even The Gimp for special needs I actually do most of my work in Paint Shop Pro since it's the program I know best and the one that's on my SL computer.

You can make your image any aspect ratio, I'd say at least 512pixels wide, to keep it clear. When you have it done save it as a single layer in .tga format and upload it for L$10. SL will convert it into SL dimensions but when you put it on a box prim the right size it will stretch back into the original appearance.

My personal choice is GIMP for this but if it's just text you need then you can make nice signs in cool text for free. http://cooltext.com/

There are some great shareware and freeware software packages available that you could use also.

Gimp - for PC or Mac
Paintshop - for PC
GraphicConverter - for Mac

You can find a lot of great information on using them to make texures for SL here in the SL Texturing Tips forum

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Microsoft Paint can do this.

Since you are just starting out, may I recommend Photoshop Elements? Runs around US$80 which is similar to Paint Shop Pro. This will get you used to the Photoshop program if you wish to proceed with graphics work in the future.

If budget is a concern, The Gimp is free and can do most anything a novice texture maker needs.

If you just want to crop, scale and add some text .... you can use use Paint for that.

Another decent freebie:

Paint .Net

http://www.getpaint.net/

--Hugsy

For my purposes, I mainly need text signs, so I wanted the simplest solution with the software I already had. I started making signs with Paint, but then quickly became frustrated by the way the text instantly becomes a picture and can't be edited as text. Then I tried Powerpoint, but SL won't read the bitmap that Powerpoint saves in.

My solution is to make my signs in Powerpoint, save the slide as a bitmap, reopen in Paint, resize, and save as 24-bit bitmap. SL can read those, and the original Powerpoint files can be quickly editted when I need a slightly different sign. There may be a better choice than 24-bit bitmap, but some of the choices won't work, and I stopped looking when I found one that did.

I use Powerpoint for signs all the time. The trick is that when you save, you also need to "save as" and choose to save it as a jpg. Then just upload the jpg image in SL as a texture, and apply it to a prim as needed. It's a pretty quick process.

Princess Ivory

Save it as a Targa (.tga) file from Photoshop or Photoshop Elements for better results when uploading to SL. Select 24-bit Targa if there are no transparent areas; use 32-bit Targa for alpha files.

As mentioned Paint.net will do everything mentioned so far in this thread. It's free, easy to use and can save either 24 bit or 32 bit images in all the formats SL accepts for upload. The GIMP is also free but a little hard to get to know.............also does everything you need for some rather nice signs. There really in no need to go out a spend money on an application to do what you want to do.