Graphics Software There are many different graphics software packages that you can use to assist you with manipulating graphics files.  This section will refer to three different packages; one cross platform, one for the Macintosh and one for Windows that are either free or inexpensive to purchase and are powerful enough to assist you in creating your Banner Image and to determine the pixel size and width. AppleWorks - Cross Platform AppleWorks is a cross platform application that has a DRAW module.  This module can be used for creating, manipulating and saving jpeg images. Create your image in the Draw mode and then choose Format > Rulers > Ruler Settings and click on Points in the Units box Group all elements of your graphic together to make a single item (Select all items then choose Arrange > Group) Now choose Options > Option Size to bring up the dimensions of the graphic.  Note that in this example, the width is 400 pt ( or pixels) and the height is 200 pt.  If you want to scale your graphic, you will have to know these dimensions. To save your document as a jpeg choose File Save and choose jpeg as the file format.  If you are working on a Macintosh, make sure that you add "jpg" to the name of your file. For Windows The reliable, free and installed Paint application is feature rich enough to complete the task. Paint allows you to save graphics in a variety of different formats and to crop, resize and determine the pixel depth. Cropping your Image in Paint To crop your image in Paint, place your mouse over one of the little squares (handles) that are placed around the image and drag until you get the size you want.  Repeat this in all directions until you get the size you want. Determining the Pixel Width and Depth Once you have the image cropped to the size you want, choose Attributes from the Image Menu Make sure that you select Pixels as your Unit type and record the Width and Height dimensions. Saving Your Image Choose Save As... and select the correct file format to save your image to your computer for future uploading to your Home Page folder. For Macintosh GraphicConverter is an inexpensive Shareware application that is available for Macintosh computers in both OS X and earlier operating systems.  It is fully functional without having to purchase a shareware license, though it is certainly advisable to purchase a legitimate license. GraphicConverter can be downloaded an purchased from Lemke Software at http://www.lemkesoft.de/us_index.html Cropping Your Image in Graphic Converter You can either open a new image in GraphicConverter or Paste a copied graphic from another application in to a blank GraphicConverter window. Click on the selection rectangle on the tool bar  and drag a rectangle around the area that you wish to have as your image. Now choose Trim Selection from the Edit Menu.  This will crop the image to the size of the selection rectangle. Determining the Pixel Width and Depth To determine the Pixel width and depth, choose Show Information from the Picture menu. Make sure that pixel is selected from the unit selection list and make note of the size.  Width is presented first before height Saving Your Image Choose Save As... from the File Menu Make sure that you choose the correct file format (JPEG, GIF or PNG) but before saving, if you are saving your file as a JPEG click on Options to bring up another screen that can assist you in reducing the file size of the image and to increase the speed at which your image will be displayed to your visitors. JPEG Options By reducing the quality of your image, you may not lose a lot in how your image is viewed, but you will gain a lot in the File size as is indicated in the above screen shot.  By reducing the quality to 72 the file size is reduced from 30.5kb to 12.2 kb.  For large images, this will make your pages load faster. Scaling the Image Size You will attain a better quality image if you scale your image to the size you want initially rather than using the scale option within the Home Page Construction Kit. To scale an image in GraphicConverter, select Size -> Scale from the Picture Menu to bring up the scale dialog box and choose your scale accordingly. Save your reduced sized image as above.