If you’re interested in creating logos using Gimp, let me first introduce you to this program. Gimp is a free image editing software that runs on almost any computer and operating system. This software can be used to retouch photos. It can be used to crop, re-size or optimize images for use on the web. Best of all it can be used to create custom text or graphic art.

I’ve used it for a number of edits on my own and client projects and find it very effective in providing the features now considered standard for Graphic Software. If you don’t want to pay an outside person or company to do your logo, you will find this software very useful for creating professional looking artwork.

What kind of logo can I create

In this guide I will show you how to create simple text logos using Gimp. You’ll learn how to use the text feature, change font type and size, change color and save your image in the file type you want (gif, jpg, png etc).

After practicing these techniques for a few projects, you should be able to create logos and other artwork very easily and rapidly. This will save you thousands of dollars, time and headache when it comes to graphic design.

What you will not learn is how to create custom (non-text) art from scratch. In other words; I can’t teach you how to draw in this software. But if you are good at the creating custom logos, eventually you might be able to create unique artwork without using any pre-designed elements.

How to create a logo

First grab Gimp and install it on your computer. Open the program and drag the two floating toolbars to the right and left. This will provide an organized layout to work with.

Click the file option at the top left and select “new”. Then click on the Template dropdown and select 640×480. A new window will open within the program with a blank white box. This is where you will be doing most of the designing.

On the left toolbar click on the big “A”. Move your mouse to the white box and click. A small box will appear called Text Editor. Use this to enter the text of your logo. After entering your text, go ahead and hit close.

Your text will be outlined with a border and four little boxes on each end. Hover over the bottom right one, click and drag the box open to the bottom right of the bigger white box. This will give you some room to enlarge the text.

Now go to the left toolbar and on the bottom portion ( it will be divided in two parts) there will some text editing features. You can change the font type and size from this area. Clicking on the black rectangular box will pop open an new window. Here you can choose the color of your logo.

At this point if you like what you have created, go ahead and export it. To do this, go back to the File option (top left) and select “Save As”. A window will pop up. Here you can name your image and select a folder to place it in.

The last option on this box is “Select File Type”. Click the little plus sign and slide down to gif, jpg or png and hit save. Another box will popup asking you if you would like to “Merge Visible Layers”. Just hit export and if any other boxes appear, ignore it because you are still learning the program. So go ahead and hit save.

You should now have a new image appear in the folder (or desktop) where you saved it. At this point you might want to just save the Gimp file for future editing. Save it again like above. You don’t need to select file type this time.

In future guides I will show you how to had gradient, effects, use layers, import images, and manipulate dimensions.

If you find this guide useful, please tell how this has helped you create professional text logos in the comments.

How to use Gimp for Creating Logos is a post from: WebDevStar.com | © WebDevStar.com