Banners – Web Design Resources

Banners are perhaps the first things everyone see when they visit a web page. They are usually static or animated graphics found at mostly the top page of the website. Some banners could be placed at the foot or somewhere in the page.

Figure 9. A section of an online banner creation interface

Banners are essentially a particular form of graphics, and serve as advertising pieces for the website. Many banners sell a product, refer customers to a service or simply talk about a website’s offers. The banner is linked to a website so that when the visitor clicks on the ad, they are sent to the destination website.

You may want to use banners on your site for space reasons. You may also want to make your site appealing, or simply direct your visitors to something special. Whatever the reason, you will need a banner at one time or another.

You can have a banner through many means. You can create one yourself offline, online or simply obtain one from a third party source.

You can use the same tools used in making logos to create your banners. The only difference been that the images may be static. For moving images, Animation Shop or Flash would do. Flash produces more professional banners but would require third party plugins before your visitors can see them.
Banners come in various shapes and sizes. The most common formats are 700 x 100, 720 x 100, 640 x 88 banners, 100 x 100, 250 x 250, 100 x 700, and 80 x 468. You can have customized sizes to suit the particular point on your website where you want place them.
You can create your banner online for free. You just have to visit the website interface and input your text. You choose a format or size, then the banner generator will output your banner. You can then save the banner and use it on your site.

You can also obtain banners from websites with affiliate programs. These are companies for whom you will advertise products and the get commissions. They have several sizes, color and formats to suit every website content and structure.