Added site logo

Attachment Size
herzbube-biaukai-50px-metallicsomething.png 40 KB

I finally got around to make a small logo for this web site: you can see it at the top of every page. I also changed the footer to include my e-mail address and PGP key.

If you are interested, this is how I created the logo:

  • Fire up the Gimp. A big thanks to the folks at http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/ for packaging the Mac version so nicely!
  • From the application's main window, choose the menu item Xtns -> Script-Fu -> Logos -> Glossy
  • In the dialog that opens, change the following settings
    • Outline size = 1
    • Font = BiauKai, size = 50 pixels
    • Both blend gradients = MetallicSomething
  • In the resulting image, select the layer labeled "Background" and choose "Add Alpha Channel" from the context menu. This adds transparency to the layer
  • Select the tool "Color picker" and pick the foreground color of the "Background" layer
  • Select the tool "Select regions by color" and click into the image. This should select the entire "Background" layer
  • From the image window, choose the menu item Edit -> Cut. This should remove all pixels from the "Background" layer, making it completely transparent
  • Now save the image in the Gimp's native format (xcf) for future changes. Also save a copy of the image in PNG format: that's what the web server needs. JPG is not suitable because it does not support transparency.

Quite simple, as you can see, at least for anyone remotely skilled in computer graphics. For me? Well, it took me several hours to figure everything out...

Update Feb 3 2005

I have noticed that IE 6.0 on Windows shows the bar that surrounds the logo on the left and right with a background color. This should not happen, there should be no background color, the background should be transparent. I have no idea why this happens - no other browser on either Windows or the Mac shows this behaviour (not even IE 5.2 on the Mac!). I can only assume that IE/Win reacts with an allergy to the non-proprietary PNG format...

Update Jan 9 2008

For future amusement, the image file is now attached to this blog entry. Click to see what I am talking about.