If you are a community manager, marketer, blogger or small business owner who would love to create beautiful graphics to share but always have a difficult time doing so, this post is for you!
Visual content is a powerful driver. On Facebook an image post can drive interaction up by almost 40%. Here at Paper.li we also see vastly higher engagement and views for papers that carry custom branding than those that don’t.
But when we ask our community what holds them back from creating banners and graphics for their paper, we often hear the same answer: I don’t know how to create graphics.
We took this to heart and last month we offered to lend a “branding hand” to any publisher who upgraded to Pro. Publishers were thrilled to receive support creating graphics and the campaign provided me a personal challenge: learn how to create good looking graphics, quickly using PicMonkey.
Here’s how you can create a graphic (for anything) in just about the snap of a finger.
Note: I also like PicMonkey because they make it really easy to create images for Facebook with zero additional effort. Clever!
Let’s get started:
1.Go to PicMonkey.
On the landing page you will be able to choose Edit a photo, Create a collage or Design. For the purpose of this tutorial, we chose “Design”. This will give you a blank canvas.
2. Choose your size.
To create a banner that will really make your paper stand out, hover your mouse over the Design icon and choose the standard “Facebook banner” size. If you want it to be bigger (taller) select Custom and experiment with a height that suits you.
3. Upload your image via the “butterfly” icon
Now you have arrived on the editing desk. You land by default in Basic Edits. This is where you can choose a color and create a graphic or you can upload an image. For this example, I am going to use an image. (Make sure it is not copyrighted! Ours is a Creative Commons image)
Note: Do NOT use the OPEN image at the top instead go straight to the Butterfly and click on YOUR OWN to add an image. Why? If you add it from Open the service overrides your Facebook canvas size.
- I am using a gorgeous photo of the Ponte Vecchio that was stored on my desktop.
4. While in overlays, add an overlay box.
- Click on Geometric to add an overlay box. This will be the background behind your text (which you will add in a couple of steps)
- Choose the shape you’d like to frame your text for your overlay. I chose rectangular.
- On the right side of the screen you will see an overlay window. Use the Fade slider to increase or decrease opacity. You can also use a Blend Mode, I chose Hardlight for this one which allows the image to shine through.
5. move to the tt icon and choose your font.
- To add text you’ll first need to choose your font type. Scroll down the box until you see one you like. Once you have highlighted your font click the Add Text button. A text box will open up on your image and you add your text there.
- On the right hand side of the screen you will see a text formatting palette. Choose the color of your text and size.
- Drag the text box to your overlay and position it.
6. Voilá. You are finished.
Simply save it and use it!
- Click save at the top of your editing desk
- Name your file
- Choose your quality ( I like Sean!) and direct PicMonkey where to save your graphic
7. Now that you’ve got the hang of it, try creating background image, thumbnail images or graphics for your paper.
Here are suggested image sizes for graphics on Paper.li
- Background image: 1280 x 800 or larger
- Banner: 1170 (max width) x 300
- Thumbnail: 268 x 181
- Ad units: 300×250
Give PicMonkey a try and let me know what you think. Once you update your paper be sure to share your creation with me! I’ll share it with the community!
Contributing editor: Kelly Hungerford
Image credit: Vasari Corridor
