freeware to make skin bitmap
 

Does anyone know any freeware (and where to download) for making bitmaps for skins? Doesn't need to be fancy. Just something to make a bitmap with buttons (shadowed), slides, texts, etc.

mspaint

try the gimp. it's open source. other than that, i dunno...

Gimp is for Linux. *hisses* :mad:

Here's the Windows version of Gimp

*shrug* it's linked to on the page...

Windows for Gimp does not have the LZW Compression set needed to make gifs. Contact Unisys to get a license for the LZW.

Me, what Unisys dont know wont kill them...:D

gimp for windows has LZW compression (as long as you have a licence ;)) - it can be downloaded as easily as the one for linux.

The Gimp sucks majorly. I've yet to come across a program with a worse interface. WinMX is close... but not quite as bad.

Jasc Paintshop Pro is high quality software, and very, very cheap, considering how powerful it is. Many folks use it instead of Adobe Photoshop.


If you are just looking to add bezels, other button effects, basic filters, and so forth, there are numerous image viewers out there that also have basic editing capabilities. Irfanview is foremost of these. If you MS Office, the photo editor that ships with it isn't so bad, either.

Of course, numerous people have gotten excellent results using nothing more then MS Paint. It's possible to create some astounding skins with this simple, free program.