Banners and Buttons for Your Web Site
Banners and Buttons seem to be almost indispensable. They show up on almost every website. Banners are usually used to sell you something, while buttons are used to help you navigate from one place to another on a website.
These are buttons, to which you can add text:
This is a button with text added (this particular button is designed for a dark background):
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These are navigation buttons which speak for themselves:
This is a banner (click it and you'll find more FREE buttons and banners like the ones on this page):
So is this:
In some cases, there's not much difference in size, just function. With that said, here are some useful tips and free resources:
Button resources
http://www.aaa-buttons.com/ - AAA Buttons has the added feature of allowing you to create button text right online before you download the buttons you design.
Try this: ButtonGenerator.com
Enhance your website with the quality Free Buttons images provided here. Original & professional buttons sets, perfect for any website design project. Choose from a varied selection of free custom hand made buttons. If you use any of the images provided on this site, make sure to put a link back to
FreeButtons.com. If you can't find what you're looking for, take a look at the Free Buttons Links page for more great resources.
3D Buttons Generator
Create and test dynamic 3D buttons instantly. Now with our new "Live Preview" technology, you can see your changes and/or additions LIVE, right in front of your eyes.
Use this generator for free, or purchase your own Javascript buttons generator for only $10 with NO links back to
SearchBliss. All code generators on site were created and copyrighted by
SearchBliss. All Rights Reserved.
Animated Buttons - Create animated buttons instantly. Choose from free animated images below or us your own animated gifs or still images. Although they have some attractive designs, I found it impossible to actually create a button and transfer it to this website looking the same as it did on their site.
Dynamic Buttons - Make dynamic buttons with roll-over text effects.
Button/Pop-Up Messages - Make the codes for buttons with pop-up messages.
Rollover Images- Generate the code for rollover image buttons.
BUTTON TIPS & HINTS
If you want your page to load a lot faster, you should use text links, not graphic button links. You can use a technique called mouse-over to have the text buttons change colors when you move the mouse over them. This is easily done in Microsoft Front Page, for example.
Graphic buttons take up more space - visually and in terms of file size. That means it takes longer for a page to load if you use them. If you want that mouse-over effect, then you have to have two version of each button. For example, one would be darker until you move the mouse over it. When that happens, the page loads a brighter button to make it stand out from the rest.
Keep your button designs consistent and in keeping with the over-all design of your page.
Once a graphic is loaded the first time, it stays in the memory of the visitor's computer, so if you use the same button (and this applies to ANY graphic) on the other pages, it doesn't have to reload - it's already "in memory" or "in cache."
What are banners ??
Banner advertising can be very confusing, there's all sorts of strange terms used and there are hundreds of companies all offering slightly different services, so where do you start ?? Here of course !! In this section of the
AAA - Banners site we're going to explain what all those strange terms mean and introduce you to banner advertising.
If you're totally new to banner advertising I'd recommend going through all the tutorials
on this external link (AAA
Banners), one by one, from top to bottom. If, however, you're after particular information on a certain topic then choose the subject that closest matches your query.
AAA Banners provides some very well-crafted free "blank" banner designs in both 400x40 and the more standard 468x60 size. These "blanks" are excellent for those who want a basic banner background or style, but have the ability and software (pretty simple, really!) to create their own text against that background. Here's a nice example"
You can even create animated banners starting with just this one image, but the how-to is currently beyond the scope of this website ... perhaps later! Until then, go to AAA Buttons Tutorial.
Many companies use banners like the ones above. I recommend NOT using these because they confuse those not familiar enough with computers to recognize it as an ad instead of an actual alert from their computer. Too many companies use this simple, but deceptive, technique to trick you into installing adware or spyware you do not want!!!
If you want something like that, I suggest a window more like the one below, and I do even that with some hesitation. If you have to trick your readers to sell them something, then you need to be selling else. And if you HAVE to use something like this, PLEASE label it as an advertisement. Phoenix Technologies will not use such ads or banners on our clients' websites unless they are labeled as advertisements.
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