eerie edits

absolutely! so i try to keep the text similar in the same color palette on a banner, and if i find that it’s not standing out enough from the background, i use either an outer glow (for darker text) or a drop shadow (for lighter text), i’ve included a couple examples below!! along with being able to change the text color, you can also change the color of the outer glow and drop shadow too, they don’t always have to be white or black, but that is typically what i use!

example 1

for this banner, you can see that i used a darker grey/beige for the ‘that is ours’ text which is similar to the skin tone of tae (after my color editing). the 'the crown’ text is white with a drop shadow to make it stand out from the text behind it, otherwise, it would look like this:

example 2

for this banner, i used colors that i found in the background for the text. there is an outer glow behind the farthest back 'wishes’ and a drop shadow on the closest 'wishes’, without either it would get lost in the busy background like so:

example 3

for this banner i used a drop shadow for the 'over’ and 'hills’ text, and then an outer glow for 'jeweled’ and then also a drop shadow after adding the outer glow, this makes the white part of the glow stand out against the other white text, if i didn’t do that it would look like this:

so basically, use drop shadows and outer glows and you’ll get your titles to stand out more and be more noticeable :)

of course! i’m more than happy to help!

i normally start with my background, photo + gif overlays, coloring files, etc. then move on to placing the member png - which i typically place on either side, i don’t like to place them too close to the middle of the banner for this exact reason of font placement. (if you’re not using a member png then it doesn’t matter as much on where you decide to put the title of your fic.)

fonts are last bc i don’t know how i’m going to set up the images yet, it’s easier to me to do it this way. sometimes you’ll still have to shift things around but the placement of everything is usually very close to how it originally was.

once you’re ready for fonts, think of what types you want to use. i normally use a combination of a block font and a script font (i made a post a while ago about font pairings that may help you too).

if the title is long, i like to emphasize certain words or the ‘main’ word too that way it doesn’t take up a whole lot of space on the banner. I also like the words to overlap, but that’s a personal preference!

i also have certain 'rules’ and best practices already in mind when it comes to creating banners that i learned when i got my degree in graphic design. some that come up most often are:

1. leave space along the edges of the banner, don’t let the font touch the edge.
2. in some cases the title can 'bleed’ onto the subject (member pngs) but it really depends on the placement and as long as the text doesn’t go over anyone’s face).
3. keep a good ratio for title vs subject - i like to set up my banners to be 700 pixels wide and 300 pixels high, and then i use a 70 / 30 ratio for text and subject - so 70% text and 30% subject (not including background).
4. if the background is super detailed, try not to place text over anything of importance.

and there are probably more but that’s all that i can think of at the moment. of course, if you ever need anything explained or want advice for a banner you’re working on - my dms are always open and i’m more than happy to help!

below are some examples from my portfolio that may be helpful to visualize what i mean too! feel free to use any of those titles + font placements as an example :) hope this helps and best of luck designing!!!