I'm relatively new to Web development.  I put up my company's site (www.farrellkramer.com) late last year and followed up with a blog (www.farrellkramer.com/blog) and, just last week, my own podcast (www.talkingcommunications.com)! 

I built all of this myself with Frontpage 2003, WordPress and, obviously, some audio editing gear and software the podcast.

The problem is I have very little up in the way of graphics as I haven't had a chance to learn this yet -- but I'd like to do it now.  I downloaded the GIMP program, but even the tutorials need tutorials!  It's really complicated for the initiated.

Is this a matter of you get what you pay for?  Is there something simple that I could pick up and use to create banners, simple graphics and something better for my podcast artwork?  Please let me know.  I'd like something that produces nice looking graphics but my needs are limited.  (So, unfortunately, is my artistic ability!)

Thanks in advance for the help.

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for, but I use an inexpensive little logo program to do both logos and other graphics.  For examples and a link, see http://www.saveonisp.com/logos/

Thanks to all for the great advice!

I went with Paint Shop Pro after exploring the options everyone presented.  It seems to be working well for me.

I made this today for my podcast:



If anyone's interested, you can check out the show at www.talkingcommunications.com.  Thanks for all the advice.  Now I don't have to live with lame graphics anymore.

It is pretty easy to learn.  And once you build up to the fancy stuff you can do just about anything.  It also handles the really large images very well that I deal with at work.

-Tim

Maybe you'll want to check me into the nearest loony bin after I tell you this, but I like to create logos, buttons, and other simple graphics this way: I write simple PostScript code and display it in GSview. When I've got it right, I cut and paste it into The GIMP and make a .GIF or .PNG file out of it. The advantage is that it's easy to modify the .ps file or extend it without having to do all sorts of interactive graphics stuff from scratch -- reduced work and consistent appearance.

Why, that's a nice butterfly net you've got there! And this jacket, it's for me? Gee, the sleeves are a little long...

Phil