How To Make A Link Button in Microsoft Paint

If you're a beginning webdesigner, you've probably seen other domains that display a page of small graphics suitable for other sites to link to them, called "link buttons." As a beginner myself, I often wondered, "How in the world do people make such tiny little graphics on the computer?" Well, while you can go out and buy $500 or $600 software that could do it for you, I will teach you how to do the same thing in Microsoft Paint (or any similar drawing program).

To begin, open Paint. (Most likely, you will have a fairly large canvas to work with, because Paint assumes that you're on the verge of creating the next large digital masterpiece. But today, you want to make something quite a bit smaller.) Click on "Image" up on the toolbar, and when the Image menu drops down, select "Attributes...".

A little dialog box resembling the one above will pop up. Click on the image above to see what all my image attribute settings are for this example.

Don't be intimidated by all those settings! For now, we're just focusing on the "Width" and "Height" blanks, because this is the major key to how Paint can make a small link button. When you change the Width and Height attributes of your image and click OK, the canvas will automatically resize to what you put down.

In my example, I want the width of the link button to be 88 pixels and the height to be 31 pixels; therefore, those two measurements are displayed. You can make any size link button you want, but 88 by 31 is one of the "standard" link button sizes for webdesign.

(Another good standard to use with Paint is 100 by 35. You should probably not go any smaller than 88 x 31 with Paint because it tends to make a lower-quality image. That, and the fact that designing that small can be a pain in the posterior without the right software.)

When you're done choosing your width and height for the button, go ahead and click OK. The white part of Paint's window will now be resized to the dimensions you selected, like in my example above.

Now, from here, you have complete personal choice. You can make your button any color, with a border or without a border, and you can put crazy designs on it if you want to. All that your button absolutely needs is the name of your site on it. If you wish to, you can match the colors of your button to the colors of your website, but this is not necessary if you intend to change layouts and color schemes a lot (as I often do).

Play around with Paint and see precisely what you can do. You can add text with or without a white background behind it, you can add a border of any color, and you can cut and paste to make a mosaic-effect button. Now's your chance to just play around and see what an 88 x 31 link button can look like.

Also, don't forget my trick of formatting text in Paint. Make a new text box by clicking on the capital "A", and then, before you type anything in the text box, right-click the text box and click "Text Toolbar" on the tiny pop-up menu. This will pop up a little toolbar where you can change what font you're writing in, what size it is, and if it's bold, italic, or underlined.

In my example below, I have used black as the background, with a bright teal border, a smidge of dark blue spray, and white text, and I chose a pretty font called Monotype Corsiva, size 12.

BIG TIP: With link buttons, you want to be sure that the name of your site is clearly legible in the font and the size you chose---otherwise, people won't know what the button links to, and subsequently won't click on it!

Once you've played around with Paint and figured out what you want on your button, come up with a design you like, go to the "File" menu and click on "Save."

Now you've come to the "Save As..." dialog box. BUT WAIT! Don't go ahead and blithely hit "Save!" Look at the dialog box I have displayed below.

Type in the filename that you want for your button, and then click on the dropdown box beside the words "Save As Type:". In my example above, the dropdown box is fully expanded.

See all those options? Well, don't be daunted---for this link button file, you'll want a file type that will transfer well over any sort of internet connection. JPEGs and GIFs fit the bill perfectly. GIF format works well for small graphics, but I chose JPEG for this example because the file turns out a little smaller on the average.

In my example, I chose JPEG (it's the option that is highlighted). Once you've picked your file type, hit "Save," and you are DONE!

Now that you've made your first link button, you can go back into Paint (which "remembers" the width and height you put in) and make tons more link buttons for your audience's delight. They are both useful and fun, and they make it attractive and easy for people to link to your site. (Which is, of course, the whole point in making link buttons in the first place.)

Thanks for reading this little tutorial, and happy button-making!