Here I want to show, how you could create such a
First you have to create a new image with gimp. I use a transparent background (option: Fill with Transparency):
At first I draw the new rectangle with the Rectangle Tool (keyboard: R), with the rounded corners enabled. You can see the thin lines on the transparent background.
Now you have to pick a foreground color, I choose this blue 237bfd and use the the Bucket Fill Tool, clicked in the new rectangle area and got this.
Now I want to create the typical Web 2.0 color blending: the border has the dark blue, from the last step, but the inner part of the button blends from there to a lighter blue.
At first I have to shrink the selection for a few pixel. this is done with
the menu item Selection -> Shrink.
I need the original blue a foreground color and white as background color. I choose the Blending Tool, configure the Gradient from Foreground to Background and draw a line from the lower to the upper bound of the button. It is not import to be exact in this step.
Next I write my Name on a new transparent layer and roughly center it in the button:
You can see the detailed steps here.
Next steps are the typical Web 2.0 shadows. I took slightly lighter foreground color (e.g. 3d8afd).
There is a special shadow tool: Filters -> Light and Shadow -> Drop Shadow . The default
values are fine for this. I disabled all other layers and only enabled the layer with the button on it(the
eye symbol in the Layer Dialog) and the used the shadow tool. This tool creates a new shadow layer.
You can see the detailed steps here.
You can add a white layer as background: create a new layer with white as backgound and put the layer below the other layers (the arrow down symbol in the Layer Dialog).
You can see the detailed steps here.
You can crob the button - with or without the white background layer - and save it as png or jpeg image.
Please mail questions and feedback to joerg@joergbeyer.com
There is also a Gimp Tutorial (english) for mirror effects.