This topic is outdated and no longer supported, but may still work. However I prefer everyone use my new Photoshop Free and Easy tutorials to make signatures now. Don't worry, no money or experience will be needed, plus you should get much better and faster results.
If you don't want to use one of my premade ones or anime graph ones, you can make your own. There isn't any concrete way but here are some tips for it!
Find images to use for your sig!
First of all, the most fun part (besides finishing your project) is finding the image you're going to use. You can search on your computer, Google, websites that share images, or use our image sharing section for more info: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=419631
Start with right canvas size, drag images into canvas
The best sig size is 600px wide by 140px high. That gives space to work with and it meets site's standards. So what I would do to start is to open your image editing program GIMP, Jasc animation shop, Photoshop, Macromedia Fireworks, or Paint.net (this won't work so well with Microsoft Paint since it doesn't have options to edit images with other images) and then start a new project at 600px wide and 140px high. Then you can simply edit it from there and move the images you want to edit into the project. This makes it easy to see your final work, and you can save the project throughout.
Example: First I make my canvas, which is 140px high and 640px wide..
Circled here is an image on my desktop that I want to use for the signature background- I dragged it into the program and it became its own separate canvas. Your program might let you move the image right into the smaller window which will be the sig.
Now I can move or copy it into the signature canvas! Now I have a great sig background. I can save it as it is, and edit it more from here if I want.
Tips: You may want to resize or crop the images you drag into your program for more options and better results, I have a tutorial on it here: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=496785
Instead of starting a new project with a blank canvas, its possible to start with a image and resize and crop it to the size of a signature then edit from there!
You can make your own original images/wallpapers with my wallpaper tutorial, then try to use these for your signature: myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=395847&show=0#post1
And maybe you can take someone else's sig and edit it how you want!
SAVE OFTEN. You never know when you might want an old file or image, so don't throw them away. They take up very little space anyways.
Add text!
You can add text to your signature with image editing programs. Photoshop can make great logos, and most other programs can add at least simple text. Cooltext.com is a free and easy to use site that has great logos you can make for your signature, which you can then drag on to your signature pics. You can't use Microsoft Paint for this, but more advanced programs will be able to.
I made a logo at Cooltext.com that has this character's name. I simply drag it into the program...
..and then copy/paste or drag into my sig canvas. Now it has a nifty title!
When finished, install it!
When you're satisfied making your signature, take it to a image hosting site like Photobucket, Tinypic or Imgur and upload it. It will give you several links, one of which is "BBcode for message boards and forums" or something like that. This is the code you need to to copy. Paste it into your signature box on this page, and save with the blue button at the bottom: http://myanimelist.net/editprofile.php?go=forumoptions
You can enhance the signature further in that box with BBcode (next section)!
Optional: You can also add the MyAnimeList info (like favorites and recently seen anime). I have a tutorial on how to do this, just instead of using my premade signature images use the one you made: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=496003
Use BBcode to enhance it! (optional)
You can customize your generated or self-made signatures with BBcode. I have a popular Bbcode guide here. You can learn to add extra links and images to posts and use them on your signature, just add them to the Signature box the same way you'd add BBcode to a post. Add links to the bottom to link to your most popular pages.
I can add a couple texts with links embedded in them, as shown in the guide I linked in the last paragraph. I also use the centering tags to center it. Then my sig comes out like this:
Thats pretty much all I can say about making your own sig. Hope it helped, if you have questions be sure to ask!
btw, since you're making your own signature, try going through my wallpaper tutorial once. Its very easy and fun. You can learn to make original images better and will find many useful resources there, they may come in handy for your signature designs: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=395847&show=0#post1
You done everything right its just not showing because img tags are disabled temporarily for about two months so far. Same is true for many users. When they're back on the signature should turn out normally, tho it may have to be resaved.
I'm having a hard time finding links to downloading the different programs. I'm not sure which site is real and which is fake. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
With GIMP you can make really cool pics easily, it's very intuitive, there are a lot of tutorials and its free, download it from http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
I personally use Photoshop downloaded directly from Adobe page but is not legal as I use a cracked .dll and block adobe activation servers to keep my unlimited try period.
Thank you sooo much! Will try this right now, have been wanting to use Photoshop again for a long time now
(PS: CS2 is availible free and legal on a German computermagazine-site called chip-de)
Great guide man, I've been messing around with this editing program GIMP. Made a pretty basic one for now, but I'm sure the more fancier stuff will follow. For now, I succeeded because of these awesome guides you make. Thanks alot.