Yes, that suggestion from Haldoor is one I'd make, too - you can put your original image over a background that's the right ratio but actually larger in size than your image. You'll end up with the background color showing, but you can do some things with fading the image into the background, and use it for text.
I think Paint might have some of that functionality for free, though I haven't used it in a long time. If you want to invest a little, there's a great program called Pixelmator. It cost $35 but it has a *lot* of functionality, almost as many tools as Photoshop.
Biggest challenge I have so far on LJ is the 100x100 final size - dang hard (for me at least) to do text that shows up well. Any tips on that? Best fonts, etc?
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I think Paint might have some of that functionality for free, though I haven't used it in a long time. If you want to invest a little, there's a great program called Pixelmator. It cost $35 but it has a *lot* of functionality, almost as many tools as Photoshop.
Biggest challenge I have so far on LJ is the 100x100 final size - dang hard (for me at least) to do text that shows up well. Any tips on that? Best fonts, etc?