Easy Banner Creator 1.0 Review

As I get to see more and more programs, work with them and acquire experience, I begin to consider even complex applications to be "easy to use", but no matter how experienced you are, some programs are trivial. Take Notepad and Paint as examples, but there are plenty of them around, and the one I got here today is a fresh banner creator, that has just seen the light of day. Its name is Easy Banner Creator, and I hope to be a pleasure using it. Now, let's see...

Setup

When talking about Easy Baner Creator, 1 seems to be a magical number. Since this seems to be the first public release, the version number is, obviously, 1.0. Even more, the archive containing the setup package has also exactly 1MB in size, and there is only one major task that can be accomplished using this program, but we'll talk about that later.












The trial version of the program can be used for as long as you like, but it doesn't allow you to save your work to a GIF file until you pay the 15$ registration fee. Installing the program is very easy - just download the archive containing the kit, unpack and run the file called "setup.exe", then follow the instructions. Nothing easier, as you can see in the shots above...

Interface

If I didn't pass through a time gate, we're in 2007. When I look at the screenshot to the left, I think that I may be missing something, so I check the date again. No change, it's the 12th of September, 2007. Well, it seems there's nothing wrong with me, but Easy Banner Creator looks like a software application from the past. We get a menu bar with only 2 items, and the main window looks like a desert - a lot of empty space, without any chance to see it used, in the current version. Anyway, the good part is that even my grandmother should be able to use this program in a snap, if the can read the small texts from its interface, of course...

Features

Now, let's create a banner, quickly! Once you have fired up the program, a new document is automatically created. There are 4 attributes you need to set so that you obtain a nice banner, or even an animated one.

First, you shuold enter the size of your banner. This can be done manually or by selecting one of the predefined banner sizes. Unfortunately, this program doesn't seem to have built in the sizes defined by IAB's standards, but I don't think that Easy Banner Creator's users are people that care about the Interactive Advertising Bureau's directives, either.

Next, you should pick the background color of the banner, but you can also use a gradient or a background picture. There are some background pictures included with the program, not many, nd most of them are really awful.

The third thing your should take care of is to add some text, choose its font, and set those basic shading options (shade color and depth).

At last, you can optionally enable the animation for your text, and choose one of the 8 animation directions available, from Right to Left Top. Usually, last step would be to export your work to a GIF file, but since this option is disabled in the trial version, you can save the project as a Banner project file (*.ebc) to use when you'll purchase the program... or simply forget about this program, as I will, for now.

The Good

Easy Banner Creator is extremely easy to use and worked without problems during the time I spent with it.

The Bad

The price of this program is incredible, considering what can be done with it, the built in graphics are really bad (I found that only one or two background images can be used in a banner without being ashamed of your work) and the features are very limited.

Conclusion

I know it's hard to develop a program on your own and to get profit out of it from the start, but setting a price higher than the rest of the market won't take you anywhere, especially when your features and interface are taken right out from average banner creators that were very popular more than a decade ago! I don't want to be rude, and I hope that Easy Banner Creator will get better in the future, but as it is now, I wouldn't pay a single dollar for it, and I wouldn't recommend it for anything else than a try. Of course, you can always buy the program and consider you made a donation to Image Tools Group, so they can improve their software, because I am sure they can do it.

Developer: Image Tools Group
Price: 15$
Trial Link: Download