Banner Designer Pro

As its name implies, Banner Designer Pro is a software application which enables you to create and design Flash banners for your websites.

The interface of the program is clean and pretty intuitive. You can start a new project from scratch by specifying the banner size, background shape and color/image.

But you can also select the frame rate, insert a hyperlink and make the tool continuously loop. Alternatively, you can pick one of the templates to get started.

Banner Designer Pro provides you with some standard tools which include text, images, symbols, shapes, buttons, color adjustment, object grouping, flip, overlay and color picker, just to name a few.

You can apply effects (e.g. blur, outline, emboss, drop, shadow) and insert transitions, as well as customize text settings when it comes to the emphasis, font name, links, character maps, rotation, letter spacing, size and line spacing, among others. Image options may be modified in matter of rotation and transparency.

You can use the undo and redo functions, insert filters (e.g. grayscale, invert, sharpen, edge), preview results, zoom in and out, bring objects to the front or send them to the back, as well as hide the ruler and grid. Once the banner is done, you can save it as a template or to file, as well as send it via FTP or email, or upload it to Picasa or Flickr.

The tool needs a moderate-to-high amount of system resources, has a good response time and includes user documentation. We have not come across any problems throughout our evaluation; Banner Designer Pro did not freeze, crash or pop up error dialogs. First-time users may need some time to get adjusted to the app's features.