Interesting how users sacrificed originality for just having a nice-looking signature.

Dunno about nice-looking. Many of them were pretty poor clones.

I'd personally encourage people to either just stick with a text sig, or take the time and effort to really work at it.

This metro sig took me about 3hrs to make in Photoshop. Then I chucked that, started from scratch again in Expression Design and took 5hrs perfecting that. Was it worth it? I think so. Considering I only redo my sigs every 12-18 months, I like to take the time to ensure what will be intertwined with my identity on the internet is completely up to scratch.

I don't regard my signature is particularly original - I did just spend time pouring over Zune and reinterpreting Microsoft's interface for my own use. That said, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out - iirc, the original design happened before even WP7 hit the shelves (early-mid 2010), and it still stands up well even now with Windows 8, so I think I interpreted it pretty damn well.

I don't know how to make my text look good lol. Anyone know how I can do this in GIMP?

Stop using GIMP. A professional-looking piece of work requires professional tools.

You'll also really want to make sure you have the full set of Segoe UI fonts before even thinking about a Metro look.

Ok... What programs would you recommend then?

I would recommend Photoshop or Pixelmator.

Photoshop is the staple for any vaguely serious graphic work these days. Well worth getting to grips with.

I'd also recommend learning how to break out the ruler tool, making sure that things are sized proportionality, aligned correctly, etc. etc.. Your current signature doesn't scream professional in that sense either.

Now all I need is the money for it...

Who said anything about money?

I'm fairly certain that 99% of the entire Photoshop userbase got their copy through "alternative means".

What does "alternative means" mean?

That means getting it not from the official source.

But I think you should just earn enough money, so you can eventually create an awesome signature.

That, or download the Photoshop CS6 Beta and use that. I believe it's a 30 day trial, and if you need 30 days for a single signature you're: 1.) a slacker, 2.) not managing time very well 3.) designing one hell of a signature that the entire world is going to want to use or 4.) using a Pentium MMX with Windows 7 so it'll take 30 days to load.

Edit: Photoshop Elements would probably do a good enough job for a signature design. Sure, it lacks some tools and stuff but it cost a LOT less, and not everyone lets Photoshop fall out of the cloud onto their computers .

Edit: Here's a quick 10 minute mock up...more of a modification. I took the clone tool and used that over Hounsell's words and used a font similar to his original to add the text . So simple anyone can do it. I did import the background into Illustrator and used it for the font though as Photoshop wanted to make crappy looking text no matter what AA setting I chose...but meh, it works.

Close, but no cigar. The "Your username" part is using the wrong font, the Min/Max/Close buttons are rendered poorly, the shadow is off, the spacing between "Your username" and "Your random info" is way off, etc. etc. A quick 10 minute mock up of this sig won't pass muster.

I believe the errors except for the text are from being imported into Illustartor and being exported as a raster image.

Release the kraken! source template of your siggy hounsell!

Why should he? It's his signature, and to be honest he's being pretty calm about the fact that everybody is ripping him off. If I were him I'd be making a bit more of a ruckus about it.

I think what GL101 was a joke... lol

I just remember the saying "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".

Hell, mine's still the original, and as general consensus goes, the best. That for me, is reward enough.

And mine is an awesome vector.

Vector images seem to be better anyways, as you can easily share them by creating an object out of the text, they can be easily resized, they're clean looking and can be a pain in the ass to duplicate with a raster image editor .

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