How to create a Pinnable Graphic with Paint & Picasa

You’ve written a great blog post. It’s EPIC! You know that it’s going to get pinned. to. death. But then….. crickets. Hmmm…. what went wrong? It may be as simple as not having a graphic that begs to be pinned. Was it that you didn’t think to make one – or most likely you didn’t have the “expensive” programs to make it with…. Guess what? You don’t need them! You can make great Pin-worthy graphics with my 2 favorite free editing programs: Paint & Picasa.

Start with the graphic that you want to use, and open it up with your Paint program.

Unless you make a point to take a photo that has enough blank space to add wording, then you need to create a translucent box to put your words on. Making it translucent will help make your words pop while your photo can still be seen.
First, you need to pick the rectangle box on the shapes menu. Then look just to the right of it, you need to change the “Outline” and “Fill” options.

OK – don’t on hate the next images – I took them with my iPhone because I could not get screen shots of the drop down menus… boooo!

Under both the “Outline” and “Fill” drop down menus, you want to choose “Marker.” This will give it a translucent look.


In the line box, choose the thinnest option (the one at the top) – Then set both your color options for the same color. (I used white.)

Then just click and drag to make the box where you want it on the graphic. YAY! You’ve made the box – now save the image, and open it in Picasa.

Once you have it open, then choose the “Text” option from the editing page.

Then choose your color, font, etc. and click right onto the image to add your text. Don’t forget you can use the dropper tool where you pick the color to choose a color directly from the photo!

You can play around with all the options…. like bold, italic, underline, centering, align left, align right, etc.

Don’t be afraid to make multiple boxes so you can align part of the text one way and part of the text another.

Once you have the words exactly where you want them, then save your graphic & you’re done! I know there are online programs that will let you do the same thing – but why go through the trouble of uploading the photo, etc. – when you can do it all on your computer for free?

May the Pins be with you!