This is a starter guide to teach you how to makelaptop skins, which can also be applied to making cellphone skins, iPod skins, or just about anything you want to skin. You’ll want to start by opening your favorite graphics program. It could be Photoshop or something else.

If you don’t have a graphics program, you can get a free copy of Gimp which should do the trick.

When starting a new project in your graphics program, be sure to select RGB mode, otherwise it will probably be grayscale. Also choose a resolution of 300 so your graphic will be of print quality. Lower than 300 might produce disappointing results, above it is unecessary.

Update: 200 dpi is enough resolution for good results

For the size, you will want to work with something fairly large. You can easily scale your image down, but if you try to increase the size, that’s when things become “pixelated”, or distorted and blurry. Let’s start with 2500 width and 3000 height, with the resolution 200 dpi (dots per inch) and RGB color mode.

The next part, the design, is really up to you. If you are using photoshop, you might find “brushes” to be a cool way to help and inspire. Just do a search for “photoshop brushes” if interested. A couple sites for favorite brush sets are here, here, and here. If wondering what to do with them, search for “install photoshop brushes” for additional help. When you’ve completed your design, you would choose from the File menu to “save as” and select jpeg, with quality set to maximum.

A website that might also inspire you is deviantart which has lots of work by other graphic designers to look at. There are so many great sites to provide additional help all you need to do is search “photoshop tutorials”. One of the most popular is the PS roadmap. As a rule of thumb, your final image (jpeg) for a skin should be close to 1 MB or more, or it might be a little grainy/blurry. You can probably get use 500 kb or more for cellphones, but not less.

It’s now up to you. You’re the designer. Having an idea of what you hope to acheive will make a huge difference. Whether you’re looking to create a design in a hip hop, skater, or another style, it’s up to you.