The first thing you need to know is if you are making a skin for something larger like a laptop skin, Xbox skin, PS3 skin, Wii skin, or another larger object, your final image should be over 1 MB for decent sharpness and resolution. For smaller objects like MP3 players or cell phones and other gadgets, your final image should be over 500 kb.

There are a few ways you can create your own skins for laptops, cell phones, iPods and other gadgets.

One way is to just find images you like online. Just remember what is said about filesize above. To make laptop skins (or for most other gadgets or devices) you should open Photoshop and start your new document with 200 dpi. Then you need to know the dimensions of your laptop, cellphone, xbox, PSP, iPod, or whatever kind of personal or portable media you are designing for.

For every inch, you should use 200 pixels. Some standard laptop sizes might be…

15 inch laptop - 15″ x 11″ = 3000 x 2200 pixels

17 inch laptop - 17″ x 12″ = 3400 x 2400 pixels

When determining sizes, be sure to round up. You can scale down your image, but to scale up (or stretch) can distort your image and/or reduce the output quality.

If designing your own, you should always double check your product dimensions. It’s easy to find dimension details on sites with electronics like Amazon or Best Buy.

* You can use jpeg/jpg, png, or gif. Just make sure your jpeg is not in progressive format.