Making 88x31 Buttons

For this process I use Krita. Any image editor should work, but your milage may vary.

There are two paths you can take, creating a button from scratch or manipulating existing images into buttons. I suggest the second, but I'll show my process for each.

Examples of buttons i've made can be found at my links

1 - Creating From Scratch

1. Create or get a base. This is usually grey with a white top-left and black bottom-right border, to create a chiselled, windows 95 button style.
2. Plan your layout, usually if there is text, it will take up the majority of the space, as 88 by 31 pixels is not a very large canvas, so for readable text, it needs to be quite big.
3. Create the text first, I would recommend using the text tool, rather than drawing the text yourself, but you can if you want.
4. After that, add any logos or symbols around the text, taking care to keep your text legible.
5. You should have a complete button now!

2 - Manipulating Existing Images

1. This one requires some research, try to find official logos and branding images (press releases are your friend).
2. Resize the images you found into the 88 by 31 resolution.
3. Try to lay out the images so that, once again, any (important) text is legible, with pictograms or graphics primarily in the background.
4. You can add the same white-black emboss/border effect if you want.
5. Voila! You should have a button!

i'll add images + screenshots later maybe