About once a week, someone writes to ask what program I use to do the graphics on this site. Actually, I use several but my favorite — and the one in which I design all the logos and borders and such — is Xara X, which is a vector drawing program that does all sorts of neat things. Here's a banner ad for it…
The Xara folks make a number of great graphics programs, including one called Xara Webstyle that provides an ultra-simple way to generate logos, backgrounds, menus and other images to jazz up your website. I used Webstyle to make the first version of this site, and liked it tremendously. So I've decided to plug them here and, yes, this is another one of those deals where this site receives a commission on your purchases. But if you know me, you know I can't be bought. Rented, maybe. Leased, definitely. But bought? Never.