Note: My computer's screen resolution is set at 1920 X 1080. Your screen's resolution may require you to resize or place your images at different markings than the ones I have listed here.
Gimp is a free image creating/editing program. My version is 2.8.2, so if you have a different version of Gimp, your commands may be slightly different from mine.
First, I created a new image background. Its size is 2560 x 1600. For my Twitter page, I made a simple starry background with a single nova focal point following a simple Gimp planet design tutorial.
Next, you need to choose which images you want to display on your background. My book covers were created using Gimp and were exported in jpg format. You can open many different image types in Gimp and use them in other projects as long as you either have permission to use them or created them yourself and own the copyrights to them. Go up to the menu and select Edit, then Copy. If you only wish to use part of your image, use the rectangle selection tool to outline the area of the image you wish to use in your background before going up to Edit, then Copy. Once the image is on your clipboard, go back to the page with the background image you've created. Go up to Edit, Paste As, and select New Layer. This pastes the image into the project page, while allowing you to move it around and manipulate it as a separate entity from the rest of your project. If you do a simple paste, the image will merge with your background, and you won't be able to resize or move it after you click outside the image's borders.
If your image does not appear on your background as anything other than a dotted outline, go up to menu, and click Layer, Stack, and Layer To Top. You should now see your image on top of your background.
Next, you need to resize your image. Go up to the menu and select Tools, Transform Tools, and Scale. Click on your image. A dialog box should appear. One of my gripes about this feature is that you can't just click in the size boxes, type the size you want, and then hit Scale. You must use the arrow keys on the sides of the numbers to enlarge or decrease your image size manually. For my book covers, I use a width of 193 and height of 265.
Note that this will make your images appear rather small on the background, but rest assured it will look plenty large on your Twitter page once it's uploaded.
Next, you will move your image to the position you want on the page. With the image size I selected, I can display 6 book covers to the left of Twitter's feed and 6 more covers to the right, so if you're a prolific writer like me, you have plenty of space to display your book covers.
Go to Tools, Transform Tools, Move. Your cursor should change to a cross image. Now, before you do anything else, you need to check that you will be moving the active image instead of the background! On the right hand side of Gimp's working page, I have a menu tab that was a default setting on the working view. There are tabs at the top of the menu tab, and the fourth one from the left in that window is labeled Tool Options, which changes with each tool you select, so you have to have the Move tool active in order to see the correct options for it. Click on the tab, and in the box underneath, you should see Pick a layer or guide and under that Move the active layer. Click on Move the active layer. Move your first image to the top left of your background, leaving only a little clear space showing background color to the top and left of it.
Repeat your actions to add one additional book cover to the right of your first image and up to two more rows of book cover images underneath that first row, lining the images up as best you can and leaving only a little space between the rows. This fills up the space to the left of your Twitter feed.
Now, to utilize the space to the right of your Twitter feed, you will repeat the actions above, but when positioning the images on the background, look above your project, and you'll see a ruler. Align your first right hand side image at the 1275 or 1280 mark on the ruler.
Note that you will have a lot of empty space on your background to the right of your right hand images and beneath all of your images when done. I'm not sure why, but I've found it necessary to have all this wasted space in my background in order for it to appear the correct size and in the correct position on Twitter.
Once you have all of your images sized and placed on the background, save it as a Gimp xcf file with the name of your background--I use the name Twitterbackground. Next, you will export the project as a jpg to your desktop. Go up to File, Export. A dialog box should open. In the Places column, select Desktop to export the image to your desktop. On the bottom of the dialog box, click on Select File Type (By Extension), and scroll down until you see JPEG image. Select that. Click the Export button. A second dialog box should pop up. Click the Export button. The image should now be available on your desktop.
To upload your new background to Twitter, go up to the round Settings And Help button on your Twitter page. Click Settings, and a menu pops up on the left hand side. Click on Design, and you will see Customize Your Own. The top item is Background image. Click on Change Background, and Choose Existing Image. When the dialog box pops up, scroll through until you find Desktop on the left hand side. Click on that, and then on the right hand side, click on your image's name, then hit open. Note that your background may or may not immediately update. Wait a few moments for the upload to complete, then on your Twitter page, scroll down to the bottom and click Save Changes. If your image didn't immediately update after uploading, it should update now.
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