One of the biggest assets a book can
have is a striking cover but new authors often cringe at the cost of
having one designed. I have been designing book covers for over ten
years and have learned a few tricks along the way. With the abundance
of affordable stock photography available, it is easier than ever to
create your own attractive covers. The covers in the image below were
each created in Photoshop using fonts that were FREE through sites
like DaFont.com and 1001FreeFonts.com and stock images that I
purchased from 123rf.com for $3 each:
Let's start with the hi-tech/sci-fi
cover:
1. This is a file I purchased for $3 in
Large format. I trimmed it to a 1:1.6 ratio (recommended by Amazon.)
2. The title is added in a font called
Data Control.
3. Because the font used has no bold
version I duplicated the layer and offset it by 2px both right and
down to make it appear heavier and merged the 2 layers
4. In order to make the title stand out
I added an outer glow (Layer> Layer Style> Outer Glow) in a
dark blue.
5. The author's name is added in a font
called Impact in a neon green.
6. To make the author's name stand out
I added a drop shadow (Layer> Layer Style> Drop Shadow) in 100%
black.
That's all there is to it. The second
cover is for a main-stream contemporary novel:
1. For the background I chose to use a
slight gradient that transitioned from black to a deep forest green,
this gives the background more depth and excitement than a one color
background
2. The title is added in white using 2
fonts, Yorkshire (the script) and Felix Titling (serif
font.) The word “Home” is slightly larger than the word “Coming”
to add visual interest.
3. The author's name is added using
Felix Titling.
4. An image purchased for $3 is added
and positioned in an attractive place.
5. In order to add depth to the image I
added an outer glow (Layer> Layer Style> Outer Glow) using the
Multiply option.
6. A fine line is used to frame the
image 20 px outside of the image in a soft yellow-green.
That's it. The third cover is suitable
for a romance or historical novel.
1. This is a $3 image exactly as it was
purchased.
2. I added a layer and filled a
rectangle with black then lowered the opacity to 80% in order not to
obscure her lovely figure.
3. The title is added in 2 fonts –
Shelly Volante (the script) and Venetian Demi-Bold
(serif font). I made the script smaller and colored it a pale gold
and the larger text in a bright rose color.
4. I added a slight drop shadow in
black to highlight the title.
5. The author's name is added using the
Venetian Demi-Bold font in the same pale gold.
6. To add that elegant, Victorian
touch, I added two small, pale gold ornaments using a free font
called Victorian Free Ornaments – one is right-side up and
one is upside down.
There are a lot of free ornament fonts
which are great fun to use. Your computer most likely came with a
Character Map program already installed that you can use to explore
these fonts. Others I have found useful are Borders 1, Borders 2,
and Calligraphic Ornaments.
If you are writing a series it is easy
to change the cover image while keeping fonts consistent to maintain
a look. The three covers below are from my Halcyon Beach Chronicles
series. The first two have similar imagery and colors but when it
came time to design the third cover I wanted somewhat of a different
look because of the story. By using the same distinctive fonts, even
with a change of composition, the overall impression remains.
Creating your own covers this way can
save beginning authors a great deal of money and give them a
distinctive and professional look.
Thanks for reading.
2 comments:
Kathleen... great covers! Thank you for taking the time to show how you created them. Very useful info.
You are welcome.
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