Design Software for Book Covers
Posted on September 10, 2007
Filed Under Designing Book Covers |
Karen writes:
I didn’t like the fact that you couldn’t say where the title or author’s name were to be situated on the page. And…when I downloaded one of their covers to play with, I couldn’t get the font large enough so I still wasn’t happy.
I ended up letting Lulu put the title in and I included my name where I wanted it on the manipulated version of their cover. However, when I do the real publication I want to have more control. Can you discuss software you use for manipulating the cover images please? I’m not happy with mine.
I wasn’t happy with the cover preview in the book section or the photo book section for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason was the lack of design control. Lulu’s book cover templates do not allow you to manipulate the text beyond changing the font and its color.
Since I own Photoshop, I decided to use that and convert the file into a .pdf. What if I didn’t have Photoshop at my disposal? What software could I use to create a professional looking cover?
Several Lulu authors have used MS PowerPoint to create their covers. Dixie Press has templates for both Word and PowerPoint for you to use, should you want to rely on Microsoft to help you create your book covers. Speaking from experience, I would shy away from anything created by Microsoft to publish my books.
That said, a free alternative to Photoshop is Gimp. Although I’ve never tested it out, I’ve heard good things about this program. You can order a user manual through Amazon, that’s how popular this program has gotten. After looking at the screenshots, I considered downloading it to test it out on my Mac. But then I read that I had to install this X11 program in order to make it work. I decided that I was happy enough with Photoshop.
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2 Responses to “Design Software for Book Covers”
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My question is if you can help is.
I have designed my cove using Serif draw 5. do you know if Lulu will be able to open this from a adobe file.
Thank for any help you give me.
Charles
I’ve never used Serif Draw 5, so I can’t give you a definitive answer. Try it out and let us know how it works.