Stepbystep tutorial on how to create an ebook cover using gimp free open source software. A good coverbook design is an outcome of effective use of above three tools. To design a physical book cover with gimp youll need 3 things. Create a stylish book cover by customizing a professionallydesigned template from adobe stock. After all, i dont get to be on book covers that often. Many of the book covers ive studied okay, glanced at flip flop back and forth between big title and small author name, even those with big name authors. Well minimize the back cover here in gimp, and select the front cover design.
They recognise the authors name and liked their earlier work. Buy it now for the author who wants to take artistic control of their ebook covers and save money. In this course, ill show you how to use the gnu image manipulation program gimp, a free photoshoplike program, to produce professional looking, highquality graphics on a budget. In this book ill show you how to use the gnu image manipulation program gimp, a free photoshop like program, to produce professional looking, high quality graphics on a budget. Gimp tutorial on how to create ebook image boxshot. Often cnet allows other links that say download, but are outside ads that will not give you the gimp program you need. Heres a short stepbystep of the book cover i just made for james carters.
Upload your own photos or choose from over 1 million stock images. If you need to design a 3d ebook image cover for your self published work, then this articlel can help. There are only really three things that make people pick a book up. How to make an ebook cover with gimp kindle edition by. Make a book cover spine with gimp selfpublishing with dale. The gimp is a quite powerful open source graphics software. Which software to use for making book covers, gimp or. An eyecatching design can make the difference between a book that sells and one that stalls, so dont let your future bestseller get passed over due to a soso cover design. Jul 31, 20 gimp is the open source program from sourceforge team that can be used to create stunning e book covers. It explains the function of every menu item and offers tips for everyday use. How to design a book cover if you are not a designer a great article on getting the design right. Its also developed by a community, which is cool in some ways, but brings its own little quirks.
And choosing printer destination on the color tab when exporting to pdf. I have seen many online ebook sellers who market their ebooks without a cover image, but most professionals these days use 3d image even if its a free ebook. Making book covers is fun and if you publish a lot of books learning how to design your own book covers may save you a lot of money. Work out the specifications for a paperback book cover or generate one in createspace, and then design your cover in canva with a little image manipulating in gimp. Oct 29, 2014 gimp a free editing and retouching software program that can be used with mac, linux and windows anything after xp. Actually, there have been some books that cover gimp 2. The making of the book cover and a gimp tutorial submitted by hingo on sun, 2006. Adding logos or paintbrush effects to ebooks using gimp.
Gimp is the open source program from sourceforge team that can be used to create stunning ebook covers. What program can be used to make book covers digital and. The standard content will walk you through an easy step by step process to create an e book cover. Choose from our library of professionally designed layouts. Although i signed with a great publisher for my ebook, i opted out of print, deciding to selfpublish a paperback edition of my novel.
Diy book covers free book design templates and tutorials. How to find the best art and photos that nobody else is using. Having more time than cash, i wanted to see how much i could accomplish without spending any money. Ill also share some of the advanced book marketing tactics ive used to make a fulltime income with my writing. Gimp is a powerful free image editor similar to photoshop. This book itself covers photo editing and retouching. Buy it now for the author who wants to take artistic control of their e book covers and save money. Canvas free book cover maker is ridiculously easy to use even for the novice or notsotechsavvy writer.
Ive been getting a lot of questions recently about ebook covers and, specifically the size and proportion requirements for submitting the cover image of your ebook when you upload it to a retailer or a distributor heres a selection of requirements that should help. Gimp a free editing and retouching software program that can be used with mac, linux and windows anything after xp. How to make a book cover with gimp, i rushed through the process skipping over two very important steps in creating a good paperback book cover. Open gimp by doubleclicking on the gimp icon on your desktop. Make it your own by changing the typography, artwork, and colors. Im going to be using gimp because its free, its very similar to photoshop, and probably ninety percent of the digital artists out there use at least one of these programs. Next, you will create the side of the ebook, distort the image to make it look 3d, draw the remaining portion of the ebook, create a shadow, and finally create a reflection or shadow to give the appearance of a true 3d image optional. Here is a step by step guide for how to design a book cover in gimp. So, heres how to make a book cover spine with gimp select the text tool type out what you want on your spine highlight the text then change the font and size in the small bar above your text box select the layer tab at the top of the window. The book cover design is one of the most critical factors in a books success. Now its time to create a matching cover that whets your readers imaginations. At the end of 20 i put out a package of diy book cover templates in microsoft word and revolutionized publishing with a howto guide to designing amazing book covers in an easy to use program youre already familiar with. An introduction to creating an ebook cover with gimp. The course uses the creation of book covers for selfpublishing as the basis for demonstrating the use of the program.
The create a new image text box will appear on your screen. Open canva and select the kindle cover design type or insert your own custom dimensions. How to make an ebook cover with gimp part 1 rakuten kobo. Making a book cover with placeit takes no time and everything happens right here in your browser, no need to download expensive design software or hire a designer.
The longer answer is that gimp gnu image manipulation program is a powerful graphics program, and for most of us making our own book covers, it has more power than we need. But it took me a while longer to figure out how to customize your front cover into a full print cover for createspace or other pod providers. Even though weve all been told since childhood to never judge a book by its cover, the fact is that book cover design does attract readers. The best free online graphic software for your book covers. So this was an opportunity i didnt want to pass on. Gimp in film gimp and its fork filmgimp have been used in the making of several movies. In my last two posts, i discussed branding and source material for making book covers. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading make a kindle ebook cover in gimp 2. How to create an album cover in gimp 2018 in this gimp tutorial, i show you how to design an album cover using the latest version of gimp 2.
Put your cursor over the transform option in the dropdown. Design book cover for free with online templates adobe spark. Excellent course with detailed explanations on how to use gimp to create fabulous book covers. The book written by bernard t hooft is written in english. Anyone here created a book cover for kdpcreatespace using. What program can be used to make book covers digital and print. Do not decide on a book cover until you have read this book.
If you have access to adobe photoshop and have time to play around, you can make a pretty amazing book cover by yourself. Jumpstart a book cover design with a readymade template. I see that in your cover art which i really enjoyed btw your name is at the top and in most of them it is in a bigger font than your book title. By jerry banfield october 9, 2019 november 12, 2019 teaching online, tutorial, uthena create logos and book covers with gimp, gimp 2.
Change the dialogue box to read inches rather than pixels. This really depends on what you want your book cover to be, if you want proper features to create book cover with perfect precision then gimp is best. The video is a little poor in quality because this is not my usual video production. That lets me know that this copy has everything for a full book cover design. Fix your images, add stunning filters and edit text. Dont worry, theyll come out good in the cover section.
Gimp for absolute beginners covers the newest version of gimp, version 2. Anyway, just before i tell you where you can make covers, i just need to let you know that wattpad covers are 256x400 in dimensions or if you want, you can make them bigger. I would strongly advise making book covers in scribus instead. A good cover book design is an outcome of effective use of above three tools. Make a book cover spine with gimp select the text tool. Vickys guide to wattpad making dardy covers wattpad. The gimp pocket reference explains the numerous features of the gnu image manipulation program and is the essential guide for designers working in a linuxunix environment. Youve done the hard work and created an amazing book. This course is more that just for making book covers. This writeup explains the steps to be followed to create covers for your ebooks. Aug 10, 2017 how to make a book cover spine with gimp createspace posted on august 10, 2017 august 10, 2017 by dale in my video createspace cover template. Design book covers with canvas free book cover maker. How to make your own book cover in adobe photoshop. Highlight the text then change the font and size in the small bar above your text box.
Select a book cover maker from placeits library of book cover designs. Make sure it sells out by creating an awesome cover design. Doing my interior and cover design would allow me artistic control, for better or worse, of the product. Learn how to edit a professionallydesigned book cover template from adobe stock using adobe indesign. Requests are closed for all those out there who want to know the secret of making a book cover, then this is the correct place to find it. Set up and design book covers in gimp using layer masks and blend modes to create interesting effects. The standard content will walk you through an easy. If you are clueless about gimp, then this is the course for you. This time, i want to delve a little deeper into some of the tricks you can use to make a cover unique and eyecatching. In this course ill show you how to use the gnu image manipulation program gimp, a free photoshop like program, to produce professional looking, high quality graphics on a budget. Canvas wattpad cover maker makes it especially easy for anyone to design their own creationseven for those with little to no design experience. This video discusses how to make a book cover in gimp. Ive helped design over book covers, including hundreds of bestsellers download my free book to learn all the insider secrets i use to sell more books.
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