Free psd book cover templates free book cover templates. Buy it now for the author who wants to take artistic control of their ebook covers and save money. The cover must attempt to represent the four books contained in it by merging their covers in some way. Set up and design book covers in gimp using layer masks and blend modes to create interesting effects.
Besides, you only need to know the fundamentals of using the gimp to produce book covers. A complete guide to 3d book covers and bundle covers. I need to submit my book cover as a pdfx1a 2001 or pdfx3 2002 with fonts embedded. Do you want to know how to make a book cover with gimp in less than 5 minutes. 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. When i first tried creating my own ebook covers, i could find plenty of tutorials for free using photoshop, which i couldnt afford. Make a back book cover for createspace selfpublishing.
However, if you didnt create a solid book cover, youll go to gimp and use the color picker tool to obtain the background color for your spine by clicking on the back cover background. Nonfiction book cover design samples book cover designer. Smashwords how to make an ebook cover with gimp part 2. Having more time than cash, i wanted to see how much i could accomplish without spending any money. The video is a little poor in quality because this is not my usual video production. Create an ebook cover amazon kindle direct publishing. The cover image you upload will appear on your amazon detail page. When prompted if you want to save the update, click yes.
This video discusses how to make a book cover in gimp. 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. Smashwords how to make an ebook cover with gimp part 1. Complete guide to book cover sizes why do they matter. The pixel limit for the interior cover, as with all interior book images, has been increased to 3.
The last time i made a book cover, i struggled in paint, and when i mentioned on facebook that i had hit a snag, someone suggested gimp. The ultimate book cover designs one hundred years of solitude. Copy and paste your manuscript into a professionally formatted word doc. The easiest way would be to use adobe photoshop, but thats assuming you can afford it. If you set out to design your cover by yourself, you can either use a picture editor software, like photoshop or its free alternative, gimp, or go online and try a book cover designer app, like canva. Convert your catalogue cover images and paperback book cover images to a suitable size to embed within your ebooks. The book uses the creation of book covers for selfpublishing as the basis for demonstrating the use of the program. It has to be cleaner, more precise, and reflective of the knowledge and skill set its marketing.
It is free software, you can change its source code and distribute your changes. I include how to add photos, text, and eyecatching gradient backgrounds. In this class we create a book cover for a bundle of books. I know its been a while since i promised to show yall how to use gimp to make a cover for a box set, but i have an excuse. Y our cover is the window to the soul of your book. Free ebook covers how to create yours for free with gimp. The first thing you do is to go to page setup and set up the size of your cover. Elegant botanical background with pink and green leaves. Downloaded it and found it to be very helpful and easy to follow, so part 1 was purchased. If you have an apple computer you use pages program. Drag the corners of the book cover image to match the four corners of the 3d book template. Top 5 available free programs ranked in no particular order.
If you need to design a 3d ebook image cover for your self published work, then this articlel can help. Whittakers part 2 of how to make a ebook cover with gimp. That lets me know that this copy has everything for a full book cover design. Yes, it is the cover of that book that generates great. Ill be using the book cover i created in my 2d book cover class in this demonstration. Doing my interior and cover design would allow me artistic control, for better or worse, of the product. Due to the large size of this ebook i had to break it into 2 parts.
Converting a book cover for createspace from jpeg to pdf introduction. Built for createspace and kindle, our book covers remove the uncertainty of creating a book cover. Heres a tutorial to help you get it done using gimp. I know im not the only author out there whos bringing cover design inhouse. I only did the graphics in gimp, saved it and opened it as a background image in openoffice writer. Learn the gimp from the ground up 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. Well minimize the back cover here in gimp, and select the front cover design. The course benefits from having a specific focus and im the most familiar with using the gimp to create book covers. To see the hex color code, youll need to go to windows at the top, click on dockable dialogs, and select colors. Stepbystep tutorial on how to create an ebook cover using gimp free open source software. The gnu image manipulation program pdf introduction to gimp pdf another introduction to gimp docstoc. Nonfiction book cover design clients receive a minimum of 5 book cover proofs to choose from. Although i signed with a great publisher for my ebook, i opted out of print, deciding to selfpublish a paperback edition of my novel. How to create a free print book cover for kdp freedom to.
Nonfiction book cover design is not the same as fiction. How to make an ebook cover with gimp part 1 and how to make an ebook cover with gimp part 2. This page describes how to create the cover for a book you will distribute through createspace, using the image editor gimp. Doing your own artwork although i signed with a great publisher for my ebook, i opted out of print, deciding to selfpublish a paperback edition. Well start with the process of downloading gimp and finish. Once you start to play with gimp you can do all sorts of fun things here. Yesterday i showed you how to use paint brush to make an ebook cover, so today i am going to show you how to make the same cover in gimp. Free the second part is free but will make no sense without part 1. So for the last element of your createspace cover you need a book cover spine. I will tell you the simplest way to make a cover with your word processor.
This is a great tutorial for selfpublishers and authors. Use advanced concepts to produce professional looking book covers. I include how to add photos, text, and eyecatching gradient backgrounds for a modern and dramatic design. If you know me at all, then you know i write a lot of books.
When you publish or republish your ebook, well automatically add your cover image to. I have the size of the book cover from the printing shop, used those measurements in openoffice and then picked an appropriate font. Is it possible to design a book cover using gimp only. The gimp book of layers is an ebook covering everything you need to know about important layer concepts and layer features to take you from a beginner to a pro. In this tutorial we walk you through how to design a book cover in gimp, using one our diy templates. Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or scientist, gimp provides you with sophisticated tools to get your job done. In this article we discuss about how to create an ebook cover with gimp. Now, lets get to how to make a back book cover with gimp.
This ebook is an easy to follow, step by step guide of how to create a basic ebook cover using the free program gimp. Weve spent years charging hundreds of dollars for book covers but we have decided to take all our teams talent and give it to you for free. By understanding layers, youll be able to create more complex graphic design and photo editingmanipulation projects in gimp. I downloaded it, and i used it to resolve my specific issue, but not for my total cover solution. I suppose the artwork was the same as what was displayed in that little icon online, but the feeling it conveyed, at least to me, was entirely different.
I found that it was a good program but a little complicated. We make sure every cover meets the technical aspects required. Gimp tutorial on how to create ebook image boxshot. See, as soon as bob hammond heard about it, he immediately demanded that i make him one. Then, im going to show you how to use the createspace cover template with gimp.
To help with good formatting, i search for a top selling paperback on amazon click on the see all images hyperlink below the book cover select the back cover then right click on the image. Make a book cover spine with gimp selfpublishing with dale. Tutorials cover the gamut of design topics, from web design and photographic techniques to advertising and interface design. Part 3 optional remove the background of the 3d book cover image using gimp. Note that this is a fairly advanced class so you should be familiar with the gimp. I have a book cover created in gimp which i need to export to pdf in order to upload to my book printer. Top 5 free book cover makersdont break the bank, create your. Hand written literary work on pages of open book with feather and inkwell realistic. Before you start creating your cover, make sure you have all rights necessary for the content of your cover image and that it complies with our content guidelines. Dont worry, you can still create amazing images for the web and beyond using the basics of the gimp. Here, timo takes us step by step through the process of. Heres the simple, comprehensive, stepbystep guide to making your own free professional 3d book book image design. It is the visual form of the message inside and if done right is one of your greatest tools for turning readers into buyers. Browsing book covers in stores, i came away with a different sense of vision.
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. How to make a book cover in gimp selfpublished authors. 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. Gimp tutorials that helped me learn how to do my own covers. Gimp is a crossplatform image editor available for gnulinux, os x, windows and more operating systems. The books cover art that appears on the ibooks store also known as the marketing image is the image delivered alongside the book asset and does not refer to the cover image included in the book asset. Creating your createspace paperback cover using gimp. If you instead use adobe photoshop, you will find the operations similar, but the details will be different from what i describe here. Today, im going to show you how to make a book cover spine with gimp. Design book cover for free with online templates adobe spark. I cant adobe can save as pdf since they own the format or something like that. Gimp is a powerful free image editor similar to photoshop. The artists guide to gimp effects is the followup text to the first book ever published on gimp, the artists guide to the gimp.
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