Anyone doing ebook covers? Show them off!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Valloric

To tell you the truth I think you went overboard with the title font. Personally, I can't read all of that. I can only make out a few words, and only after trying real hard.

P.S. I have perfect vision.

I do have to agree that the font is very difficult to read, especially when reduced to a thumbnail image. I think that with covers, clarity is perhaps more important than artistry.

[Jellby]

The good news is, in the Cybooks, you can generate your own thumbnails, independent of the actual cover image of the book: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67979

[crutledge]

Originally Posted by netseeker

Just some of the covers used in my german uploads. Basically i have six or seven Gimp templates and each new cover is just just a modified copy (other main image, other fonts but basically the same layout).

Wonderful!

Would you share a couple of templates?

[netseeker]

Originally Posted by crutledge

Wonderful!

Would you share a couple of templates?

Thank you.

• Download Gimp templates (~17MB)

The used fonts are all freeware fonts, though i'm not sure about the distribution permissions...check your PM.

[crutledge]

Originally Posted by Valloric

To tell you the truth I think you went overboard with the title font. Personally, I can't read all of that. I can only make out a few words, and only after trying real hard.

P.S. I have perfect vision.

Well, I'm almost 74 years old and no longer have perfect anything. I have no problem reading the font but that may be because I'm closer to the era when such fonts were used. Perhaps the attached cover meets better criteria.

Charlie

[rogue_ronin]

Back in the day, I had an REB1100 -- so I used to make 2-color (black and white) PNGs for covers, at 314x480 pixels. Individually, they're very small, most well under 5kb. None break 10kb. I think the "artificial" restrictions to color and size sometimes led to actual creativity. Not always though.

I made a complete collection of covers for all of Heinlein's 56 short stories. I used clipart and images from the web. Some are junk, some are good. Love to hear what people think. (I know -- short stories don't usually need covers, but it was something to do and if you want to read just one short, well, it makes opening it up pleasant.)

This is actually a collection of images made over the course of a few years, done roughly in alphabetical order. I got the list from Nitrosyncretic.com, so it includes non-SciFi shorts as well. I used a font called Heinlein.ttf, that looks to be imitative of the mid-80s font on the old Ballantine (?) covers. Some of these were done so long ago, I think I used Paint Shop Pro: I haven't used Windows in a long time...

Nowadays, I'm doing color covers, at 600x800. I just did the first twenty Nero Wolfe covers -- but as a template, no individual images -- changing colors and navigation icons (XHTML) every ten books. I also did a nice set of color covers for the Barsoom collection I uploaded here on MobileRead.

m a r

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by crutledge

Perhaps the attached cover meets better criteria.

That's much nicer. Very legible.

[robertv50]

netseeker,
große arbeit - sie haben ein Auge für Design!

[netseeker]

Originally Posted by rogue_ronin

Back in the day, I had an REB1100 -- so I used to make 2-color (black and white) PNGs for covers, at 314x480 pixels. Individually, they're very small, most well under 5kb. None break 10kb. I think the "artificial" restrictions to color and size sometimes led to actual creativity. Not always though.

Given that the covers are in b/w, they are great. Nice work!

Originally Posted by robertv50

netseeker,
große arbeit - sie haben ein Auge für Design!

Thank you. Anway, i don't have a artistic streak. For example, Ravenne's covers are much better. In the beginning i used her great cover templates.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by netseeker

Given that the covers are in b/w, they are great. Nice work!


Thank you. Anway, i don't have a artistic streak. For example, Ravenne's covers are much better. In the beginning i used her great cover templates.

Yeah it's a fairly simple composition principle. If you want text, make sure there's room. If there's no room, make room.

Typically it's finding the images you want for the basis of it that is hardest, and then if the picture is interesting, deciding where to put the text that won't seem random without cutting off too much of interest.

Since graphics on e-ink are a little embarrassing, I personally just stick to typographic covers and basic monochrome symmetricals. They're tricky in their own way.

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed so far. Would love to see even more.

[kjk]

I love these! Great work!

[rogue_ronin]

Originally Posted by netseeker

Given that the covers are in b/w, they are great. Nice work!

Thanks for the compliment. I had planned to do the Heinlein juveniles and the novels, but now that I'm not using an REB1100, I may have to change plans and do those in color -- but I do have a couple... (digs around on hard drive...)

Found five more (well, six, but the last one is too terrible to post -- I think it was my very first cover ever.)

m a r

EDIT: Okay, got inspired and reworked the bad one -- acceptable now.