How to Design your own book cover

In earlier times a job like designing a book cover, was something that only a professional graphic artist could do. Nowadays, with the advent of the desktop PC, and graphic designing software such as Adobe Photoshop, it has become remarkably easy for non-professional people to design their own book covers. This guide will walk you through the process of creating a typical book cover using Adobe Photoshop[Online – Adobe Photoshop Express , Mac – Adobe Photoshop Lightroom]

First start Adobe Photoshop from the Start Menu.

Create a new document with the following dimensions.

The width should be 640 pixels, height 800 pixels and resolution 96 pixels/inch. In real situations, the resolution ought to be a minimum of 300 pixels/inch, but for our purposes 96 will do.
Leaving the blank document open, open a couple of suitable pictures. Here I chose two pictures of butterflies. Make sure that the layers palette is open. If it isn’t, press F7 to open it. Select a picture, and on the Layers palette you will see a background layer.

Drag and drop the Background layer from the Layers palette on to the blank document. Do it for both the files. Once you are done, close these files, leaving only the new document open. Select the Move tool and rearrange the two pictures to your satisfaction.

This is the way I have arranged them.

Now you have to give the book a name. To do that create a new layer by selecting Layer->New->Layer… as shown below.

Select the Text tool.

From the font-family and font-size drop downs choose a type face and a suitable size. Try to choose something which is bold and legible. I chose Broadway, 48 point. Choose a font colour which stands out nicely. I chose a shade of yellow.

Select a clear area and click to place the text point. Type the name of the book. On the layers palette, click the Layers Style icon and choose Drop shadow to make the Text stand out a bit.

Leave the default options as they are.
Click OK.
Create a new Layer. Once again select the Text tool. Choose a smaller size and a bold italic style. I chose Candara, Bold Italic, 24 point. Click on the Document below the title and aligned with the right edge of the title. Type the name of the author. Select the Move tool and drag the type around as necessary to adjust its position. As before, give the layer a Drop Shadow style.

From the Layers Menu select Flatten Image. Save the document as a TIF File.