Once youve located the xcf file, open it up and you should see the front cover. I found that it was a good program but a little complicated. How to make a book cover spine with gimp createspace. The pixel limit for the interior cover, as with all interior book images, has been increased to 3. A good cover book design is an outcome of effective use of above three tools. This tutorial does not rely on adobe photoshop at all. 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. Well minimize the back cover here in gimp, and select the front cover design. You will then see a small box display that asks you the image size. The course benefits from having a specific focus and im the most familiar with using the gimp to create book covers. A complete guide to 3d book covers and bundle covers. Buy it now for the author who wants to take artistic control of their e book covers and save money.
Make a book cover spine with gimp select the text tool. Once you find the correct folder, the file is going to be something that says at the very end of it, front. It certainly terrified me to begin with and i only very recently updated my covers from the originals i made using the createspace online cover creator. Make your own free book covers with gimp the kindle publishing series 2 kindle edition by timo hofstee author visit amazons timo hofstee page. It explains the function of every menu item and offers tips for. In this class we create a book cover for a bundle of books. A cool tool that generates rather good quality book cover mockups is absolute covers. How to make an ebook cover with gimp part 2 rakuten kobo. 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. Browse the topics below to learn about creating an ebook cover. Now its time to create a matching cover that whets your readers imaginations. I include how to add photos, text, and eyecatching gradient backgrounds. To promote and sell digital content, you need to design book covers that readers will find irresistible.
Combining gimp with the createspace cover template allowed me to overcome the hurdle of creating a cover for my latest book, and editing and redesigning the photoshop generated covers of my previously published books. How to make an ebook cover with gimp part 1 rakuten kobo. Take a look at these 7 tools you can use for creating your book cover mockup. How to make a pdf cover for your createspace book lit. Whittakers part 2 of how to make a e book cover with gimp. The thin book 3d template added september 22nd 2016. This e book is an easy to follow, step by step guide of how to create a basic e book cover using the free program gimp. Diy book cover templates free book design templates and.
Note that this is a fairly advanced class so you should be familiar with the gimp. How to make a book cover in gimp selfpublished authors. Learn how to use the cover template for kdp print with gimp here. This will create a new file thats your working file. 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. A first look at the curves tool and adjusting color tones in. How to create yours for free with gimp part 1 of 2.
If you instead use adobe photoshop, you will find the operations similar, but the details will be different from what i describe here. How to make an e book cover with gimp part 1 and how to make an e book cover with gimp part 2. An introduction to using layer masks to modify the opacity of a layer. Free the second part is free but will make no sense without part 1.
Create an ebook cover amazon kindle direct publishing. In this class, youll follow this seven step process to complete the project. Design book cover for free with online templates adobe spark. Create a book cover in minutes, with easy to use tools and a wide range of professionally designed templates. This video discusses how to make a book cover in gimp. This writeup explains the steps to be followed to create covers for your e books. Use gimp for simple graphics needs without having to learn advanced image manipulation methods. The book s 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. So this was an opportunity i didnt want to pass on. The cover image you upload will appear on your amazon detail page.
How to make a book cover in gimp workflow duration. It allows you to use brushes, clone stamping, text, layering, and more to create some nice art, but it does have a learning curve if youre unfamiliar with photo editing programs. Put your cursor over the transform option in the dropdown. Besides, you only need to know the fundamentals of using the gimp to produce book covers. That lets me know that this copy has everything for a full book cover design.
How to create a free print book cover for kdp freedom to. The free platform to create the simple 3d book image. Create the spine for your book by opening up paint. Is it possible to design a book cover using gimp only. Smashwords how to make an ebook cover with gimp part 1. Excellent course with detailed explanations on how to use gimp to create fabulous book covers. 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. 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. Click the right button of your mouse to save it to your computer as a png file. Gimp is a powerful free image editor similar to photoshop. When you publish or republish your ebook, well automatically add your cover image to the inside.
Create logos, graphics, and book covers using gimp 2. When youre ready to have your book printed with createspace and youre planning on tackling the cover on your own it can seem rather daunting. This graphic design tutorial is perfect for beginners wanting to learn gimp and to empower themselves by designing their own book covers. Due to the large size of this e book i had to break it into 2 parts. The hard cover book 3d template added june 2nd, 2017. The cover must attempt to represent the four books contained in it by merging their covers in some way. So on the picture on the cover im really sitting with my pants open. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. What program can be used to make book covers digital and. In this tutorial we walk you through how to design a book cover in gimp, using one our diy templates. After all, i dont get to be on book covers that often. Creating your createspace paperback cover using gimp this page describes how to create the cover for a book you will distribute through createspace, using the image editor gimp.
Creating a diy book cover with 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 of my novel. Highlight the text then change the font and size in the small bar above your text box. Just select a template, edit the content and youre done. This tutorial walks through some basic image and layer manipulation techniques. Downloaded it and found it to be very helpful and easy to follow, so part 1 was purchased. Creating your createspace paperback cover using gimp. Learn to create stunning book covers and more why focus on book covers. Set up and design book covers in gimp using layer masks and blend modes to create interesting effects. Gimp is the open source program from sourceforge team that can be used to create stunning e book covers. Dont worry, you can still create amazing images for the web and beyond using the basics of the gimp. 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.
An introduction to the free gimp graphics design tool focusing on the creation of book covers for selfpublishing. When i first tried creating my own ebook covers, i could find plenty of tutorials for free using photoshop, which i couldnt afford. Opening your book cover in gimp and setting up the workspace go to file, open to locate the book template you downloaded from our website. The video is a little poor in quality because this is not my usual video production. Make a book cover spine with gimp selfpublishing with dale. After youve created amazing content, its time to market it. Smashwords how to make an ebook cover with gimp part 2. Free ebook covers how to create yours for free with gimp. We are going to create a simple cover that includes an image, title, author and a few special effects. The gimp is a free linuxbased image manipulation program that is very similar to adobe photoshop. I had some questions on the wordpress blog, so ive decided to actually do some short tutorials on making the cover using the three programs.