CreateSpace Part Four; How to make a Book Cover (196 hits)
Step Five http://www.thecreativepenn.com • But I think I can make it better. Try selecting that black rectangle shape behind the text. • First I’m going to search online for a “black, textured background”. I want something “grungy” so I picked this brick wall. • If I click on the border of my black rectangle, I can go up to Shape Fill, choose “Picture” and upload my brick wall background. • Quick Tip: if you’re having trouble selecting the black rectangle from behind the two text layers, use the “Selection Pane” which should still be on the right hand side of your workspace. You can select the layer there, or hide the two text layers for now. • That looks OK. But now the straight lines of the rectangle box are starting to bother me. • Let’s get rid of them. • Select the background rectangle again by clicking once on the border, but this time right click and choose the last option, “Format Shape.” • This opens a new window, and we can now access the “Glow and Soft Edges tab.” • You want to make the soft edges big enough so the image transitions smoothly into the other pictures. • It still doesn’t look smooth, so I’ll try adjusting the colors. • I selected the background Paris shot, and used the “Corrections” and “Colors” tabs on top to change the picture to a dark brown that matches the bricks better. Step Six • That doesn’t look bad at all. • But let’s see if we can add an element of danger by blending in another picture of this bad guy. • First we need to make some space, so we’ve got to select the picture of the couple, grab one of the corners, and pull it down to scale the size. • You may need to move it over first so the corners are visible. • Then, since this is a dark cover, let’s get rid of that white background. • Go up to “Page Layout” and click on “Page Color.” • Quick Tip: If you wanted to fill the page with a gradient, you would hit “Page Color” and then “Fill Effects.” Gradients are handy for non-fiction. • I click on “More Colors” and try to match that dark brown of the Paris sky as closely as possible. • Now I can drag in the bad guy picture, “Wrap Text”/”Behind Text” to move him around, and “right click/format picture” to soften the edges. • I also used “Corrections” and “Color” to make him fit in with the background color better. • I added soft edges to the couple picture as well, but unfortunately these two images don’t fit so well together. I may be over-reaching. • I changed the color of the couple picture, to blend them together better, but now the cover is monochrome and a little boring. I could add red text… • But I think the colors were stronger before. • So I hit the “revert” back arrow about 200 times… • Quick Tip: Save frequently! And if you like something, save it, and then save again as a new file before making big changes or trying something else. • This time I use the “Remove Background” button (once you click on the picture, it will be on the top left, under “File”). It does a good job of stripping everything out. • I want to put him really small, on the bottom half of the cover. • And this is where I hit one of the big limitations in MS Word. • For some reason, “Shapes” have to be in front of “Picture Layers.” What this means is I can’t bring my bad guy in front of that brick layer. • Luckily, there’s a work-around this time. • I started that layer as a shape, and I used “Fill” with the brick picture. • The cool thing about shapes is I can change the Transparency. You can use Transparency to put an image right over another one.
