Post by MelCorbett on Oct 4, 2015 18:51:18 GMT
Hi all. I posted this on another forum this morning... and thought I'd share it here too, then couldn't find that resources thread that's been floating around... so, yeah :-) So... the OP on that forum was about what people do for book covers.
Software & cover images
Fonts
here's what I posted on the other forum:
So what about you guys? Have you guys made or purchased book covers? What resources do you use?
Software & cover images
- I like using GIMP (it's a free open source analogue to photoshop) to design my covers with public domain and creative commons attribution license art (mostly from the wikimedia commons & photobucket)
- I just discovered Canva "Amazingly simple graphic design." Canva comes with built in images, many of which are free, and the rest only cost $1 each.
- I also buy $5 images from StockFresh.
- Free images here: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images
- Image creators can choose to waive their copyright and publish directly to the public domain: publicdomainpictures.net/
Fonts
here's what I posted on the other forum:
I love GIMP, too. For me though, getting good images can either be costly or time consuming, though I'm getting better. There's a lot of free downloadable fonts and some nice resources for fonts.
Here's is a cool page (and downloadable pdf) with fonts and the genres they are suited to.
Another list of fonts by genre (with previews of the fonts of course.)
Canva has some basic rules/guidelines about mixing fonts. As well as a whole "design school" and tutorials that I've been working through in the week since I discovered it. I think I need more help with design concepts overall, and it seems to be a good free resource.
The book designer's website also has some guidelines that I can't find, but I'm sure I had them bookmarked before. Maybe they're his email cookie?
And ummm... font squirrel is good for downloads, as is just searching for the name of the font you want with "free download"... though I'm not sure that you'll wind up with entirely legal downloads that way.
Here's is a cool page (and downloadable pdf) with fonts and the genres they are suited to.
Another list of fonts by genre (with previews of the fonts of course.)
Canva has some basic rules/guidelines about mixing fonts. As well as a whole "design school" and tutorials that I've been working through in the week since I discovered it. I think I need more help with design concepts overall, and it seems to be a good free resource.
The book designer's website also has some guidelines that I can't find, but I'm sure I had them bookmarked before. Maybe they're his email cookie?
And ummm... font squirrel is good for downloads, as is just searching for the name of the font you want with "free download"... though I'm not sure that you'll wind up with entirely legal downloads that way.
So what about you guys? Have you guys made or purchased book covers? What resources do you use?