How to Make a Book Cover in GIMP. Yesterday I showed you how to use Paint Brush to make an eBook cover. Next Post How to Make a Book Cover in PSP.

Fair warning, you are about to get advice on creating your cover from a man with all the artistic talent of a slug. Indeed, so small are my gifts in this area that several slugs have written in to complain that my statement is demeaning to their creative abilities.

It also has to be said you’re going to be taking PowerPoint advice from a man who is not particularly adept with PowerPoint, especially its Windows variant. So why am I doing this exactly? Because I can, of course, and because I want to make a point; that even a man with my stunning lack of skill can create an acceptable ebook cover in a few minutes with a minimum of fuss. And if I can, then you can too. I am going to use the cover I create here for the ebook version of my sword and sorcery short story Henchmen so I’ll be putting my money where my mouth is too. Why PowerPoint — why not Photoshop or the GIMP or any one of a dozen much more powerful programs designed to manipulate images?

Because the last time I seriously used Photoshop was over 15 years ago and I can’t be bothered learning how to use it again. Also it costs hundreds of quid. At some point I do intend to learn to use the GIMP but I have not done so yet.

So the chances of me being able to write a sensible post showing you how to use such an image editor are precisely nil. On the other hand, I do know how to make PowerPoint do this thing and PowerPoint is something that most of us are able to get our hands on relatively cheaply. It is a basic part of Microsoft’s Office Suite. That being the case, much more powerful programs are overkill.

If you already know how to use an image editor, go do so with my blessing. If you know how to use Photoshop or The Gimp you probably don’t need me to tell you how to create your own cover. This post is for the benefit of those who have absolutely no familiarity with the process. Before we proceed, we’ll need to talk about the image you are going to use. Obviously, this should be relevant to your book, and hopefully striking and attractive to the reader’s eye. The rights to images are a bit of a legal minefield. If you use your own images and people appear in them, you are supposed to have the permission of those people to use the image.

The same is true of certain buildings and works of art. There are images out there in the public domain and there are also image libraries where you can search through and buy pictures which all the legal paperwork has already been done for. Or if it hasn’t the problem is the library’s and not yours!

Health Careers Today 5th Edition here. (Again, full disclosure; one of the many talents and skills I lack is being a lawyer. Neopost Si 65 Manual Dexterity. This is one man’s understanding of a complex subject in which he is not in the slightest an expert.) The image libraries I use are and. A quick Google search will reveal more. You can find acceptable cover images in the paid libraries for only a few dollars. You may even recognise them from some of the books you own from big publishing houses. I certainly did, which rather surprised me.