[Custom Covers] Blanks, Templates - get them, share them, help to modify and create

[KayLee]

Thanks for just about all of these will help me to organize my fan fiction!

[MiniMouse]

Originally Posted by KayLee

Thanks for just about all of these will help me to organize my fan fiction!

Thanks KayLee,

every feedback is very greatly appreciated.

I personally would like to know which covers are your favorites and which you even use. It is always good to know what people are looking for.


MiniMouse

[MiniMouse]

I played around some more and that come out of it...

First you see the ornament (picture 1 & 3), these pictures are only the base layers for the final covers (pictures 2 & 4) created with the Kaleidoscope effect of PIXLR.

Note: Picture 1 & 3 are no covers!!! They are only up to show you from where I started to greate the covers. Picture 1 was the base layer for picture 2 (Kaleidoscope Cover 6) and picture 3 the base layer for picture 4 (Kaleidoscope Cover 7)!

This is all my own creation.

MiniMouse

[glos]

Very nice! For some reasons I love 1 and 3 the most. with all these kaleidoscope-style ornaments I am hypnotized now XD
I'll probably try with n1 though, always because I have to use light colors (or I am going to have a almost black cover when I read the fic on my reader). Also blue (and variations) is my favorite color, so there's that too XD

[MiniMouse]

Originally Posted by glos

Very nice! For some reasons I love 1 and 3 the most. with all these kaleidoscope-style ornaments I am hypnotized now XD
I'll probably try with n1 though, always because I have to use light colors (or I am going to have a almost black cover when I read the fic on my reader). Also blue (and variations) is my favorite color, so there's that too XD

Nice to hear from you,

yeah I know the problem you have with the dark colors but I couldn't help my self.

Note that Picture 1 & 3 are only up to show you of what I created 2 & 4. So they have no book-edge on the side and I didn't put them up as zip-files.

Do you want that I do that?

MiniMouse

[Katsunami]

FYI: Today I've been experimenting a bit, and tomorrow I'll write the second part of the tutorial

[MiniMouse]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

FYI: Today I've been experimenting a bit, and tomorrow I'll write the second part of the tutorial

Was just starting to wonder where you've been.

What do you think of all my Koleidoscope experiments?

[glos]

Originally Posted by MiniMouse

Nice to hear from you,

yeah I know the problem you have with the dark colors but I couldn't help my self.

Note that Picture 1 & 3 are only up to show you of what I created 2 & 4. So they have no book-edge on the side and I didn't put them up as zip-files.

Do you want that I do that?

MiniMouse

no no problem I grabbed the pic, it's fine like that.
I decided which fic to use with n1 but I definitely need a new font, something specific, I have it in mind, I'll search XD

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by MiniMouse

What do you think of all my Koleidoscope experiments?

Uh...

Uh...

"They're fine, if you're into that sort of thing."

Is that tactful enough?

IMHO, they're too "busy" to be a plain cover, and too boring to *not* be a plain cover. They're not what I would use as book covers. They'd work fine if you printed them on a sheet of 300x100cm paper and used it as gift wrapping.

*crawls under the table*

I liked the leather and linen ones much better.

[MiniMouse]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Uh...

Uh...

"They're fine, if you're into that sort of thing."

Is that tactful enough?

They're not my kind of cover...

SO you don't like the more modern once, only the more antique/classic once. That's okay, I can live with that. Though I like both, I think I'm more open than you.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by MiniMouse

SO you don't like the more modern once, only the more antique/classic once. That's okay, I can live with that. Though I like both, I think I'm more open than you.

Probably. The only reason I read paperbacks back in the day is because I could buy 5 paperbacks for the price of one hardcover. And when getting a hardcover, I actually like the ones that are plain, or even antique/classic.

You've seen some of the first covers I posted. They were not created: they were scans of actual books, with the author and title removed.

[MiniMouse]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Probably. The only reason I read paperbacks back in the day is because I could buy 5 paperbacks for the price of one hardcover. And when getting a hardcover, I actually like the ones that are plain, or even antique/classic.

You've seen some of the first covers I posted. They were not created: they were scans of actual books, with the author and title removed.

I think my bookshelf is more full with paperbacks but that is because I read most of the books on the way to work on the train and I don't like to carry heavy hardcovers around for that. I'm happy I can carry even less now with my ebook reader.

But I like to look at the old antique covers and create them, they have an aura for themselves. Though I have to do some modern occasionally too.

MiniMouse

[Sefiriot]

Thing is, with book covers you can't have patterns that are very busy as a background: you only distract the reader from the important features in the cover, namely the text.

[MiniMouse]

Originally Posted by Sefiriot

Thing is, with book covers you can't have patterns that are very busy as a background: you only distract the reader from the important features in the cover, namely the text.

Okay, okay, I got THAT point!

So I made some more linen covers (with lots of space for text!) that hopefully will find more your approval.

I made the bright once for you glos though I couldn't deside if the mint one looked better with the white or the grey ornament (same goes for the grey and blue cover), so I leave that to you.

For the people who want to know: The linen texture is fotographed from my grey jacket, the ornaments I composed my myself in PIXLR (for the yellow and green one I but a kaleidoscope effect over it) and the last one is a combination from the grey jacket and braches I fotographed on the ground.

I will be out of town next week, so probably that is all you get until then.

MiniMouse

[Sabardeyn]

Regarding the more modern covers...

While I generally agree that they are less suitable for use, they are not unsuitable either. They would, for instance, make great personal journal covers. Finding an appropriate title for the design would be the biggest problem. The first image, with the blue bubbles, could be used for an undersea adventure.

However, it might still be possible to use the modern images as an intermediary layer instead of the finished cover. For instance they might make decent texture patterns for leather and linen covers. Ultimately they should end up something like the "color on color" men's shirts (if you've ever been into a dance club, you've seen a guy wearing one). Linen Cover 9 kind of captures a bit of the color-on-color idea, although the two colors should be much closer in shade.

A monochromatic color scheme tends to make busy or detailed designs fade away. That is why Linen Cover 10, which would normally be considered too complex for a cover, seems to work. The range of brown colors used are relatively close together. Only the background color is substantially different. When paired with an appropriate story -- maybe something in an arctic setting, since the design is something like pine needles -- the cover's use becomes subtly more appropriate.