Custom e-book covers - would you like them?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Now, having said that, I wonder at the viability of such an endeavor. How would this work, for example?

How would this Forum be indexed for quick access?

You can't make a cover without a book. Various folks have volunteered to take a shot at making covers. What we need are requests from folks producing books who need them. I don't see a point to making a cover "on spec" for a particular title, hoping someone might wish to use it.

If folks in the process of creating books for upload here would care to place requests in this forum, those who were inspired could produce covers.

Personally, what I would like to see is a VERY simple program to position text onto a cover of my choosing.....a very simple program. After that, I would use "Insert" from BookDesigner.

Define "very simple".

I'm not aware of a graphics editor specialized in putting type overlays on images. Those that do such things do it as one of a larger range of editing functions.

The free, open source Paint.NET program for Windows will let you overlay type on an image. Whether it's suitable depends on how much control you need. You can select from available fonts on your system, and choose size, weight, and attributes (like bold, italics, and underline. Type may be left or right justified or centered. You don't get control over things like leading and kerning. For that sort of control, I pull a selected image into a full DTP program, but that's likely more than you want.

Paint.NET is here: http://www.getpaint.net
It requires the Microsoft .NET 2.0 framework, which is free from MS.
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Dennis

[Elsi]

What I've done with the Bobbsey Twin books is to use the same basic graphic -- taken from one of the earliest books and then update the book title using a font very similar to the original. The first image is the scan of the original book cover. The second image is one that I twiddled in PaintShop Pro and added a different title.

On a similar topic, I'd love to have a couple of sample title pages shared. I've seen a couple of very well made ones in books downloaded from here, but of course when I'm thinking of them, I can't put my hands on them! In particular, I am impressed with the title pages that contain the MobileRead logo, since I'd like to make sure that anyone who winds up with a book that I've contributed is led back to the site.

[pdurrant]

That's a good technique that I've used as well. It often pays to search hard for a good image - one out of copyright if we're going to be uploading here - and for a good quality version of the image too.

Here's my version of the cover you did, done by finding a higher-quality version of the cover image*, with a little adjustment of levels in photoshop and adding new text to replace the rather battered text in the original image.

Adding a MobileRead logo seems like a good idea. If there a high-quality version around that we can use?

Paul

* www.abebooks.com is a good place to look, by restricting the search to books with bookseller supplied photos.

Originally Posted by Elsi

What I've done with the Bobbsey Twin books is to use the same basic graphic -- taken from one of the earliest books and then update the book title using a font very similar to the original. The first image is the scan of the original book cover. The second image is one that I twiddled in PaintShop Pro and added a different title.

On a similar topic, I'd love to have a couple of sample title pages shared. I've seen a couple of very well made ones in books downloaded from here, but of course when I'm thinking of them, I can't put my hands on them! In particular, I am impressed with the title pages that contain the MobileRead logo, since I'd like to make sure that anyone who winds up with a book that I've contributed is led back to the site.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

That's a good technique that I've used as well. It often pays to search hard for a good image - one out of copyright if we're going to be uploading here - and for a good quality version of the image too.

Here's my version of the cover you did, done by finding a higher-quality version of the cover image*, with a little adjustment of levels in photoshop and adding new text to replace the rather battered text in the original image.

Adding a MobileRead logo seems like a good idea. Is there a high-quality version around that we can use?

Paul

* www.abebooks.com is a good place to look, by restricting the search to books with bookseller supplied photos.

there is a pdf (*gasp* !!) attached to the first post in the "meetups how-to" thread, specifically for making signs so members can find each other. it's of course ginormous for this use, but it is a vector format and could really easily be scaled down.

lovely covers, Paul.

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Here's my version of the cover you did, done by finding a higher-quality version of the cover image*, with a little adjustment of levels in photoshop and adding new text to replace the rather battered text in the original image

Hey thanks. I'll download yours and poke at them a bit. I went ahead and changed the image that I had to 4-level greyscale instead of relying on the device to do it for me. Wonder what that would do to the images you posted?

[pdurrant]

That's a good question - sometimes the auto conversion can be poor because the cover is mostly color contrasts rather than intensity contrast. But in general I've found that the CyBook's conversion is as good as manual conversion.

Also, JPEGs don't encode 2-bit greyscale, they reconvert to 8-bit greyscale, so to keep the exact conversion to 2-bit you need to save as GIF. And a 600x800 2-bit GIF is 120K before GIF compression comes into play, which means that not all such pictures will make it under the 61KB limit.

In short, I've found that keeping it at full colour and using JPEG compression is more reliable and gives as good results as a manual conversion to 2-bit greyscale. And it means that the covers will also look good on colour eBook readers.

Paul

Originally Posted by Elsi

Hey thanks. I'll download yours and poke at them a bit. I went ahead and changed the image that I had to 4-level greyscale instead of relying on the device to do it for me. Wonder what that would do to the images you posted?

[pdurrant]

Splendid - a proper vector graphics is ideal and it's in this thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27142

I've tried it out, and found that there wasn't a white background inside the outline, so I've added one to make it stand out a bit better on images. Perhaps I ought to also cut-out the interior of the letters, as that much white looks a bit odd, but it's good enough for now.

Here it is added to the Bobbsey Twins so people can see how it looks.

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

there is a pdf (*gasp* !!) attached to the first post in the "meetups how-to" thread, specifically for making signs so members can find each other. it's of course ginormous for this use, but it is a vector format and could really easily be scaled down.

lovely covers, Paul.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Here it is added to the Bobbsey Twins so people can see how it looks.

It looks good, but the normal placement is on the title page, not the book cover.
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Dennis

[pdurrant]

I meant to mention my method for getting text for covers. While I have a range of installed fonts, I don't always have one that matches the style of an old cover. (Or is distinct ebough for a new cover.)

Most on-line font sellers offer previews of fonts with arbitrary text in a range of sizes. Since we're not going for high resolution images of fonts, just screen resolution, these previews are exactly what's needed for the covers, and can be copied with screen capture software.

Good sites use are http://www.myfonts.com/ and http://www.identifont.com/

Paul

Originally Posted by pdurrant

new text to replace the rather battered text in the original image.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

It looks good, but the normal placement is on the title page, not the book cover.
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Dennis

One needs readable text on the book cover for those devices (such as the CyBook Gen3) for which the book cover is the primary means of navigating the library.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One needs readable text on the book cover for those devices (such as the CyBook Gen3) for which the book cover is the primary means of navigating the library.

I concur, but what has that to do with the MobileRead logo graphic? Do you suggest it be placed on the cover? I don't, and would be unhappy to get a volume where that was the case.
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Dennis

[HarryT]

Sorry - I thought you were referring to the book's title .

Yes, I concur - the MR "logo" really should go on the title page, not on the cover.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sorry - I thought you were referring to the book's title .

Nope. My comment referred to pdurrant's example, where he overlaid the logo on a cover image.

It would be more or less acceptable on a pure type cover, but should not be overlaid on a cover image.

Yes, I concur - the MR "logo" really should go on the title page, not on the cover.

That's what I assumed, so I raised eyebrows at your comment.
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Dennis

[pdurrant]

Looking at the example again, I think you're right. It is, of course, done on printed books, but then the publisher's logo can be a lot smaller.

For my own use, I made a set of covers for the Harvard Classics collection (example attached). I think on those, which were just text and the harvard shield/motto, the Mobileread logo would work. If we get a forum for cover uploads I'd consider doing a new set with the logo included.

But otherwise -- no MobileRead logo on the covers seems good.

Thanks for your comment.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Nope. My comment referred to pdurrant's example, where he overlaid the logo on a cover image.

It would be more or less acceptable on a pure type cover, but should not be overlaid on a cover image.


That's what I assumed, so I raised eyebrows at your comment.
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Dennis

[nrapallo]

Very nice indeed!

I would add them to the ebook versions I've prepared. But maybe when RWood "hears" about this, he may put it on his "to do" list as well.

I agree with you that the MR logo on a cover page is a bit too much; but not for a second or last page, IMHO.