How to Create An E-Book Cover For Free With Gimp- Part 2 of 2

How to Create a Cover For Your Ebook For Free With GIMP - Part 2 of 2

By Steve Bracken


Assuming you have created your front cover for your 3D ebook cover from the free templates you downloaded, now you have to save it before you go on.

1. Click on File - Save and give it a name. It will be saved as a .xcf file, which maintains the layers of text and graphics so that you can go back later and change them.

2. Now you want to turn it into a flattened image that you can stick onto your ebook cover template. Click on Dialogs - Layers. In the main Gimp window you will see a list of all your layers. Click on the eye next to the background layer. You should now have just your cover with no white background (just a check pattern).

3. Right Click on any one of the layers and select Merge Visible. In the window that opens click on crop to bottom layer (your main page shape) and discard invisible layers (your background). Click OK. You now have your front cover prepared for sticking onto the cover template. Click Select - All, then Edit - Copy.

4. Now go to File - Open, and select the cover01.psd that you unzipped earlier. Open it. Click File - SaveAs and change the name so that you don't accidentally overwrite your copy of cover01 - you will be using again and again once you get hooked on creating your covers! ;)

5. If the layers are not visible in the main gimp window, click on Dialogs - Layers. Click on the layer called 3D Render. Click Layers - New Layer. Now click Edit - Paste Into.

6.Click on Layer - Anchor Layer. In the main gimp window change the opacity to about 40% so that you can see the ebook cover underneath your front cover. This will make it easier to position and shape the cover properly in the next steps.

7. Click on Tools - Transform - Scale. Click on the top left corner of your cover and drag it down until it has the same height as the spine of the ebook cover. Click Scale on the window that opens. Now click Tools - Transform - Move. Hold down Shift and click on your cover and move it into position so that the side is aligned with the spine. You might have to try Move and Scale a few times to get this right. It could also help if you zoom in on the image by clicking on 200% on the bottom of your image window.

8. Now select Tools - Tranform - Perspective. Click on the bottom right of your front cover and drag it into the front of the ebook cover underneath to get your 3d appearance. When you are happy that all the corners fit, click Transform in the window that opens.

9. Now you have it! Your first ebook cover. All you need to do now is to save it, and then save it again in a format you can use in your ebooks and on your websites.
Click File - Save As. Then save it as an xcf file for later modification.
Then save as again, but this time select the file extension at the bottom of the save window and choose jpeg.
Click Export in the window that opens and set the quality of the jpeg using the slider to give a file a balance between file size and image quality. Finito!
Get the updated versions of this tutorial with screen-shots and video as soon as they're available at http://get-started-online.com/blog/how-to-create-an-ebook-cover-for-free-with-gimp

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bracken


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How to Create An E-Book Cover For Free With Gimp- Part 1 of 2

Free EBook Covers - How to Create Yours For Free With GIMP - Part 1 of 2

By Steve Bracken


If you want to create an eBook cover by yourself, without buying eBook creator cover software or buying Photoshop, or paying a graphics designer to do it for you, then read on. I'm not promising to make an artist of you! I don't claim any artistic talents myself, just the technical know-how you will need to create your ecover!
1. Download and install GIMP - a free open source image manipulation program. If you have time, you can have lots of fun getting to know what you can do with it. If you don't have much time, be careful not to get distracted from the task in hand - follow these steps to get your ebook cover finished! Then, you can play ;)

Just Google GIMP and you will find the download page easily.
2.Get yourself a free template eBook cover by googling 'free ebook cover'. The one I use in this tutorial will probably be the first site you come across at ebooktemplatesource.com.
There are three types of covers to choose from - for this tutorial I will be using the first type, called 'cover01'
Download and save this to your hard drive. Then extract all files to a convenient folder.

You will be using the file called 'cover01.psd' later in the Gimp software.

3.Start up Gimp.

4.First we have to create the front of your cover. This is the part you have to design for yourself to suit your own eBook. I'll show you how to do a simple one here and then you can go and play around with it when you have time.
After that we need to stick it onto the cover we've already downloaded to make your eBook cover and save it properly for you to use in your eBooks.

5.Click on File - New

6.Set Width and Height at 500 pixels each and click OK.

7.You should now have the Gimp window and a new Image window open. Go to the image window, select Layer - New Layer. A New Layer window will open up. Give your new layer a name eg Front Cover and click OK.

8.On the main Gimp window, you should have a list of the layers so far; Front Cover and Background. Click on the Front Cover layer to make sure that's the one you are working on.

Now, select Tools - Selection Tools - Rectangle Select
Click any where on your image window and drag to create a rectangle to represent the front of your eBook.

9.Now we are going to colour in your cover. Once you start to play with Gimp you can do all sorts of fun things here. For now, we are going to create what's called a gradient i.e. the page will have a colour that blends gradually from the foreground colour to the background colour.
Pick your foreground and background colours by clicking on the little coloured boxes on the main Gimp window.
Go to Tools - Paint Tools - Blend Tool

Click any where in the middle of your rectangle near the top and drag down to the bottom and release. Your page will be filled with your chosen colours.
Play around with clicking and dragging from and to different places and with your foreground and background colours until you get something you like.

10.At this point you could insert your photo and or text. For now we'll keep it simple and just add text.

Click on Tools - Text.
Click on your cover where you want to start the text. A text editor will open up. Type in your text in this editor. To change the colour, font, size etc of your text click on Dialogs - Tool Options. A Dialog will open in the main Gimp window where you can click on the properties of your text and play around with it.

11.Add text wherever you need to. Each block of text will be added as a new layer so that you can edit it at any stage by clicking on Tools - Text and then clicking on the text you want to change.

12.Now you have the basics of your front cover!

Next we have to attach this to our ebook template.
By the way if you have trouble finding the download for the cover01 ebook cover I've mentioned above you can get it here: http://www.ebooktemplatesource.com/free-ebook-covers.html
For the latest on this tutorial go to Steve's blog at http://get-started-online.com/blog/how-to-create-an-ebook-cover-for-free-with-gimp and get the version with screenshots and video as soon as it's available!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bracken