I'm working in GIMP but, of course, I need to save the cover in a format I can upload to websites and ebook formatting services. That's going to require some or all of the following: modifying the file format, adjusting the level of compression (to keep the file size down), resizing the layout, and possibly even altering it slightly in one dimension or the other (never stretch!).
I created the layout really large - 1600x2400 pixels. In inches, that's 5.33x8" at 300 ppi (pixels per inch - dpi is dots per inch, which is what we switch to once we're talking about printing vs. working with the layout onscreen). This is ideal - we're working at a big size. You'll never regret that - you can always go smaller but you can't go bigger without losing quality.
One other thing I asked you to do early on is not to use spaces in your file name. This is just good practice and can help you avoid problems when sending your files around. Keep your file names descriptive but short. Mine is named, boringly, "broken_by_the_black_smoke.xcf"
Also, I hope you've been saving your files all along. Whether it's using an online file service, a USB drive, burning data CDs or DVDs, or saving to an external hard drive, you need to do this constantly. Doing work like this is a technical process but it's also creative, and the few times I've lost a file without having a backup and had to start over, it was never quite the same the second time. Save yourself this pain - backup!
The good thing about the process of saving and exporting is that most websites and services you'll be uploading to are more sophisticated than similar services in the past - they usually have built-in tools to help you work with your cover image.
First, because (as I've kept stressing) I'm new to GIMP, I just want to save some files without changing anything else, to see how they look. I got to File from the top menu and select Export As...
The two main formats you'll want to use are .jpg and .png - you may want to use .tif and .gif, but those are much less common today than they were ten years ago, so let's stick with the first two.
.jpg is the granddaddy of the image file format. If you save a .jpg with no compression (which means the quality is at its highest), you'll get a big, perfect-looking file - even when you zoom in.
But, often you're required to have a file size that's under a certain limit (like 2 MB), so that may require adding some compression - which will lower the image quality slightly (hopefully not noticeably) as it shrinks your image down in size.
From Export As... I drop the bottom right selection down to .jpg:
When I click the blue Export button, I get this menu:
I push that Quality setting up to 100 and click the triangle to drop down those Advanced Options.
None of those options are really critical to what I'm doing, so I leave them as they are.
The .jpg that's exported is 2.2 MB and when I open it, it looks good... until I zoom in and see this:
What the heck, GIMP? You made my beautiful fonts all jaggedy!
Wait, maybe I did something to cause this. I go back and turn on the Smoothing option, pushing it to 100%. I get this:
It only smooths the already-jagged edges it created. GIMP, this is a huge problem! This would be reason enough not to use you, even though you're free.
However, I'm going to be nice and try to ignore this problem - because I'm exporting at such a huge file size, the unpleasant effect is so minor when the cover isn't zoomed in that it only results in the edges of the text looking slightly sharper than normal:
So we have a 2.2 MB .jpg which will most likely look fine when uploaded.
I discovered this handy eBook Cover Size Specifications page (use something like this as a guide but never rely on it - things can and will change often) and I discover these specs (I'm just focusing on the major sites/platforms):
Smashwords - 5 MB file size limit - 1400 pixel width minimum - recommended ratio of approximately 1:1.5 (that's 1 to 1.5 - meaning the height is 1.5 times the width)
Kobo - 2 MB file size limit (uh oh) - 900 dpi width minimum - ratio of from 1:1.33 to 1:1.5
Kindle Direct Publishing - minimum of 1000 pixels in the longer dimension (seems to allow for picturebooks or any other books that might be wider than they are tall) - ideal ratio of 1:1.6 - only .jpg or .tif file formats - they also say they apply compression so they want images with minimum compression (we'll get into that later)
Apple iBooks - the only specification is at least 1400 pixels wide
Barnes and Noble/Kindle - 2 MB file size limit - "ideally" 1400 pixels wide
Lulu - 612x792 dimensions (that's pretty small these days) at 72 dpi
Looks like we're pretty good - except for that 2 MB file size limits some platforms have. We'll work on that.
I'm a file size snob. I'll keep my images as large and uncompressed as possible until I'm forced to change them. I don't care how much storage space they take up, I don't care how long they take to process (like if a site has to resize them) or how slow they are to upload. I'm a designer, I take pride in my work, and I won't have that screwed up in the final step.
Now that I've outlined my take-no-prisoners attitude when it comes to file size, I'll try to get my image under 2 MB. Remember, I exported it with 100% quality so there's no extraneous compression applied- it's as good as a .jpg can get.
I click Export As... again and bring the quality down to 90%. My file size shrinks down to 764 MB (which is less than 1 MB) and when I open it, it looks the same. 90% quality is not much of a loss, and no human eye would be able to detect the slight amount of artefacts GIMP added to shrink the file when viewing the image at a small size.
You have to zoom in to see the artefacts, and they're still subtle:
See those pixels inside and outside the edge of the fingers that don't look like they belong? Those are what GIMP added to make the file smaller. They come from a compression algorithm and they mostly appear in areas of the image where there's a harsh change in level (darkness/lightness) or color.
Like I said, those artefacts are almost unnoticeable - but something to consider is that most sites will recompress your image and add a little more compression to keep the file size down on their end, for the benefit of customers who eventually purchase your book.
So because I went so much lower than the limit I needed, I'm going to go back and experiment to see how close I can get it to that 2 MB limit. Note that with Photoshop (here I go again), you'd see the file size before you export, so you could easily make your image the highest quality level without doing what I'm doing - exporting multiple times.
Since the file was so much lower the first time, I go high at 97% quality - and my file is 1.3 MB.
Then I go to 99% and my file is 1.9 MB. Perfect! That last one percent of compression was all I needed. And look at this - the same area of the image is free from anything my eye can tell is an artefact:
So I could upload that image to any of the services above and they'll modify as needed. We gave them ideal quality, so whatever they do to shrink size or dimensions, we'll know that we got the best results possible - and any slight degradation in quality will also be applied to everyone else using that service, leveling the playing field. Besides, if you can absorb what I've told you up to this point, you'll be way ahead of the authors designing their own book covers who are just winging it (and who hasn't done that?)
I can't think of a good reason to tell you to use .png at this point. The main advantage of .png when it became popular in the late 90s was that it has tranparency - but it's not like we left any holes in our book cover where we want the background to show through. Also, Photoshop doesn't offer compression options for .png but strangely, GIMP does. My .png file was 3.1 MB and it looked no different from my 99% or 100% .jpg files. So use .png if you wish, but I'd advise you to stick with .jpg (at a high quality/low compression) unless there's some reason not to.
One bad thing - when I changed my Export As... settings from .jpg to .png, GIMP didn't automatically change the file extension for me - I had to do it myself. That's absurd (the gloves are off now). Unless you know better, it's going to save as the wrong file type, overwriting (in this case) my existing .jpg but making it a .png, which means it wouldn't open. Fix that pronto, GIMP!
Now let's shrink the cover. The publishing platforms will do that for you automatically as needed, but what if you need to submit your cover to a book review website or blog, or maybe you need to get it to some specific size for an ad, or for whatever other reason you need to resize?
First, save a safe copy of your image. Add something like "_for_resizing" to the new file name. Because we're going to scale the image down, and if you should somehow accidentally save that shrunken GIMP file, the quality of the images will be lost forever - and then if you ever have to modify it again, you won' t be able to. And that will make both of us sad.
After you've created the new file, go to top menu and select Image > Scale image. You'll see this menu appear:
See how those chains for the dimensions and resolutions are linked? Make sure yours are that way, too.
First, let's go down from 300 pixels/inch to 72. 300 is huge - it's print resolution. But if you need to shrink your image for a website, ad, or some other online usage, you need to drop down to 72 dpi - that's screen resolution. So make that change - I like to make it first, before the dimensions (in Photoshop, you have to do it that way or your pixel size well get screwed up).
I should have mentioned it earlier, but since the dimensions are linked, note that you only have to change one of the two fields. The other doesn't change until you click in one of the other fields.
Now just size as needed. I made my image 100x150 pixels.
Also note that when you resize, the zoom level of the canvas jumps, so what you're seeing is smaller than the resized image. To see it at its actual size, go to View > Zoom from the top menu, then select 1:1 (or just press the 1 key for a shortcut). There's your new image.
Then Export, adding the dimensions to the file name. I added "_100x150". Here's my resized image at actual size:
Pretty tiny, but you know somewhere, someone's going to see it that small. Now I'm happy I went with huge type sizes for the title and author name. It's clearly readable, and if a potential buyer had read about the book and remembered the title and/or author's name but hadn't seen the cover, they'd wouldn't miss it if they were browsing, say, a book review blog and caught this tiny image.
Now, as soon as you export - Undo. Why? Because you lost your resolution and if you go to Image > Scale now and bring it back up to its original size, you'll get this monstrosity:
Now, I'd like to think that if someone saw that, they'd realize it was a problem and they'd find a solution - either Undo or closing the new "for_resizing" file without saving, then re-opening. But maybe they wouldn't. So Undo and you're back to normal.
The publishing platforms where you'll need to upload your book cover are pretty forgiving when it comes to dimensions. But let's say for some reason that you need the cover to be at a different dimension. I know you're not going to even consider stretching your image, right? That's a big no-no.
I have a book up on Wattpad and they have exact dimensions they require for their covers (at least, at the time I'm writing this). Wattpad covers have to be 256 pixels wide by 400 pixels tall. So let's see where my cover comes in if I resize it.
From the original "_for_resizing" version of the file, I first change (again) the 300 pixels/inch to 72. Then I change the Width to the desired width - 256. But when the Height updates, not surprisingly, it's not 400 (Wattpad covers are a little taller than average cover dimensions) - it's 384:
So once I click Scale, I'll be 16 pixels short on the height.
I'm not going to stretch - it may not be noticeable since it's only a small percent that my image would get smushed horizontally, but it's a principle thing for me. Once you start stretching images, there's no end to it.
I could change the Height to 400 pixels, making my width 267 - 11 pixels wider than I need for my Wattpad target. If I had a more vertically-oriented layout (if the space was broken up with more vertical spaces rather than the horizontal ones we have), I might consider this. But with my current layout, cutting 11 pixels from the width makes those text blocks too close to the left and right edges for my taste:
That's the price of good design - we worked hard to get the original layout looking really solid. That means changing things now is likely to cause problems. It's never easy.
So from my full size image, I scale the image to the correct desired width (256 pixels) and get the proportionate, yet too-short, height (384 pixels):
It's just the original cover made smaller. But - we need to add those 16 extra pixels to the height. Where to do that? To the top?
The bottom?
Or maybe split it evenly?
Well, sorry to say, none of those work for me. The first two look obviously wrong - we've retained such a consistent space around the text in the original design that it's clear we just threw the extra height on one end or the other.
Even the third version looks wrong - both the title and author name are begging to be vertically centered in their respective black areas, and we've denied them that pleasure. If the thoughts "no one will notice" or "it doesn't really matter" popped into your head, shame... shame shame shame. We worked hard to get this looking good - we're going to put a little more effort into keeping it looking good everywhere that the book will appear.
So here's what I do - I nudge the title up a bit, and the author name down the same amount. Now if you want, and it's faster (this is how I did it), I first saved the last version above (with the extra space at top and bottom) as a .jpg with 100% quality, then worked from that. It's a lot easier.
Here's the new cover:
Hey - it looks like someone cares! Sure, if you compare the original cover to this one and examine it for a bit, you might realize what happened. But that's unlikely to ever happen.
What we can be sure about is that someone who sees this cover on its own will feel that it's well-composed, and that will go a long way toward making them think the book is a quality product (which it surely is).
That's it for now. I'm not sure where I'll go from here, if anywhere. If you have ideas for future posts, you e-mail me at steve@stevespatucci.com. Thanks for reading along to this point!
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