# GIMP tutorials that helped me learn how to do my own covers. Share yours!



## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

I used to pay a graphic designer to do my covers. I've paid over $1,000 for a single cover in the past. I've gotten covers free. I've paid $15 for some, $30 for others. I've tried just about everything from pre-mades to custom. The one thing I could never get past besides the cost was _availability_. Oftentimes I needed a cover or an ad graphic and my designer was busy and couldn't help me right away, or the person who said they'd do it would disappear in a puff of smoke and play the avoidance game. I make a lot of decisions on the fly and I need things when I need them, not a week later or a month later. When a designer who sent me a quote and made promises to do my bookmarks dropped off the face of the earth leaving me high and dry for the London Book Fair, it was the last straw. I ended up teaching myself how to use GIMP, which is a free photoshop-type software program. If you want to do this same, this thread is for you.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't use graphic artists to do your covers. If you have someone you love who's responsive, dependable and talented, by all means, keep using that person if it makes sense for you. I recommend Claudia from phatpuppyart.com. But if you're like me, and you want to dip your toes into the cover-making world, here are some tutorials that helped me learn how to make book covers for ebooks. I took the info I learned in these videos and other places to do all my ebook covers, paperback covers for Createspace, bookmarks, postcards, business cards, and ad graphics for Facebook and other places. It just takes time to learn and teach yourself.

Whether you have the eye to make good covers is another issue for another thread (I hope we can keep that stuff off this thread so it doesn't get bogged down). *The purpose of this thread is to gather good tutorials for learning to design ebook covers, and I hope others will chime in with any they found that worked for them!* I know I'm not the only author out there who's bringing cover design in-house. 

If you know me at all, then you know I write a lot of books. I've spend about a hundred hours teaching myself this stuff. It's like a hobby for me, so it doesn't feel like work. If it's not fun for you, don't do it.  If the idea of spending a ton of time learning a new program gives you the heebie jeebies, don't do it. These are for those who want to learn and think it might be fun. For me, it is.

3 tutorials that helped with the basics to get started:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbRxzQdwfHU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2A23kGe7Bc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzGrGAQxWNM

Outlining text
http://en.linuxreviews.org/HOWTutline_text_in_GIMP

Layer masks (blending two images) - I use Layer Masks all the time now. Very valuable stuff here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_2R-OQddyM

Putting image in text. A fun effect.
http://www.gimptalk.com/index.php?/topic/161-3-ways-to-put-an-image-in-your-text/

Super advanced massive manipulation of many elements (Photoshop, but the tools are the same)
I watched this one and learned a lot of little things I used in later covers. I've never done a cover this involved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNqt4Urw__c


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## Michael Buckley (Jun 24, 2013)

Thank you, super helpful.


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## Zelah Meyer (Jun 15, 2011)

Thanks.  

I've bookmarked that and will check it out later.  I have Photoshop Elements 8, but I also have GIMP.


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## Redbloon (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks Elle. I downloaded Gimp ages ago but found wading through the, often not useful to me, tutorials too time consuming. I will look at the ones you suggest though.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Zelah Meyer said:


> Thanks.
> 
> I've bookmarked that and will check it out later. I have Photoshop Elements 8, but I also have GIMP.


I started with Elements but it's very limited in what it can do unlike GIMP. If you want more control, you have to go with GIMP or Photoshop.


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## ER Pierce (Jun 4, 2013)

I love gimp and making my own covers, thanks for the tutorials, I enjoy learning new things


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## jvin248 (Jan 31, 2012)

.
I've found Fonts are the secret sauce of cover design. The same image can be used on a cover that conveys a zombie horror novel or a contemporary romance all by changing the font selection. Font placement, balance, size, color and so on are important and call for careful artistry. Generally, find the font you want, download, unzip, move it to Gimp's "fonts" folder (different location for Windows, Linux, Mac). Start up Gimp and it's available.
.
Two useful sites of free fonts (check individual font use requirements):
https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/
.
A great resource of what works or not in a cover is to review old cover challenges at http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/08/monthly-e-book-cover-design-awards/ Don't be afraid of changing covers on a whim or ahead of a promotion. Test covers as much as any other element of marketing (a google image search for Raymond Chandler "The Long Goodbye" will reveal at least fifteen covers over its many years of publication).
.


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## Justawriter (Jul 24, 2012)

Thanks Elle! I just bookmarked this thread too.


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## kwest (Mar 16, 2013)

Bookmarked and will peruse when I have the time. This will be a great way to in a different area besdies writing. Thanks, Elle!


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## LinaG (Jun 18, 2012)

Elle,

Great idea, sometimes you just need stuff on the fly. I had my A Fine Mess cover done by our own Humble Nations, that darling man! But I've also used these you tube videos by Aubry Watt for GIMP. I bought the art, followed along with the three tutorials and had the cover done. Not the most awesomest, fanciest cover ever, but simple, serviceable and what I needed. Good for non fiction.





 Part 1




 Part 2




 Part 3

She also has other tutorials about Combining images and removing background etc. I find them straight forward and simple to follow. Total watch time is probably around 15 minutes or less.

Li


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

DDark said:


> If I had to think of the two most useful features on my program that I do all the time: soft light filter for layering and color erase. It's also imperative to know how to change your DPI
> 
> 
> 
> for paperback printing.


Thank you so much for this. I can do the covers just fine, but my big problem is changing the dpi for the paperback. Now I know how to do it.


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## quiet chick writes (Oct 19, 2012)

Thank you all for these links! I've been using GIMP for about a year now (Photoshop 7 before that, but lost it on an old computer), but I have lots to learn still! I'm ready to add some new tricks and kick my designs up a notch!


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## Michael Buckley (Jun 24, 2013)

I tried downloading gimp a while back, never could get it to download completely. Today it finally downloaded. I made 6 layers and made a nice tear drop falling from one of the low resolution images from the girl from my book tears from Kabul. First time ever using the app. I have the teardrop "down pat," The color is the problem. Made different color layers, white, black, blue. Used the smudge tool and merged the layers after adjusting the opacity. Used the color picker tool to use a little color on the clear part around the eyes. The color just did not turn out that clear color you get from a tear drop. Close but no horse shoe. I am not going to change the cover i have for my book that is Damonza design. Just learning how to use gimp. Everything is all in the layers of manipulation. Amazing what you can do.


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## jdcore (Jul 2, 2013)

jvin248 said:


> Two useful sites of free fonts (check individual font use requirements):
> https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
> http://www.fontsquirrel.com/


Another:
http://www.dafont.com/


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## Zoe York (May 12, 2013)

ddark's soft light layer is a GREAT tip for making photos pop (I got it from another author myself):
* create a duplicate layer of the photo
* desaturate the new layer
* change the layer from Normal to Soft Light (on the layer menu box)
* if you love it, merge the two layers; if not, play with the opacity of the soft light layer, or disregard - it doesn't improve every picture

Elle, your next challenge is to learn Inkscape. We've had a discussion about it in the past, but once you have your images looking exactly right, you can import them into Inkscape and do your typography there. It's the best option for laying out print covers - and if you start there, you can crop your ebook cover out of it. [Note that this is a do-what-I-say, not-what-I-do lesson, since I haven't made the leap myself yet]


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Zoe York said:


> ...
> Elle, your next challenge is to learn Inkscape. We've had a discussion about it in the past, but once you have your images looking exactly right, you can import them into Inkscape and do your typography there. It's the best option for laying out print covers - and if you start there, you can crop your ebook cover out of it. [Note that this is a do-what-I-say, not-what-I-do lesson, since I haven't made the leap myself yet]


Oh, man I WISH! I have tried that damn program about 8 times and I always give up in defeat. It does weird things on my computer it doesn't do in the tutorials.


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## GWakeling (Mar 23, 2012)

Great thread, Elle! Going to try and soak in as much of this information as I can.


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## Zoe York (May 12, 2013)

DDark, that's another great tip! I haven't yet had to merge two people into one picture, but I'm considering it for my next cover.


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## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

Good idea Elle. Thanks. When I find the time I'll give it a try, though I may be artistically challenged.


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## ER Pierce (Jun 4, 2013)

tkkenyon said:


> How to make a 3-D boxed set of books. Templates on her website at links on the page.
> 
> TK Kenyon


Cool, I need one of these for Mac


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

tkkenyon said:


> How to make a 3-D boxed set of books. Templates on her website at links on the page.
> 
> TK Kenyon


Good one. Too bad Apple won't accept 3D covers.


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

Be sure to pick up the g'mic plug-in for Gimp. It's worth it for the dodge and burn feature alone - it really helps with making fonts look good.

http://gmic.sourceforge.net/gimp.shtml


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## vrabinec (May 19, 2011)

Wow, she even does her own covers! Do you milk your own cows and pasteurize you own milk, too? Is there speed involved in doing all this stuff you do?


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## ecg52 (Apr 29, 2013)

Great thread, Elle! I clicked all the links and saved to my favorites. I've been using Photoshop since it became available but for photographic restoration. That requires a completely different skill set than book covers. I'll be spending some time with these tutorials. Thanks so much! And thanks to everyone who offered up more links and tips!


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

This thread looks like a great resource. Definitely bookmarking it. I've been wanting to release more short stories, but the cost of covers was my only obstacle. Now I just need to learn about purchasing and using stock art...


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## Michael Buckley (Jun 24, 2013)

Zoe York said:


> ddark's soft light layer is a GREAT tip for making photos pop (I got it from another author myself):
> * create a duplicate layer of the photo
> * desaturate the new layer
> * change the layer from Normal to Soft Light (on the layer menu box)
> ...


I use corel photoshop x and Inkscape for fonts. I will try Gimp to see how it goes. The titles are easy to make in Inkscape, good app for that purpose. One day if I ever write something that sells good I will buy I digital images in full resollution instead of using the free low resollution stuff I use now. Have to come out with that magical story that no one can live without.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

vrabinec said:


> Wow, she even does her own covers! Do you milk your own cows and pasteurize you own milk, too? Is there speed involved in doing all this stuff you do?


If I had a cow, I probably would. I have made cheese from goat milk I bought and I do saddle my own horse, though. 

Speed? Let's just say when I was teaching myself GIMP it would take me about 20 hours to make a single cover. Now I'm down to about 1 hour, and they're much better. I learn with every one. I consider it unwinding time, artistic play time, not work time. Anything I consider work besides writing, I pay someone else to do (unless I can't find someone dependable to do it.)


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## Writerly Writer (Jul 19, 2012)

Question for all you talented artistic types ...

Will buying a lovely tablet help me design/do covers? I'm thinking of getting one of these https://store.wacom.com/us/en/product/PTH651. P.S. I love to draw and pain and everything. so yeah... recommendations?


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## Zoe York (May 12, 2013)

I don't use a tablet myself, but my husband is an illustrator and all of his friends from art school who work full-time on the computer do. It helps with the fine detail things - and of course, it helps with actually drawing on the computer. 

For my purposes, the mouse is more than sufficient. I can't draw at all.


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## rjspears (Sep 25, 2011)

Thanks for sharing these. I, too, have resorted to creating my own covers, but I use Photoshop (because I have access to it via my "real" job).    Although, I have used GIMP in the past and will take a closer look at it now.

(FYI: all my covers below in my signature were created by me -- with varying degrees of success.) 

Thanks,
R.J. Spears


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## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Great! Thank you so much for this, Elle. I've managed to create a couple of very simple covers on my own, so far. I've been experimenting with both gimp and paint. net.

Terrific fun. Love it!


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## Diane Patterson (Jun 17, 2012)

If anyone out there like me uses Pixelmator instead of GIMP or Photoshop, I've found this guy 13th Design has some great Youtube tutorials on how to do some incredible effects: http://www.youtube.com/user/13thDesign

(You can also do most of the things Aubrey Watt says in her tutorials for GIMP in Pixelmator, it's just that the way to do them might not have the same name and you have to poke around some.)


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## RipleyKing (Mar 5, 2013)

This topic has yet to updated in a long while, and I'm wondering if folks here know more video tuts that can be helpful to me and other members who need to go Gimp. Me, I'm looking for special effects on both text and images.


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## No longer seen (Aug 17, 2013)

There are 3 courses on Gimp by Brian Jackson I found helpful.


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## RipleyKing (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks. I'll check it out.


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## Guest (Sep 29, 2015)

Here's a good one:


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## Gator (Sep 28, 2012)

Joe Vasicek said:


> Here's a good one:


Excellent! Thanks, Joe.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

I haven't tried yet, but making planets

http://mygimptutorial.com/the-ultimate-gimp-planet-tutorial


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## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Great, Elle! Bookmarked,


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## RipleyKing (Mar 5, 2013)

Popping some of these old threads up and to the front can help us all. You would be surprised how many questions I get on such things. One thing, the people who do contact me are all about free, because most don't live in this part of the world, and most are just lucky to have a computer of any sort handy, and be online when they can. I fall into that boat myself, singing them fixed-income blues.   I'm all about the free.

For those of you who suggested it, the vids are worth it. I love having a new toy to play with. Thanks.


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## Veronica Sicoe (Jun 21, 2015)

geronl said:


> I haven't tried yet, but making planets
> 
> http://mygimptutorial.com/the-ultimate-gimp-planet-tutorial


Awesome stuff! 
Thanks, Elle, too!

I plan to spend some time learning how to do my own covers (I love fiddling with visual design software anyway!) after this trilogy. I want to write a series next, and it would be awesome if I could make my own covers.


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## Gregg Bell (May 13, 2013)

LKRigel said:


> Be sure to pick up the g'mic plug-in for Gimp. It's worth it for the dodge and burn feature alone - it really helps with making fonts look good.
> 
> http://gmic.sourceforge.net/gimp.shtml


And it's great for a controlled blending of two images.


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## Gregg Bell (May 13, 2013)

Joe Vasicek said:


> Here's a good one:


And check out Flame Painter.

https://www.escapemotions.com/products/flamepainter/

In the upper right there's a Try for Free button. Then you can save the images as .jpgs and import them into GIMP to be used however you like.


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## Gregg Bell (May 13, 2013)

ellecasey said:


> UPDATE: This thread is a couple years old now. The info still applies, but I've moved on to Photoshop which is much easier than GIMP in the long run and more powerful. It's available as a subscription service for $20 a month, and for me, it's really worth it. With practice, my skills have improved, and I very much enjoy making covers as a hobby. I still say use a professional if you can, because nothing beats real artistic talent. But if you're like me and you enjoy doing the work and need things on the fly and don't have time to wait for a graphic artist to do your work, I highly recommend photoshop. Of course there's a steep learning curve, but all the learning videos you need are free online. Youtube is a great place to start!


So how do you find Photoshop to be much easier than GIMP? How is it more powerful?

And at the $20/month what happens when they come out with a new version? Are you automatically upgraded?


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## Gregg Bell (May 13, 2013)

There are two really good GIMP forums. You can get expert help at both. Both are loaded with tutorials.

My favorite is

http://gimpchat.com/

And

http://gimpforums.com/

is also very good.

If you're brand new to GIMP, here's a great tutorial (from gimpchat.com) that takes you from installing GIMP through all of the various tools.

http://gimpchat.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3312

I found it to be immensely helpful.

GIMP does seem a little intimidating at first, but once you spend a little time with it it is really quite easy. From what I've seen Photoshop is not that easy either. Paint.net is really very simple to use and you can make quality covers there but it's nowhere near as powerful and feature-laden as GIMP.

And check out this site which has access to several sites, all of them (as best I can tell) with public domain photos or Creative Commons Zero license (CC0) photos. _Check each site and each photo _but generally speaking these sites allow you to download free photos and modify them and use them commercially.

http://thestocks.im/

And also RGBphotos operates under the same principle (_again check each photo though_). http://www.rgbstock.com/

And of course there are several pay photo sites. Most are extremely reasonable.

Here's a link that has several.

http://www.werockyourweb.com/getty-vs-istock-vs-shutterstock-vs-fotolia/

I use Shutterstock regularly. They are pretty reasonably priced and have a good search engine. Canstock photo is very inexpensive but generally speaking the photos are not as high quality. Getty images is exorbitantly priced. And often you will find the exact same photo on different sites so shop around. What I do is open several of the sites and then put the same info into all their search engines.

To make a complicated ebook cover, say, combining several photos and special effects will of course take a while to do. But to simply have a great digital photo and add text (which can make for a gorgeous cover--some of the simplest covers are the best) you can, once you've played around with GIMP a bit, do in a couple of hours.

GIMP is great. And as was mentioned if you want to do short stories, it's fantastic. Just pump them out.

And it's very cool to have control of the process. If you use a designer and they use Photoshop or Corel and you have GIMP you can not manipulate or tweak their source photos. But if you're making the cover, you can tweak it anyway you want at anytime. It's simple. And if you don't feel the cover is working, make another one!


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## Guest (Oct 3, 2015)

CMYK is a major issue, but there are plugins that can do bevel and inner/outer glow.

Sent from the far side of the moon using Tapatalk


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## Gregg Bell (May 13, 2013)

ellecasey said:


> Well, for example, it has way more built in font features (bevel, inner and outer glow stuff, liquify, etc.). Also, in GIMP, when you do a font effect it's stuck to that font. If you change the main word itself (say, changing the word "the" to "this"), the underlying effects in GIMP stay the same (for example, the dropshadow is still in the form of the word "the"). But in Photoshop, if you change the word, all the effects change automatcially to match the new word. It just makes it easier. Also, in GIMP you can't use CMYK colors, which is what you need for print.
> 
> Your $20 a month applies to whatever version is the latest, so as the software upgrades, you're upgraded. For me, it's definitely worth it.


Thanks. That's good to know. I don't know if I'd be keen on re-learning a new system all over again, but if it's better it's better. And I never heard that before about the CMYK colors. So any ebook covers made with GIMP will not be able to be made into print covers? (You're sure about that? That's kind of a hit for me because I'm using Linux computers and Photoshop doesn't work on Linux.)


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Gregg Bell said:


> Thanks. That's good to know. I don't know if I'd be keen on re-learning a new system all over again, but if it's better it's better. And I never heard that before about the CMYK colors. So any ebook covers made with GIMP will not be able to be made into print covers?


I make my covers in powerpoint which does not support cmyk and I've always used those covers for print.

I think Publisher does support cmyk but I'm not positive.


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## Gregg Bell (May 13, 2013)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> I make my covers in powerpoint which does not support cmyk and I've always used those covers for print.
> 
> I think Publisher does support cmyk but I'm not positive.


Hey Gertie,

And so your covers look as good without CMYK as they would with it?


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

bookmarking, not that I ever think I will make my own covers, but I mess around with GIMP for other things and honestly have no clue what I'm doing with it


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Gregg Bell said:


> Hey Gertie,
> 
> And so your covers look as good without CMYK as they would with it?


Since I've never done one with cmyk, I can't compare. All I know is that my glossy print covers look good.


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## Guest (Oct 3, 2015)

I believe CreateSpace takes RGB just fine, but they turn out slightly darker since RGB is meant for screens, whereas CMYK is for print. The solution in Gimp is to lighten your cover image ever so slightly using levels or brightness/contrast.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Joe Vasicek said:


> I believe CreateSpace takes RGB just fine, but they turn out slightly darker since RGB is meant for screens, whereas CMYK is for print. The solution in Gimp is to lighten your cover image ever so slightly using levels or brightness/contrast.


That makes sense. Thanks for the tip.


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## Gone Girl (Mar 7, 2015)

We miss you, Harvey Chute.


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## Gregg Bell (May 13, 2013)

Joe Vasicek said:


> I believe CreateSpace takes RGB just fine, but they turn out slightly darker since RGB is meant for screens, whereas CMYK is for print. The solution in Gimp is to lighten your cover image ever so slightly using levels or brightness/contrast.


Yes, thanks, Joe. So glad there's a solution (and I can stay with GIMP).


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

Look at all the stars

http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/starfield-tutorial

Make Starfield in GIMP


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## Veronica Sicoe (Jun 21, 2015)

geronl said:


> Look at all the stars
> 
> http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/starfield-tutorial
> 
> Make Starfield in GIMP


And look at all the planets!

http://mygimptutorial.com/the-ultimate-gimp-planet-tutorial]


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

Those 2 go hand in hand!

free 3d spaceship models!

http://www.solcommand.com/search/label/Ships

No more excuses, I guess.


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## Veronica Sicoe (Jun 21, 2015)

geronl said:


> Those 2 go hand in hand!
> 
> free 3d spaceship models!
> 
> ...


SO COOL! Thanks!


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## Chris1962 (Jul 18, 2013)

This one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liUePXy1kWA is in photoshop, but it's a great example of photo manipulation. The final result would make a great book cover.


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## huopao (Feb 27, 2020)

Thank you so much for provide this Tutorials , the instructions are so clear and concise as to what to do,

GIMP is very powerful and does a ton of other stuff in addition to drawing (photo editing, basic animation, etc) .

A good drawing tablet is almost a necessity. I use a XP-Pen Star G640 Graphic Tablet with GIMP , It's a great tablet. For slider adjustments, spot, brush edits it's pretty good.


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