Create Book Covers with Scribus

Using Scribus and Gimp to create book covers.

Buy The Complete Version of This Book at Booklocker.com: http://www.booklocker.com/p/books/4055.html?s=pdf 1ST STEPS IN PUBLISHING

John Culleton Wexford Press

1 Create Book Covers with Scribus

ISBN 978-1-60019-000-1 Wexford Press 2401 Haight Avenue Eldersburg, MD 21784

2 Contents

Why use Scribus? ...... 5 What is a Book Cover? ...... 6 Downloading programs ...... 7 RGB and CMYK color models ...... 8 Post-installation steps ...... 9 Setting up the page ...... 10 Spine text ...... 15 Front page text ...... 18 Back cover ...... 19 Fonts for covers ...... 20 Design Principles ...... 21 Layers ...... 22 Barcodes ...... 26 An E-book cover ...... 27 Thumbnails ...... 28 Shapes Blends and Transparencies ...... 30 Examples and Comments ...... 32 Final Steps for LSI ...... 34 References ...... 35 Index ...... 36

3 Why use Scribus? A picture is worth a thousand words:

5 What is a Book Cover? This e-book takes you step by step through Authors often want to create their own book the book cover creation process. It is speciﬁc covers. but the cost and complexity of com- to that task. But Scribus can be used for other mercial tools are often barriers. Scribus is a Desk Top Publishing tasks as well. The ﬁrst professional level layout tool capable of pro- draft of this e-book was prepared using Scri- ducing covers meeting the highest standards. bus, but was rewritten in TEX for greater com- Scribus is an Open Source free product. Af- pactness. A book cover is a piece of heavy pa- ter several years it has reached a high state of per stock printed on one side by a four color or capability and reliability. But the proof is in “process” printing press. The printing on the the output. Before reading further please visit paper consists of three rectangles: from left to Book Cover Examples for thumbnails and pop- right the back, spine, and front of the book, ups of book covers the author has created as plus an extra area around all four sides called examples of the power of Scribus. the bleed area. See sample layout below (not to scale):

BLEED AREA

6 Using Scribus and Gimp to create book covers.

Create Book Covers with Scribus

Buy The Complete Version of This Book at Booklocker.com: http://www.booklocker.com/p/books/4055.html?s=pdf