The following general information about fonts will help you to make the right choice:
Size: An ebook cover image is usually a rather small image. Therefore, you have to be sure that the font you use will be readable on the small image. A lot of fonts just don't work well at very small sizes.
Weight: The term "weight" refers to the thickness of the elements that make up each character in a font. Most fonts have a regular version and a bold version. The bold version has greater weight because the letters are thicker. A bolded font stands out more, even at smaller sizes. Some fonts also offer a "heavy" and a "black" version that is even thicker than the bold version. Arial black, Helvetica black, and Impact are just some examples of popular fonts that are used to create titles and headlines. These fonts also work well for ebook covers.
If you look at book or article titles, you will notice that they tend to be "heavier" and larger in size than any of the other text. This is because the author wants to emphasize the title/subtitle.
Serif vs. Sans Serif: Take a look at the letters in the Helvetica font and Times New Roman font. Helvetica is a sans serif font, while Times New Roman is a serif font. The difference is the extra flourish at the ends of each line in each character in a serif font. The term serif refers to these flourishes. Compare the letter "I" in both of the fonts mentioned above and you will easily see the difference.
Sans serif fonts tend to be more readable when used in titles, subtitles, captions and headlines. They also tend to be more readable at the smaller font sizes. Serif fonts, on the other hand work better where there is a large amount of text (a paragraph or more).
Appropriateness: It's important that you choose a font that is appropriate for your audience. For instance, if your book is targeted for women, choose a more feminine font. If your book's focus is children, then it would be appropriate to choose a font that conveys a sense of playfulness. However, regardless of age and gender, if your subject is serious then you would want a font that conveys a serious tone.
Keep in mind that there are no hard and fast rules in this area of font selection. What seems appropriate for a masculine subject in one situation may not be so in another situation. The point here is simply to pay attention to what message and feeling you're communicating with your selected font.
Here are some more font tips for ebook covers:
? Use one or two fonts. Never use more than three different fonts. Better yet, use different weights of the same font. For example, use Arial Black for the title and Arial Bold for the subtitle.
? Don't use too much text on your cover. It won't be readable anyway. The less text you use, the larger and more readable your text will be. You may want to consider using a shortened version of your actual book title for the cover image.
? Use the largest, boldest font for the book title, a smaller size for the subtitle, and even smaller sizes for author name and any additional text.
? Use text colors that contrast with your background to make your title stand out. However, make sure that the color of your text does not clash with the background color. Depending on your background colors, red, white and yellow often work well.
? You can bold, italicize, or underline words and phrases for emphasis. Use italics and underline sparingly. If overdone, you'll loose the affect and reduce the readability.
? You can make your text stand out with special type effects such as drop shadows and outlines, but use these effects sparingly.
? Use capitals only for short headings. Sentences or paragraphs in all capitals letters are hard to read. For longer headings, use upper/lower case.
? Consider placing the author's name and the web site URL as a watermark on the cover graphic to make it harder for people to steal your images.
? Put your book title on the spine of large book and box images.
There are literally thousands of fonts to choose from. Build a small collection of fonts that work well for ebook cover design. This collection will probably include the standards like Impact, Arial Black, Arial Bold, Helvetica Black, Helvetica Bold, Times New Roman, Garamond and other fonts you like that are readable and practical in smaller sizes.
Like just about all rules, most font rules can be broken. The bottom line is, if your prospects can not read your book title, or if your ebook cover conveys a message that is not appropriate to your subject, then your choice of font can result in a loss of sales (or free downloads).
Making an ebook cover requires a professional designer who has a great knowledge of 3D Studio Max. Would you trust me, if I told you that anybody may do it on his own and spend just several minutes on it? It is real if you use Box Shot 3D. Movies and audio disks, e-books and software programs, all these new kinds of business were created by the Internet. Rising quickly the Internet businesses impulses some modern technologies of developing the products associated to them. The e-books won't be vended well if they are not accompanied by professional 3D boxshots or covers. People have got accustomed to buying the real books, not their electronic variant. So if you decided to vend the e-book it should better look like a real book then the electronic variant. The imitation of the physical things gives the plausibility for the customer that decided to purchase it.
If you occasionally need a full-color 3D book covershot, hiring a professional designer, or creating it manually in 3D Studio Max may be fine. But if you are an owner of such large organization that sells e-books, just imagine how much cash you will spend on it. For them, high quality cover creating program, such as Box Shot 3D is a must-have.
Box Shot 3D is an obtainable, industrial-grade cover creation software with power of raytracing methods. The main major privilege to utilizing Box Shot 3D is superb quality of 3D e-books, which is achieved due to the raytracing technology. Covershots look very realistic that people can tell they look at photograph of a book from the "physical" world, rather than a generated analogue. Your expenditure for buying the Box Shot 3D will be repaid soon.
In fact, the money you'd have to spend to hire a professional to create a 3D e-book cover could be enough to purchase Box Shot 3D! For a small, single fee of $50, you get the tool for making as many boxshots as you'll want.
The excellent toolkit and very easy-to-use interface turns the difficult process of making the covershots into a really interesting pastime. The comfortable 3D viewer will display the results of your efforts during the creation of the covers. Starting operating the Box Shot 3D is quick and easy. Have tried it to make sure. The interface is very easy-to-use. Here you will find a lot of different instruments. You have a chance to utilize the already exist patterns. The program is designed for working with various cover shapes such as box, CD, e-book, etc.. You can change almost everything, make and edit your own patterns.
The 3D preview window tool allows seeing the progress. It is so comfortable, because it shows the future covershot before the final rendering. 3D viewer permits rotating the object as you like and watch it from different angles. When the regulations appear exactly as you intend, you just push Start Render and that's it. The software will render the final result based on your performances in the quickest possible time. 3D e-book making utilizing Box Shot 3D is really simply and ensures perfect results.
Both Amit Kumar & Mathew Petrenko are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.