How do I design my own book cover?

Question

Some of my friends say i need to learn Photoshop, others say I have to learn illustrator, and then there is InDesign for publishing books, right? So how does someone know which to learn and how to create a unique book cover design? I have my own ideas, but I'm not a graphic designer, and the quick cover creators online just can't do what I need.

Answer 1

Design of a book cover and production for print (or digital) are two different needs. I have been a book cover designer as my primary craft for over 25 years. I prefer to design the front cover in Photoshop, but create the mechanical (the final layout) in InDesign, and that's what most printers will want as well: A .pdf created from an InDesign file with the front cover (that you may or may not have created in Photoshop), the spine and the back cover. Photoshop is not the best for crisp type as it uses pixels as opposed to vectors (InDesign and Illustrator).

Answer 2

All 3 applications are doable for creating a book cover. I personally use Photoshop to create my covers, but it depends on what tools you want to use to get there. Illustrator focuses more heavily on vector graphics, InDesign on the book layout, and Photoshop on images. Photoshop has a good mix of all the possible elements, in order to experiment with multiple options available for your book cover. As mentioned above, it depends on the style of book cover you're looking for as well.

Answer 3

Designing a book cover is something that intimidates a lot of my students. You don't have to be scared, and you don't have to learn all of the tools in the creative suite. In the first few minutes of your training, we will determine which tool you need to most easily design a book cover you love.

1. Adobe Illustrator is more inclined to the logo or illustration on the cover, such as a graph or technical image.
2. Adobe Photoshop is for creating a photographic composite for your cover, or apply a lot of special effects or a unique style.
3. And Adobe InDesign is the easiest tool for your cover, if you have some of the elements already pre-built, or want a simple design with text and an image.

The free online tools are great… until you realize that your cover looks like every other cover out there! So ask me about the right tool for the job for you!