{"id":50,"date":"2013-09-01T19:05:29","date_gmt":"2013-09-01T11:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.haguepublishing.com\/?p=50"},"modified":"2013-11-03T14:39:59","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T06:39:59","slug":"ebook-covers-part-1-where-size-and-ratio-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/ebook-covers-part-1-where-size-and-ratio-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"eBook covers: part 1 – Where size (and ratio) matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I started Hague Publishing I thought all we needed to do was to contract an illustrator to do one cover that we could use for the eBook, publicity, and for the cover for a Print on Demand if sales justified it. Unfortunately I was quickly\u00a0disabused of this because of the wide variety width to height ratios that distributors,\u00a0and the publishing process requires.<\/p>\n

However, I have now come to the view that one size will<\/strong> fit\u00a0all, so long as all the main elements are contained within a centred, smaller, specified area. Read on as I walk you through why I have come to this view, and what size you should be requesting from the illustrator.<\/p>\n

But first of all,\u00a0what actually is the problem, and here I think two pictures are worth a thousand words. The first picture is how ‘Bonnie’s Story – A Blonde’s Guide to Mathematics’ is displayed on Amazon.com (ie 152 x 239 pixels).<\/p>\n

\"Sized<\/a>

Sized for Amazon.com<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, if you simply\u00a0use the same picture on\u00a0Google (229\u00a0x 289 pixels), or\u00a0Apple\u00a0and Barnes\u00a0& Noble (260 x 336 pixels) you\u00a0get the following, which is\u00a0frankly quite uncomplimentary to\u00a0Bonnie’s hips.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/a>

Apple sized<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are two options here, crop some of the top and bottom off, or do as I did and spend several hours extending the width of the original picture. You will notice that the following picture\u00a0actually shows the edge of the bus stop. More importantly Bonnie’s hips have returned to their normal size.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Borders<\/a>

Borders extended to fit Apple’s requirements<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

To give you some information I have included the following table which sets out the size requirements by our distributors, and more importantly the width to height ratio as at August 2013. I have also included a couple of others size\u00a0required for Goodreads.com, large size paperback, and the standard cover for an epub.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nWidth<\/td>\nHeight<\/td>\nAspect Ratio<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n(pixels)<\/td>\n(pixels)<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Distributors<\/td>\nHaguePublishing<\/td>\n150<\/td>\n225<\/td>\n0.67<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nGoogle<\/td>\n229<\/td>\n289<\/td>\n0.79<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nB&N and Apple<\/td>\n260<\/td>\n336<\/td>\n0.77<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nAmazon<\/td>\n152<\/td>\n239<\/td>\n0.64<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0Other<\/td>\nGoodreads<\/td>\n294<\/td>\n475<\/td>\n0.62<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nStandard photograph (4″x6″)<\/td>\n1440<\/td>\n2160<\/td>\n0.67<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\neBookCovers<\/td>\n600<\/td>\n800<\/td>\n0.75<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nPaperback (13x20cm ie\u00a05.1″x7.9″)<\/td>\n1836<\/td>\n2844<\/td>\n0.65<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n
What might not be obvious is that you can meet these requirements by\u00a0using three basic ratios and requesting the cover in three sizes (see following):<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nSupplied for printing<\/td>\nWidth<\/td>\nHeight<\/td>\nAspect Ratio<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n13cmx20cm<\/td>\n13<\/td>\n20<\/td>\n0.65<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n6″x9″<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n0.67<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n7″x9″<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n0.78<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n
Earlier I said that we were now commissioning a single piece of art, and this is how we do it. (You can also do it if you have access to some basic editing software such as Photoshop Elements. What you need to do is\u00a0commission the artwork as\u00a0156mm x 206mm\u00a0(360dpi) but with all the main elements contained within\u00a0\u00a0an area of 130mm x 200mm. This then allows me to simply crop the image to the size required. See the following example from our latest cover design for Shelley’s ‘Lights Over Emerald Creek’. The area outside the interior trim has been greyed out.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"LightsOverEmeraldCreekexample\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Anyway, hope this helps. Next week I’ll cover the question of appearance and typeface, while in the week after that I’ll walk you through the actual design process for ‘The Lights Over Emerald Creek” cover. If there’s anything\u00a0else you want me to cover don’t hesitate to ask.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Andrew<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I started Hague Publishing I thought all we needed to do was to contract an illustrator to do one cover that we could use for the eBook, publicity, and for the cover for a Print on Demand if sales … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publishing"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}