Stack of books
Making book covers in Photoshop can be as easy or as complex as you choose. Obviously, the more detail your book cover has, the harder it will be to complete it. The simpler the cover is, the easier it will be to finish. If you plan to self-publish a book you will definitely need a cover, and Photoshop is an extremely versatile application to have at your disposal.
Instructions
1. Make a new document sized at 6 by 9 inches.
2. Use the paint bucket to fill the background with color. Click on the color selector on the left hand tool bar and choose a color from the spectrum provided or type in the color code at the bottom of the dialogue box.
3. Select layer style from the layers palette and choose gradient overlay. Lessen the opacity to 60% and change the scale to 150%. Click "Ok."
4. Create another layer style to make a small rounded hill at the bottom of the book cover. Choose gradient overlay and select normal as the blend mode. Drop the opacity to 64%, change the style to linear, and the angle to 90 degrees. Click "Ok." Then select the stroke check box. Size the stroke at 1 pixel on the outside in normal blending mode. Change the opacity to 50%. Click "Ok."
5. Open a new document and size it to 1000 x 1000 pixels, with a transparent background. Using the pen tool, put a small dot in the lower right corner of the document. Hold the shift key down and click the end point of the line, which will be at the upper left hand corner. Drop down about 1 ¼ inches on the left hand side of the document and place another dot. Hold the shift key and pull the mouse down to the bottom of the document to meet the dot at the bottom right corner. You should now have a long, skinny triangle across your document.
6. Click on the color selector on the left hand tool bar. At the bottom of the dialogue box that appears, type in the color code. Use the paint bucket from the left hand tool bar to fill the triangle you just made with color. Fill the two background sections with color.
7. Duplicate the layer by selecting "Layer" and "Duplicate." It will show up on another layer. Press "Control" and "U" to go to the hue and saturation screen. Pull the lightness slider all the way over so that your triangle turns black. Press "Control" and "T" to activate the transformation tool. Rotate the black triangle around so that it is lined up directly against your original triangle. The edges should be overlapped just slightly so there won't be any space between the triangles. Click on the green checkmark when you have the triangle placed correctly. Repeat this step until the whole document is filled with long, skinny triangles.
8. Merge all of the triangle layers together onto one layer by clicking on the first one, pressing "Control" and then clicking the rest of them. Right click and select "Merge down." Press "Control" and "C" to place the image on the clipboard. Click back over to your original 6x9 inch document and press "Control" and "V" to paste the triangle onto the original document.
9. Select the transformation tool from the left hand tool bar and drag and document over some so that all of the triangles meeting in the corner is no longer visible. Make it where it looks like the triangle runs out of room at the bottom right corner. Then pull the upper corners of the transformation handles down so that the triangles all fit on your 6 by 9-inch document.
10. Select layer styles from the layers palette. Click the gradient overlay check box. Change the blend mode to overlay with 60% opacity, and 120 degree angle. Click "Ok." On the layers palette, slide the opacity bar down to 40%. (You are changing the opacity twice on this layer.)
11. Create a new layer. Slide the layer down below the layer with the triangles. To slide the layer down, click on it and pull it down with your mouse. Choose the elliptical marquee tool from the left hand tool bar and make several large circles against one another. Hold the shift key down while you make the circles, so that they will all stick together as a single selection. Cover about two thirds of your screen, height and length wise. Fill this layer with color, using the paint bucket tool from the left hand tool bar. Go to the layer style menu and choose gradient overlay. Change the angle to 130 degrees and click "Ok."
12. Add the text to the cover using the text tool from the left hand tool bar. It is a good idea to put each word on its own layer, so that you can position them the way you want and it will be much easier.
