Quick and Easy E-book Covers in 3D
Are digital E-book readers the wave of the future? Apple has an app for reading e-books on your iPhone, Sony’s got a line of new portable digital readers, and apparently there is a device called the Kindle2 that you can read your e-books with. Honestly I didn’t know there was a Kindle1. If I didn’t know better I’d say these mega companies are betting on the increased sales of e-books and we need to take notice. For anyone interested in writing a book now may be the best time to make it happen.
I recently did a video tutorial showing how to layout a e-book cover design in Microsoft Expression. As a follow up, I want to take you through the steps of turning that 2D art into a 3D book using Gimp. After watching this video you’ll (more…)
Use YouTube to Learn Gimp
In this post I list some great Gimp tutorials from YouTube. YouTube is a great one-stop-shop for video tutorials, why not use it to learn Gimp. For a while now I’ve been telling people if they can’t afford Photoshop use Gimp, it’s the free PS. Among the biggest differences between the image editors is that Gimp doesn’t support images higher than 8-bit and you can’t record your actions for automation as in Photoshop. But unless you are use to using these features you won’t miss them. So what are you waiting for? Download your copy of Gimp and start playing with it NOW. (more…)
Quick and Easy E-Book cover in Expression
If you’ve been surfing the web for any length of time, no doubt you’ve come across a e-book. Back when I was a 9-to-5er I was sent to a book publishers convention where one of the workshops was introducing the idea of e-books to the attendees. Now mind you, this was 1999 and there where quite a few of us scratching our heads over the concept of a digital book you didn’t flip the pages of. Fast forward to the present and e-books have spread throughout the world wide web like some kind of digital STD. E-books are growing in popularity, and along with that growth is the need for digital cover art to display the wares.
I recently came across a program someone was charging good money for, that claimed to create your e-book covers auto-magically. Being a artist, this was laughable to me, but for those of you who don’t know how or don’t have the time to create a cover, this might be of interest. So I thought I’d save you some money and show you how to easily create e-book covers for yourself. Once you know how, you’ll be a (more…)
6 Answers to Designing on a Shoestring
If you ever wondered how you could get something design related done as inexpensively as possible, maybe one of these tips is the answer to your prayers.
Let me remind you that cheap or free is not always the best way to go. You are either going to spend your money or your time getting things done right. If you find that you have more time on your hands than money in the bank, then cheap/free may be your best option.
- Consider using local blueprint shops for large format printing as a alternative to Kinkos. Unlike Kinkos, a blueprint shop may not have a standardized price sheet for projects like yours, so you may be able to negotiate a deal.
- After downloading all those cool fonts from Dafont.com, you’ll need a font management application like FontXplorer (mac) or FontLoader-Shell tools (PC). And yes, they’re both free. Note: Check Dafont.com for terms of use before downloading fonts.
- Use design templates from (more…)
How to Make Your Twitter Avatar
I did a search using the keyword Avatar, at search.twitter.com and found that it is a highly used word to say the least. Here are the types of statements I found the word used in:
I never follow someone without a avatar.
Trying to figure out what avatar to use on my account.
How old is your avatar?
….p.s., GET AN AVATAR!
And what about putting up your own avatar? you lazy little…
The conclusion I gathered from my little bit of research was that avatars are very important in this new era of social media technology.
For those who are new to the game, I thought I’d show you how to create your own avatar using MS Paint. Some may ask, of all the programs in this great wide world to use, why would you choose MS Paint to do a avatar tutorial!?! The answer is simple, not everyone has Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or Gimp. But if you’re running Windows you have MS Paint, and probably don’t even know it.
Before you watch the tutorial, the first thing you need to do is decide on an image for your avatar. Choose carefully because as the above statements allude to, people are watching you. I like the article “6 types of avatars used on Twitter“, by Rob Enslin. Me personally, I don’t care what your avatar looks like, or in some cases, if you even have one. If you contribute to the social networking cause in some meaningful way, why should it matter to me if you have a picture up or not? (more…)
