Andy Eaton

Welcome. Maybe you’re learning these terms to help you understand more about designing your own e-covers. Maybe you’re learning to understand the terms in your search to have your e-cover professionally designed. In either case these terms will give you a very basic understanding of commonly used terms in graphic design.

With the tools available today it’s fairly easy to come up with an e-cover for your e-book or software. It’s a bit more difficult to uncover the real tricks of the trade that only a professional can effectively use. Even if you’re determined to create your own, it will most likely be a good return on your investment to at least consult with a professional.

Web Graphics - Web graphics includes dividers, buttons, arrows, backgrounds, etc.

Clip Art - Clip art is images that don’t fall under the web-graphics category. Some examples might be people, buildings, signs, objects, etc. Don’t sell the clip art short. It can get your message across very effectively.

Animations - Animated graphics, these may be either animated graphics or animated clip art.

Photos - Photos, as distinct from clip art. These images will be photo quality, whereas clip art is less distinct.

PNG
PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics format. PNG is used for lossless compression and displaying images on the web. Two advantages of PNG are that it supports images with millions of colors and produces background transparency without jagged edges. The major disadvantages are PNG images will not show up on older browsers, and can be comparatively larger in file size than GIFs.

PPI
PPI stands for pixels per inch. PPI specifies the resolution for an input device, such as a scanner, or monitor. Web page resolution ranges from 72-96 pixels per inch.

RGB
RGB stand for the colors Red-Green-Blue. In design for computer monitors, colors are defined in terms of a combination of these three colors. Print designers usually define colors using CMYK.

Royalty-Free Images
Photos or graphic images that are sold for a single standard fee and may be used repeatedly by the purchaser. Normally with royalty-free clauses, the company that sells you the images still owns all the rights to the images and they are allowed only for use by the purchaser.

Saturation
The color intensity of an image is called its saturation. An image high in saturation will appear to be very bright. An image low in saturation will appear to be duller and more neutral.

Thumbnail
A small version of a graphic image.

Vector Graphic
A vector graphic is a graphic image drawn in shapes and line, called paths. Images created in Illustrator and Freehand (graphic design software) are vector graphics. They are usually exported to be bitmap images.

WYSIWYG
An abbreviation for What You See Is What You Get.

Andy Eaton has created a 10 day ecourse, which includes informative articles, training videos, special offer discounts, plus lots more - finally learn to create your own amazing ecover graphics. simply send a blank email to arpgraphicslist@graphicsecretsexposed.com or visit http://www.graphicsecretsexposed.com

 

Ebook Cover Resources

The best option for designers: Use PhotoShop Actions to create ebook covers. Amazing Ebook Covers is a great package that will show you how to use PhotoShop like a pro in minutes. Since I've been using action scripts, I haven't used anything else. They are simply amazing. Click here to get more information about using PhotoShop Actions to create ebook cover images.

The best option for the graphically challenged: Use specialized ebook cover generators to create ebook covers. eCover Generator is easy to use and generates quality ebook cover images. Visit eCover Generator for more information.

Header Generator makes it easy to create a good-looking header for your web site. Click here for more info.