Hi there! In this video we’re going to learn how to create a book cover in InDesign,
so let’s get started. Before we proceed creating a new document, let’s just understand how we’re
going to plan this. We’re going to make three pages, so the two folds that you see
here will have the A master applied to them, and the folds are going to be 3.5 inches wide,
and since it’s a 9 by 6 inches book, the height of the fold, by default, is going to be 9 inches.
On the extreme left is the back cover fold, and then the back cover which is 6 inches wide and
9 inches tall, and we’ll need to apply B master to it. In fact the back cover, the front cover,
and the spine will be accommodated in one page, hence we divide them using the guides. So far we
know the measurement of every aspect of our book, except the spine, so let’s do that calculation,
before creating the document. Let’s go to Gutenberg.com.mt/spine-width-calculator.
You can easily calculate the width of your spine using necessary details, so let’s say the
thickness of the paper used is 100gsm. GSM means ‘grams per square meter.’ Let’s say we’re planning
to use ‘uncoated’ paper, so let’s pick that option from here. Let’s also assume that there
are 350 pages in our book, and it’s a hardback or hardcover book, so now let’s just hit calculate,
and it’s going to give us the width of the spine, and it comes to 28 millimeters,
so write this down somewhere. Now let’s head back to InDesign to create the document.
First of all let’s change the units to inches, and then enter the width of 12 inches,
as we know the width of each side of the cover page is 6 inches, that makes it 12 inches,
and then add the plus sign and enter 28 millimeters for the spine, and InDesign
will do the calculation, and show you the result in inches. Let’s update the height to 9 inches.
Let’s uncheck the facing pages option, as we won’t need it.
Let’s update the pages to 3, as we’ll use two pages for two folds on either side of the book,
and don’t worry about their dimensions; we’ll update them soon enough.
Let’s lower the margins to 0.25 inch, and add a bleed of 3 millimeters, and hit create.
Now you can see that we have A master applied to all three pages, and all our pages
are of the same size, which we’re going to change as per our planning that we discussed
in the beginning of the video. So take your cursor to the master zone, and right-click,
and select ‘new master.’ In the popup window, you’ll find that the letter B has already been
assigned to our new master, so let’s just hit okay. Now we know that as per our planning,
page 2, which had the front cover, the back cover, and the spine had B master applied to it,
so let’s just click the B master, and drag it to page 2 to apply B master to it.
Now select the A master, and then click the page tool on the toolbar. From the option on top,
change the width to 3.5 inches, and let the height stay intact, and instantly you’ll find the new
dimensions getting updated on the A master, as well as the two pages the A master is applied on.
Now all we need to do is plug them together as one spread, so if you try to drag page 2 next to page
1, you’ll find it refuses to move. That’s because we need to make a tiny change to the settings.
Click the burger menu on the top right of the pages panel, and uncheck the ‘allow
document pages to shuffle’ option, and now when you try to move page 2 next to page 1,
it will happily place itself there. Similarly, place page 3 next to page 2, and your spread is
ready. Double click on page 2, and this is what the spread looks like. On either side of the main
page are the two folds of the book cover, and the center page has both the covers and the spine.
Now to establish the center point of the main page, let’s grab a rectangle tool,
and make a rectangle extending from left to right, as illustrated,
and then drag a guide from the ruler on the left, and drop it at the center of the rectangle.
Now you may delete the rectangle. Since we calculated our spine in millimeters and not
inches, let’s right-click the ruler on top, and change the units to millimeters.
Let’s change the unit to millimeters of the ruler on the left as well.
Let’s drag the ruler from the corner, and drop it at the guide to reset it there.
Now the spine of the book we calculated was 28 millimeters, which means we’ll need to count 14
millimeters on either side of this guide at the center, and then drop the guides there as well.
Let me zoom out, and that’s the spine of the book.
Let’s grab the rectangle tool, and make a rectangle covering the spine, including the bleed
space. Let’s change its color to black. Let’s change the unit of both the rulers back to inches.
Let’s pick the rectangle frame tool, and make a rectangle covering the entire front page.
Now let’s go to file, and then place, and locate the image on the computer, and hit
open. Next, holding Shift and Option on a Mac, or Shift and Alt on a PC, click the spine,
and drag it to the front fold of the book on the right, to copy it. Now extend it
to cover the entire fold, including the bleed. Similarly, drag this panel to the back cover fold,
holding Shift and Option on a Mac, or Shift and Alt on a PC, to copy it.
The same way copy this panel to the back cover, and then drag it to occupy the entire back cover.
With the back cover still selected, lower the opacity to about 71%.
Now holding Shift, select both the folds, and lower their opacity to 83%.
Let’s check the preview. I think it’s looking good enough.
Let’s starting working from the fold on the left. Grab the ellipse frame tool, and make
a circle on top of the fold. Now go to file, and then place, and locate the image on the computer,
and hit open. Let’s grab the type tool, and make a text box covering the rest of the fold, and
then right-click, and fill with placeholder text. Select the text, and change its color to white,
and also change the font to ‘Times New Roman.’ Let’s do a little bit of paragraphing of our text.
So this is where we write a little bit of history of the writer.
Let’s write the name of the writer on top as well, so let me write ‘By James Bernard.’
Let’s also change the font style to bold, and font size to 14 points.
Now with the body text selected, let’s go to window, and then styles, and select paragraph
styles. Once the panel is up, create a new paragraph style, and name it ‘body text.’ Next,
select the name of the writer, and create another paragraph style, and rename it ‘sub-heading.’
Next, let’s grab the type tool, and create a text box on the top of the back page. Now type
in ‘praise for the book title.’ This is where we add the testimonials from different scholars,
or celebrities about the book to add on to the credibility of the book.
Now change the font to ‘Times Bold.’
Also, change the font size to 24 points, and finally change the font color to white.
Now select the rectangle on the back cover, and place a guide at the center of this rectangle.
Center-align the heading to this guide. Also, add two guides on either side of the
text box of the heading to ensure we don’t go beyond this region when we add text under it.
Now grab the type tool once again, and make a large text box right under the heading,
and then right-click, and fill it with placeholder text. With the text selected, select the body text
paragraph style to apply the style to this text. Now do a little bit of paragraphing,
and also add different names to make it feel that these people have spoken in favour of this book.
Once we’re done with the text, we need to ensure that a little bit of space is left at the bottom
of this page so that we could add the ISBN code like you would find in most of the books.
Let’s grab the rectangle frame tool, and make a rectangle, as illustrated. Now go to file,
and then place, and locate the image on the computer, and hit open. Let’s check the preview
of our design so far. I guess it’s looking pretty good so far. Let’s copy the heading from the back
cover, and paste it here. Let’s change the text to ‘outdoor photography by James Bernard,’
and then select ‘by James Bernard,’ and reduce the font size to 12 points.
Let’s add a little more space between the title of the book, and the name of the author.
Now take the cursor to the top left corner of the text box, and rotate it, and then place
it at the center of the spine. Now let’s make another copy of the heading on the back cover,
and change the text to ‘outdoor photography,’ and let’s have it in two lines, and then
increase the font size to 36 points, and then place it on top of the front cover.
Grab the rectangle tool, and make a rectangle from one side of the front cover to the other, and then
drop a guide at the center of this rectangle. Now delete the rectangle. Let’s center-align
the title of the book to this guide. Select the title, and then right-click, and select effects,
and then ‘bevel and emboss.’ Update the style to ‘inner bevel,’ and technique to ‘chisel hard.’
Increase the size to 0.125 inch. Now move to outer glow, and change the mode to multiply.
Click the color, and change it to black, and then hit okay.
Let’s make a copy of the title, and change the text to ‘by James Bernard.’ Now select it,
and reduce the font size to 18 points, and then place it appropriately.
Lastly, let’s grab the type tool, and make a text box on top of the
front fold. Type in ‘statement relevant to your storyline,’so
this is the part where you mention the blurb of the story to generate interest
amongst the potential buyers. Select the text, and click the ‘sub-heading’ paragraph style.
Let’s add two guides on either side of this text box, and then using the type tool,
make a large text box covering the rest of the panel, and then right-click,
and fill it with placeholder text. With the text still selected, click the ‘body text’
paragraph style, and then do a little bit of paragraphing for it to look presentable.
Hit ‘W’ for a final preview of the book cover, and I think it looks pretty impressive. To export it,
go to file, and then export. Let’s save the file as ‘book_cover’, and select ‘Adobe PDF Print’ as
the format, and hit save. In the pop up window, on the general tab, please ensure to select
‘spreads’ and not ‘pages’, else your pages will print individually, and that’s not what we want,
and then move to ‘marks and bleeds,’ and ensure to check the ‘crop marks’ option, and then hit
export. Once the document is exported, locate the pdf on your computer, and double-click to
check how it looks. As expected, you can find the crop marks all around, and the spread on one page,
rather than three individual pages, so guys that’s how you design a book cover on InDesign.
Alright guys! That concludes our session,
and I’m going to see you in the next one, in just a bit. Good bye!