Making custom dust jackets for your books can be a rewarding way to personalize and enhance your collection, making each book a unique piece of art. Whether you're a seasoned designer or a creative enthusiast, tools like Canva and Adobe Illustrator offer powerful features to bring your vision to life.
In this article, we'll explore:
- The step-by-step processes for using Canva and Illustrator to create stunning book covers that elevate your bookshelf
- How to print your covers (what measurements and paper type to use)
- Where to find downloadable cover designs
Making a Book Cover on Canva Step-By-Step
1. Open Canva + Create a New Design
Start by opening Canva and selecting "Create a Design." Choose the custom size option, and enter your measurements.
How long you want to make your cover depends on your printing options. If you are printing on a 13” x 19” paper, I’d recommend making the width 18” or 18.5”. If you’re printing on a 18” x 24” poster, then I’d go with 22” for the width.
For the height, you want to make sure to measure the height of the books you’ll be covering. Most hardbacks are one of three sizes: 9.5” (Sarah J. Maas hardcovers), 9.25” (Cassandra Clare hardcovers), and 8.5” (most contemporary and YA hardcovers). Most paperbacks are either 8.5” or 8.25”.
2. Upload Your Image
Go to the "Uploads" section to upload the image you want to use for your book cover. Select the picture you prefer and upload it to Canva.
Pro Tip: Canva has tons of stock images you can use to create a new design. Unsplash is also a great place to look for high quality photography, if you’d like your covers to mimic scenery.
3. Resize and Center the Image
Adjust the image to fit the height of your design. Center the main element of your image, like the sword in this example, ensuring it is positioned correctly on the cover.
4. Fill White Edge
If there are white edges around your image, copy and paste the image, then flip it horizontally to cover these areas. Adjust until you have a uniform look across the entire cover.
5. Create the Spine
- Go to "Elements" and choose a rectangle shape.
- Set the rectangle's height to match the cover (9.5 inches) and the width to about 1.8 inches, which is suitable for most fantasy novels. Go a little thinner for most contemporary novels. You also have the option to measure the spine width of each cover for custom book cover templates.
- Center the rectangle on the artboard to mark the spine's location.
6. Duplicate and Align the Design
- Copy all the elements on the artboard by clicking and dragging to select everything, then use Ctrl+C to copy.
- Add a new page (button beneath the current art board) and paste the elements using Ctrl+V.
- Move the duplicated design to align it next to the original, ensuring the spines are adjacent without any gaps or overlaps. (So, everything - the image and the rectangle - on your second canvas will be scooted over to the right or left just enough that the rectangles would be sitting side by side. Deselect the image and move just the rectangle to the center of the artboard. This will make it easy to see what the spine of the second book will look like.
- Repeat this process to cover the entire length of the image, adjusting as necessary. Since you’ll probably start with the center book of the stack, you’ll need to go back to the original and start moving in the opposite direction.
7. Adjust for Printing
- Once the design is complete, ensure the rectangles used for the spines have no color or border to prevent them from showing up when printed.
- If adding watermarks or text, reduce the transparency to avoid harsh contrasts.
8. Add Titles (Optional)
If you want to add titles to your covers:
- Ensure the text is aligned vertically and positioned correctly on the spine.
- Keep in mind potential printing restrictions with copyrighted titles.
- If you’re going to add spine text, make sure to use bold typography so it’s easily visible, but I’d recommend lowering the opacity if you want a more “subtle” feel.
9. Download the Design
- Click "Share" and then "Download."
- Choose your preferred file type, such as PNG or PDF (“PDF for print” option recommended), and download all the pages.
- If necessary, combine the files into a zip folder or download them individually.
- Put your downloaded files onto a thumbdrive.
Get the Scimitar Set
Psst! Want this Scimitar book covers set we used in the example? Grab the Printables to DIY print your covers, or get them delivered to your door ready to wrap on your favorite series with the Dust Jackets.
Making a Book Cover on Adobe Illustrator Step-By-Step
If you want to be the book cover designer from start to finish, you can make your own designs inside Adobe Illustrator, and then align the book cover files in the same software.
1. Open Adobe Illustrator
Start by opening Adobe Illustrator and creating a new project. Set up as many artboards as books you plan to cover. For this example, we will use eight artboards.
2. Set Artboard Dimensions
How long you want to make your cover depends on your printing options. If you are printing on a 13” x 19” paper, I’d recommend making the width 18” or 18.5”. If you’re printing on a 18” x 24” poster, then I’d go with 22” for the width.
The height will depend on the books you are covering. Common heights are:
- 8.25 inches for many paperbacks
- 8.5 inches for many contemporary and Young Adult hardback books
- 9.25 inches for books like those by Cassandra Clare, Victoria Aveyard, etc.
- 9.5 inches for larger hardcovers like those by Sarah J. Maas.
3. Create the Spines
In the center of each artboard, draw a rectangle about 1.5-2 inches in width, depending on how thick your books are. (I recommend closer to 1.8-2” for fantasy, 1.5”ish for contemporary).This rectangle will represent the spine of the book.
4. Design the Center Book
Begin with the design for the center book of your set. Center your main image or design on the first artboard.
If there is extra space on the sides of the image, use the "Reflect" tool to mirror the image and fill the space, ensuring a seamless look when printed. Crop to fit to the art board.
5. Duplicate and Align the Design
- Copy all the elements from the first artboard.
- Move to the next artboard and paste the elements.
- Align the design so that the center point of the first artboard lines up with the next rectangle on the second artboard. This ensures the spines are aligned, creating a cohesive look across the set.
6. Continue the Process
Repeat the process, moving one rectangle over for each new artboard to maintain alignment.
When you reach the last artboard on one side, go back to the center artboard and work in the opposite direction to complete the set.
7. Finalize the Design
Review each artboard to ensure the design elements align correctly across all covers.
Make any necessary adjustments to ensure a seamless flow from one cover to the next.
Feel free to add text or a personalized logo or watermark. Just bear in mind that if you try to print the title of an existing book (ex: “Harry Potter”) some printers might refuse service based on copyright laws.
8. Prepare for Printing
Save your design in a high-resolution format suitable for printing, such as PDF.
Consider using thick, matte paper for printing, as darker colors may appear streaky on thinner paper.
Using an Interior File
By default, having one design means you’ll only have a design facing out. However, if you have an image that you want on the inside of the book cover, let the printer know that you want the pdfs printed front and back (make sure they’re aligned properly). I would recommend calling ahead to make sure the printer can make a book cover with images on both sides. Some printers can do that, some can’t.
A Note for Indie Authors Designing Their Own Book Cover
A great book cover can help you reach the right readers. And while I’m not sure about other printers, this process is compatible with Ingram Spark; I was able to upload a sample cover.
However, if you are self-publishing, please keep in mind that you will need to have very specific measurements of the front cover, back cover, and spine before creating your design using the methods above. There are also free templates out there that give you the option to create different files for each part of the cover (front cover, back cover, spine).
Please keep in mind that the file you give to the printer might not “wrap.” So, for example, if you want to include an author bio on an inside flap, they might have a separate area to include that. However, they should have it clearly marked whether or not it will wrap.
The Key to a Professional Book Cover Design: Printing
The key to taking your book cover design and getting it onto your books…is getting it printed.
Unless you’re working with very small books, an at-home 8.5” x 11” printer won’t cut it. Like we talked about before, you’ll be printing on a 13” x 19” or 18” x 24” poster.
Where to Print Book Covers
I recommend FedEx or Staples Printing. For both of these - do not - just send in your files to their online printing service so you can pick it up later. I’ve had issues with the files getting read incorrectly. So I highly recommend going in with the files on a flash drive and working with an employee directly to get your prints right.
If you can, get the design right up against the edges of the poster (to avoid needing to cut those sides). This means you need the design to “bleed” all the way out to the edges of the paper. If the printer can’t do that, it’ll mess up your dimensions, so go ahead and center the design instead.
After the covers are printed, I recommend using their cutting slicer in the store as opposed to going home and trying to cut them with scissors (totally possible, just takes way longer and the edges aren’t quite as crispy).
Use Thick Paper
When I go to a professional printer, I ask them to use “the thinnest paper possible without the ink looking streaky.” This has always been a good descriptor, and the printer will give me a thick, matte cardstock that was still thin/flimsy enough to wrap around my book covers.
When I print book covers myself, I use “Thick 80lb Cover (218 gsm) White Cardstock.”
Wrap Your Book Covers
Once your covers are printed, you’re ready to wrap your new book covers! To wrap a cover, stand your book up so that the spine is parallel to the floor. Drape your book cover over the book so that it’s centered and there’s an even length on both sides of the book.
Then, pinch around the spine to get the cover to bend. From there, you can smooth the cover down and fold in the inside flaps.
Put your beautiful new covers on your bookshelf, and enjoy!
Get Pre-Made Book Covers
Creating your own book covers is completely possible. But, if you want to skip the tech stuff, make sure to check out my dust jackets catalogue.
You’ll find “Printables,” which are PDF downloads you can take to the printer, as well as the “Dust Jackets Delivery” service, where I’ll send the printed and pre-cut dust jackets directly to you so all you have to do is wrap your books and set them on your shelf.
If you have a custom photo or a unique idea you want to see come to life on your bookshelf, make sure to message me for a custom project. I’d love to hear about it.
Final Thoughts
The first time I ever made my own book cover, I brought brown paper bags to school and my science teacher taught us how to create a paper bag book cover for the school year. Back then, my cover art was created with colored pencils, making it look more like wrapping paper than a professional book cover design.
Since then, combining technology like Canva and Illustrator with the book cover design process has been so fun (which is why Katsby Covers was created). Whether you decide to grab one of my Printables packs, check out the Dust Jackets designs, or create your own book covers entirely from scratch, I hope this tutorial got your creative juices flowing.