How to Make Fake Magazine Covers for Free

Create your own magazine covers.

Create a gag gift by giving your friend a magazine cover with his picture on it or put your child in a starring role as a cover model. Feature your favorite kitten on the cover of a cat magazine or pose with your own knitting on the cover of a crochet monthly. Although a variety of websites and portrait studios offer this service, you can do the same graphics work at home with a few pieces of equipment.

Things You'll Need

• Magazine
• Scanner
• Adobe Photoshop
• Camera
• Digital image

Instructions

1. Take a picture of the person, animal or item for the magazine cover. Get as plain a background as you can behind the person, such as a white wall. If using film, develop the pictures and scan your favorite image as a .JPG. If using a digital camera, download the photo as a .JPG to your computer with a USB cable.

2. Rip the cover off a magazine and scan it into your computer, saving the file as a .JPG.

3. Open Adobe Photoshop and click “File,” then click “Open” and browse to where the picture of the magazine is stored on your computer. Double-click to open it.

4. Click “File” and “Open” again, this time browsing to where your digital image is stored; double-click to open it. Now both images are on your workspace.

5. Click once on the photograph to give it focus. Click the “Lasso” tool in the “Tools” palette on the left side of the screen. Click back onto the photograph, hold down the mouse key and drag a line all around the “cover model.” Lift up your finger when you’re done tracing the outline and you’ll see a blinking dotted line.

6. Press the “Ctrl” and “C” keys together on your keyboard to copy the image into memory. Click the image of the magazine cover to give it focus. Move your mouse over to the “Layers” palette on the right side of the screen and click the “New Layer” icon on the bottom of the box; it looks like a flipped up post-it note. A new layer called Layer 1 appears on the screen.

7. Press the “Ctrl” and “V” keys together to paste the model image onto the magazine cover. Use the “Move” tool on the “Tools” palette, which looks like a black arrowhead and cross, to move your cover subject into place.

8. Click the “Lasso” tool again and draw an outline around any excess bits of color, such as background that has transferred with the cover model picture onto the magazine cover. Press the “Delete” key to delete the outlined area.

9. Move your mouse back to the “Layers” palette and click the right-pointing triangle in a circle, then select “Flatten Image.” Click “File,” then choose “Save As” and rename your image and save it to your computer.

Tips & Warnings

• Photoshop is a graphics package available from Adobe; it is not included on standard computer installs. Graphics packages that come standard on computer installs, such as Microsoft Paint, cannot complete tasks such as layering and background cuts. Consider downloading a free trial before buying it.

• Magazine covers are subject to copyright laws. Making covers for potential sale or profit is illegal and could be used to prosecute you in a copyright case.

References

• University of Washington: What is Photoshop?