How to Make a Good CD Cover
The need to make CD covers has become commonplace for many people. Whether you're making photo CDs or creating your own professional music CDs, being able to create CD covers that look appealing is a skill you can use. Fortunately, creating CD covers has become easier than ever. With so many programs available, almost anyone can create attractive CD covers for any CD project.
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Instructions
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Sketch a few ideas for your cover on paper. You don't have to be a great artist. No one will see the sketch but you. Of course, if you have a talent for drawing and want to hand draw and scan the artwork for your cover, you can do that, too. The main thing is to get a rough idea about the content and balance of your cover design. Look for a design that fits the content of the CD. If your CD is a family photo CD, consider using one of the best images in the slide show as the cover.
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Select a program that has CD cover templates. You can use any of the major word processors. You can also use desktop publishing software. If you don't own any desktop publishing software, Serif PagePlus is free. There's also Scribus, which can be used on Mac or PC (see Resources attached to this article). Both of these programs offer CD cover templates.
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Open your software, choose "New" and select a CD cover template. Click on the template text and images and hit the "Delete" key to remove the template text and images. This gives you a blank template for your design.
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Insert the image for your CD cover. Go to the "Insert" menu and browse to the location on your computer where the image is you want to use for your cover. Click the image to open it. To resize the image, click the lower right-hand corner and drag the selection until the image fits the CD template.
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Add a text box to the cover and type in the title of the CD. Use the drop-down font menu to select a font for the text. Consider creating a title for the CD in one text box and a short description of the contents of the CD in another. Make the title of the CD larger than the description. Set the font size and text color from the font menu as well, choosing a color that looks good and is easy to read against the image on your CD cover.
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Print your CD cover on CD printing stock. Any brand will do. You can find it at office supply stores. CD covers are standardized in size, so you don't even need to concern yourself with stock numbers. Place the CD paper in your printer to print one or more copies of your CD cover.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit cd/dvd closed jewel case (with paths) image by Tristano Ajmone from Fotolia.com
