Writing Life: Creating a Cover with GIMP (Part 3 - The Cover Text)

Step 3: Add the Cover Text

You will now want to add text to your cover image. After all, readers are going to be looking for a particular title and/or author name. To do this, you will want to select the Text Tool. Once you click on the Text Too, you will see the panel you need to be able to select your font, font size and font colour. This is where you’ll find those tools.

You select the font type in one of two ways: by typing the name of the font into the box next to the text symbol OR by clicking on the text symbol and using your mouse to scroll through the drop down until you find and click on the font you want to use.

You select the font size by double clicking on the number next to the word ‘Size’, and then typing in a size (in pixels) for the font to be. I usually start with 260 or 360 depending on the length of the title.

You select the font colour by clicking on the colour box in the Text tools and selecting the colour in the same way you chose the colour for the ‘Bucket Fill Tool’ you used at the beginning of this process. If you use the colour selection box you used before, it will not change the text colour.

Once you have finished designing your font, make sure the Text Tool button is clicked and then go to your canvas image. Move the cursor to the point you want to start typing, and click, then start typing. Do not worry if your text isn’t exactly where you want it to be. That is what the Move Tool is for. We will talk about how to use that below, after we have adjusted the font size

You can hit ‘Enter’ to put in a return, which you might want to do for long titles.

You will notice that the writing defaults to a left-hand justified position. This can be adjusted by clicking one of the buttons located next to the word ‘Justify’ in the Text Tool Box.

The third button along is the button that will centre your text. You will need to highlight all the text to be adjusted. You do this by clicking in the text box, and then dragging until all the text you want to adjust is highlighted.

Click the third button along, and the text will centre.

The next thing you will want to do is make the text fit on the page. Remember anything invisible will not be on the finished cover. You do not adjust the text in the Text Tool Dock. You adjust the font size of text you’ve already typed in the cover image area.

The next thing you will want to do is make the text fit on the page. Remember anything invisible will not be on the finished cover. You do not adjust the text in the Text Tool Dock. You adjust the font size of text you’ve already typed in the cover image area.

If your title is too big and you want to adjust the text until it does.

To move the text, you will want to use the Move tool. Remember that the area you want to move will have the line outlining the layer change from yellow dotted lines to a single white outline. Moving text can be difficult until you learn to position the cursor correctly. Remember: Do not move the mouse to position the text unless the line around the text you are moving is white when you hold down the left mouse button.

Repeat this process until you are happy with all your text.

 

Next , we will look at how to export your completed cover as a .jpg file.