I have a companion book on my @VictoriaKaer profile with writing tips. This book will cover some basic elements of cover design as well as some dos and don'ts of design. I also have information about requesting from a designer here on Wattpad.
I ce...
I talked a bit about choosing PNGs for your manip covers. Let's discuss more about what a PNG image is.
A PNG file is a file with a transparent background, sometimes they're simply called a transparency. Not all PNG files have a transparent background but it is the only file extension I'm aware of that can be saved without a background.
It takes practice and work to cut a PNG. You need to make certain you don't cut out anything important to the image. Round edges must be traced carefully so it doesn't look as if you took an ax to them. You can use the magic wand tool (which isn't very magical in most cases) but it tends to remove a lot more than you intended.
The magic wand tool works by picking pixels of a similar color to the area you clicked on, which is why it ends up being so inaccurate. If your background is white and your model's shirt is gray, you'll likely lose any part of the shirt that appears closer to white than gray. It can also leave behind specks where the wand didn't pick up on pixels. A lot of designers use Photoshop to cut PNGs. I use GIMP because I find it easier to use. The lasso tool in Gimp allows you to drop 'dots' that can be picked up and moved to adjust where they landed. It makes cutting rounded edges a lot easier.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Let's show an example of how the magic wand tool can go astray.
This is the original image
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
And here is how the magic wand tool cut it out
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
