What size should the cover art be?

Royal Mercury

I think I am, therefore....
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 2, 2011
Messages
211
Reaction score
11
I'm ready to do the cover art for the book. I'm trying to figure out what size to make the art.

I looked around trying to get the screen resolutions for Kindle, Nook and iBooks and Droid, seems like there are a variety of answers there.

Seems like the numbers are
Kindle DX -- 824 x 1200
viewable area -- 744 x 1022
Kindle 2 -- 520 x 622
Nook Color -- 1024 x 600
iPad -- 1024 x 768
Droid -- 540 x 960

Are there general rules of thumb for creating the artwork?
 

Sargentodiaz

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
Messages
1,330
Reaction score
61
I found that by making it to fit a normal 8x11.5" page, it would be formatted for the right use, Kindle or Nook.
 

elae

time to draw
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 21, 2008
Messages
356
Reaction score
39
Website
www.niki-smith.com
This is what I have in my notes, from the official Kindle and PubIt sites:

Amazon's KDP system requires a high quality version of the cover be uploaded individually. This should be a 72DPI TIF or JPG. It should be a minimum of 1280 pixels, preferably at least 2560 pixels on the
longest side.

Barnes & Noble's PubIt system requires a JPG between 5 KB and 2 MB. The sides must be between 750 and 2000 pixels.

They'll resize it to fit the different screens.
 

Summonere

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
1,090
Reaction score
136
Here's what Amazon says:

Amazon KDP accepts two types of files for cover images:

• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
• TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)

Amazon KDP applies additional compression to images when displaying them on its website. For best results, images should be uploaded with minimal compression.

Dimensions

Minimum 500 x Maximum 1280 pixels

Recommendations for the size of your cover art:

• Minimum of 500 pixels, horizontally
• Maximum of 1280 pixels, vertically

Save at 72 dots per inch (dpi) for optimal viewing on the web.

Color

Product images display on the Amazon website using RGB color mode.
RGB is the color mode native to the web and most color screen displays. RGB stands for red, green, and blue. These three colors displayed at varying levels of intensity create over 16 million colors.

The RGB color space is used for product images. Use color images whenever possible and relevant. The Kindle reading device has a black & white screen today but Kindle applications for other devices, such as iPhone or PC, take advantage of colors.

Borders for White Cover Art

Cover art with white or very light backgrounds can seem to disappear against the white background. Adding a very narrow (3-4 pixel) border in medium grey will define the boundaries of the cover.


And then there's this:

An HTML image with an aspect ratio of 9 to 11 automatically displays with maximum screen coverage.​
 

Royal Mercury

I think I am, therefore....
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 2, 2011
Messages
211
Reaction score
11
Thanks. That helps a lot.