Need help with title font for book cover

I can read a few more letters in these than the originals (which are completely unreadable), but it's still not good. I'm still having to guess at the most likely words based on what I can read. You seem caught up in wanting a highly decorative font, but it's like the artistic equivalent of writing purple prose. It draws attention to itself and confuses the meaning.

I'd suggest looking at some professional science fiction covers and finding ones where the typography works with the picture. Then find a font with a similar feel.

Have you gone to dafont.com? I went there and checked out some of their "Sci Fi" fonts for you. I thought many would work for you and would be far more legible (I think Spaceship might work perfectly): http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=303. Alas, the goal must be for the title to be readible as a thumbnail, and while the font you have is pretty, I can barely read it the size it is in this thread.

I am sorry, but I can't read those titles at all. The previous font was better. Keep in mind that you already know what it says so it seems clearer to you.

You're over designing the font. You just need something simple but edgy. Here's a good one: http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Grov-Condensed-AB

Gale Haut said:

You're over designing the font. You just need something simple but edgy. Here's a good one: http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Grov-Condensed-AB

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+1.

christwriter said:

Actually, I've tried that font. I've tried several of those fonts. I've spent the last three days on daFont. And fontsquirrel. The issue I have with every bold-face font I've tried is they will not fit on the image at a readable font size without having to warp the text. And warping the text is what makes it illegible.

And it's going to be a print image too, which is what started the third round of redesigning, because what looked good as a thumbnail looks terrible when printed.

Is this one any better?

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Not significantly.

All the fonts I've seen you post have been embellished with loads of unnecessary effects that make them exhausting to read. I really don't see why a font that hasn't been over embellished like the one I linked to wouldn't fit on your cover.

ETA: Just going to add that I think you might be trying to have your type choice express something that the cover image should already be communicating to the viewer.

I can tell that you are struggling with placement of the text, which may be why you wanted to do all that stuff to it. Page layout isn't easy, and text needs to be legible against whatever background it's placed on.

For this last image you posted I would create a blending mode or adjustment gradient that lessons the detail behind your text to enhance the contrast and improve legibility. You kind of already had that idea with what you were doing, but just weren't quite there before.

If I find any good tuts I'll link you to them.

Original font:
I could make out the title with effort in your third book (in your avatar), but couldn't make out your first book title at all—a friend humorously guessed a very inappropriate title after trying to read it for a few minutes—nor your name in any of the books. The titles in your thumbnails meanwhile are a blur.

New fonts:
Better, but you're using too many effects and filters. The title is lost in the picture.

Unembellished font:
The best so far in my opinion. It's clean, has a modern feel, and I can read your title and your name.

It's sort of like a pin up or art piece that's overdone or too cluttered such that your eye doesn't know where to go. Consider browsing the scifi and fantasy titles at a bookstore/ebookstore. Legibility is important. Avoid clutter. More is not always better.