leilaniOne mark of a new designer? A timid title.
The title is a huge part of any book cover. In fact, it should be written in huge letters on the cover. The rule of thumb is a book’s title should claim about a third of the total space on the front cover. I’ve seen some nearer a quarter of the space, and others taking up virtually the entire front cover. When the text IS the design, for the title to take up most or all of the front cover real estate makes sense. If using a graphic of any kind in the background, however, the title needs to let some of the image shine.
Other details count besides size. First, make sure the font style matches thw book’s genre. If you’re writing a horror story, don’t use a fancy script for your title. Use something creepy, to go along with a creepy cover image. Or if writing a tearjerker romance, dig out a fancy script, or maybe a combination of script and sans-serif. Bypass a bouncy, funny kids-style of font.
Placement
Fitted
There are different ways to align a title. While traditionally a title is centered, sometimes the title placement is driven by the cover image. When using a striking image, the title might either be off to one side or wrapped around a significant part of the imagery.
As shown in this example, the words literally wrap around the prominent flower named in the title. As a variation, the bottom text (“FARM”) could be turned upside-down to complete the sense of circling the tulip.
Other covers simply push the title to one side or the other, though it isn’t ideal.
Centered
When the title is shorter, a straightforward centered title might be best. Switching between fonts and/or making certain words smaller can keep it from looking crowded. Words like the, of, and – any sort of “filler” swords can be shrunk down for better balance.
At left is is an example of a cover where the title takes up nearly the whole page, and it’s centered.
Unfortunately, as shown, this version leaves no space for the author name. Additionally, the interesting part of the image – the doves – is obscured by the title. The awkward vertical spacing also leaves a sense of being unbalanced, despite running down the middle of the page.
Centered, Blocked
This would be a better arrangement for the title above. By compressing and staggering the text, and turning one word sideways, it takes the long title and compresses it into a mixed-size block.
It manages to make the title itself a bit more artful. In this variation, center the whole block above the main image. (Or below, if the most interesting portion of the image is at the top of the page.)
Centered, Size-Justified
Most titles look best when centered, in one variation or another.
However, there’s a different take on the blocked version shown above. When the title takes up 2-3 lines, it can often look cleaner when it’s centered and size-justified.
To size-justify means to make all lines of the title the same width by adjusting the font size of the words.
In this example, the word SOULS is larger than any other word, yet every text line is the same width (or nearly so).
