Cover page

Designing a cover page is the fun part, and by far the easy part. Finding the proper material to print your art onto, now that’s a very different story. Originally, I used something called ‘cover stock’. It’s something you can find at your local Basics or Staples. It’s just 67-pound paper really. It only comes in 8.5 by 11 however, so it’s useable sizes are very limited. Not only that, but it was very sensitive to water. So, you end up with a very easily damaged book. I had to get more creative with later copies.

I moved immediately from this ‘cover stock’ to what I use today. At first I thought it was simple Bristol board. I was able to get it at Staples for $1.89 a sheet (that’s enough for four book covers). It had the colour gold on one side, and silver on the other. Its caption was ‘Two Cool Colours!’ This is where my old Brother printer came into the picture. It could do coloured images, so I printed out all my covers on this double coloured material. With a gold or silver background, the pictures had to look good. It wasn’t until I tried using different types of Bristol board did I realize how lucky I had gotten. I found that because of a thin layer of coating on most Bristol board, neither ink nor toner could produce a decent picture. This doubt coloured board was somehow unique in that it allowed the ink to saturate it. With any other material, I could wipe the ink off immediately after printing.

Though the double coloured board has been working fine, I’m soon going to try other types. The best covers I’ve been able to make thus far has been using watercolour paper. The ink works wonders on it, and allows the final product to be usefully flexible. The only reason I don’t make every book of the watercolour paper is because of cost, yet again. If cost weren’t such a factor, my books would look awesome!