Cover Tricks: Making Text Stand Out

This is the cover of the Property Guide I produced in Pages (64 pp., A5 format).

The cover was made by my co-worker in Illustrator, processed to press quality PDF and then incorporated in the Pages project.

The cover photo poses serious challenge to a designer. With mixed background of blue sky and foliage, various shades of green and brown, and long shadows of a low-hanging sun, how do you put cover straplines in such a way that the text stands out from the background? Here the designer used two tricks: putting white text on the semi-opaque colour box (bottom left) and using white outlines with dark text.

The first can be easily done in Pages and the second, specific to Illustrator, also can be replicated with good results.

I will write up the how-to in the next posts, but meanwhile if you have suggestions or comments, do contact me. And if you would like to have a copy of the guide send me an email.

Read the follow-on article 'How to Outline Text in Pages (Cover Design Tips)'

Original design by Shu Milne Creative

Pictured: Manoir d'Herouville (Bed and Breakfast) and Le Pigeonnier (gîte)

www.herouville.biz