Generally the smallest sizes for an album cover usually are around 6 x 6 inches. As a writer, its more practical to consider more about the content of the book and not about album cover designs and sizes and layouts. However these little things will become very important as a writer gets older and starts to develop Alzheimer's disease or dementia. The person who knows how to create a stunning cover will be able to sell more books in their later years because of their longevity and the fact that these books will be cherished and passed down to future generations.
The album art itself is measured in points known as pixels. The actual number of pixels can vary but the majority of covers will be in around 400 x 400 pixels resolution. Obviously the larger the image, the bigger the number of pixels but generally speaking, the higher the resolution the better the cover.
After you have decided on the size and resolution of the cover, you must now work out how many images you want on the back cover. Generally most covers will have one photograph. However if the book is mainly comprised of drawings, it would be wise to include a painting or photograph on the inside side of the cover. This can be done by hiring a professional. There are many professional artists that can create album covers that are beautiful and eye-catching and suitable for use as covers for CDs and DVDs.
Next you need to work out what size the text will be on the inside of the covers. Generally the font will be Times New Roman or Arial, however you can work out your own font based on the rest of the album cover art. You will find many free font databases online, however there are also a number of paid fonts that may be preferable for various situations.
After you have created the front and back of the album cover, it is time to move onto the artwork. If you are using stock photos for the cover, then all you need to do is download and save the pictures to your computer. If you do not have any free photos to use, then you can use a stock photo agency website to find suitable photographs. Once you have saved your photo, then you can upload them into an appropriate software program and resize them accordingly.
Next you need to look at the type of borders and inclusions in the stock photo. Generally the borders are just smallish and do not have any significant effect on the overall appearance of the cover design. The insert images however should be substantial enough to make a difference to the appearance of the cover design. If you use a lot of white space, then the overall appearance of the album cover size and wedding invitation size will suffer.
Now that you know what kind of professional graphics software you need to use, and how to change the photos once they have been saved, you need to look at how you would like to customize your album cover size and wedding invitation size. Typically when using template CD label makers, you can add your own artwork or text on each page. However if you want to do this on your own, you are going to need some additional tools. Fortunately, most templates that are available online and in most brick and mortar album cover printing stores come with preformatted templates and blank inkjet blank card sheets.
To create book sizes, you are going to need a minimum of four hundred complete photos. In addition to creating the actual cover design, you are also going to need several different levels of printing thickness. Typically high-resolution covers are between twelve and sixteen pixels in thickness. Using a high resolution cover photo dimensions service can help you to create custom high quality covers without having to spend an arm and a leg.