How to Create eCovers (FW+PS)(ebooks)

I use Adobe products for many things. I’m not a graphic artist, so I’ve never been able to master or even make good sense with Photoshop. However, Adobe Fireworks is easy to learn and a very powerful tool for me as a web developer.

In this video I use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fireworks to create an ebook cover.

To create modern day Web 2.0 style ebook covers, most everybody uses Action Scripts of some sort. In this video I am using Cover Action Pro scripts (a commercial product).

This video is about 25 minutes long and shows every step I took to create the eZine eCover in this post. My style might seem goofy to some Photoshop experts, but I’m a Fireworks user and all scripts that I am aware of at the moment are for Photoshop. So, I design the eCover in Fireworks and run the Photoshop scripts on the design.

Manually Creating Mirrored Images in Fireworks

Sometimes when creating reflective images in Adobe Fireworks using the menu driven method, there are pixel lines on the sides that aren’t completely faded out.  If you experience this problem and are unable to successfully touch it up, you can use another method to create that mirrored image effect.

You can use a vector object to create the mirrored image reflection simply by applying a gradient effect and adding some transparency effects.  This video shows you exactly how to do it.

Shiny Red Download Button in Adobe Fireworks

This video presentation shows exactly how I made this shiny red download button, using Adobe Fireworks.  It’s rather a simple process and only involves a few objects and some very commonly used properties.

If you would like to download the .PNG file for editing purposes in Fireworks, just click the download button.

Not being a graphical artists and not having any special training or schooling for web graphics,  I’ve always found Adobe Fireworks to be the easiest to use.  It’s simple and effective.  I have trouble getting around in Photoshop, but I’ve always been able to use Fireworks to help create modern day images for my web sites.

Creating Reflective Images in Adobe Fireworks

Reflective images are easy.  The only steps involved are “vertically flipping” the image you want to reflect and applying some fades and transparencies to the flipped object.  This quick video shows exactly how it’s done using Adobe Fireworks.

There are several ways in which you can create reflective images.  The method in this video is a standard menu driven approach and is commonly used and considered very simple.  The other method is to create a vector object and apply gradient effects with some opacity.  I’ll create another video which demonstrates this another day.  The truth is, this menu driven approach automatically creates this vector approach for you.

Adobe Fireworks is a commercial software application for editing and creating graphics.  You can download a trial version of this software here.