Using Bill Platt’s “Coloring Books for Adults”, I set myself the challenge to create 30 designs for an adult coloring book, and publish it in 30 days using CreateSpace.com (CS).
How am I doing?
Getting there slowly.
Image Resolution.
The designs were going to be done in one go, so I decided to check how CS want the designs. I know some people who have had messages saying images need to be around 300 dpi so I wanted to check.
Found it in the Interior Reviewer Guide under Image Quality, Low Resolution Images:
“All digital images have a “resolution,” which is a measurement of the amount of detail an image has. The higher the resolution, the more detailed and clear the (image) will be.. For an image to be high-resolution, it is generally considered to have 300 or more dots per inch (DPI) when the image’s dimensions are at the size at which you want it displayed…”
So glad I found that!
Finding image resolution in Windows Explorer.
Right-click on image. Dropdown menu appears.
Go to the bottom to Properties. Left-click to open.
Four tabs – General, Security, Details, Previous Versions.
Open Details. Go to Image.
For the purposes of this, the fields you want are Dimensions and resolution.
The mandala I did has Dimensions 800 x 800 (that’s pixels) and resolution 72 dpi.
CS want Dimensions 2400 x 2400 pixels (px) and resolution 300 dpi.
How to Make Your Adult Coloring Designs Ready to Publish.
I use two free programs, Inkscape and Gimp.
- Open Inkscape and Gimp
- Choose your design
- In Inkscape – File, Open, <yourfilename>. Click Open
- jpeg bitmap image report box will open. Click OK.
- File, Save As
- A window will open with <yourfilename> and Save as type: Inkscape SVG (*.svg). Click Save.
- Inkscape window will open with your design in and <yourfilename.svg> at the top
- Check the folder <yourfilename> came from. There’ll be a .svg file where the Inkscape logo is and it’ll have <yourfilename> below.
- In Gimp – File, Open, find <yourfilename.svg> in the dropdown list and click on it. <Yourfilename.svg> will display in the right sidebar.
- Click Open.
- A new window will open, Render Scalable Vector Graphics.
- The top two boxes are Width and Height. Highlight and overtype the width and height you want. You can change the unit of measurement.
- Ignore the next two boxes.
- The next box is Resolution. Highlight the number and overtype the dpi you want. If you’re printing or publishing, you need at least 300.
- Click OK.
- File, Export.
- An Export Image window will open. <yourfilename.svg> will be in the top field. Change .svg to .jpg.
- got to bottom right corner above Save. There’s a box, “All export images”. Click the dropdown menu and click JPEG.
- Click Export.
- A box will pop up telling you “A file named “yourfilename.jpg” already exists. Do you want to replace it?” Click Replace.
- A box called Export Image as JPEG will appear with Quality and a slide beside it with a number the other side. Move the slide until the number is 100 then click Export. <yourfilename.jpg> will go back to the folder you got it from.
- Find <yourfilename.jpg> in the folder it exported to. Check Properties, Details to make sure the dimensions and dpi are correct.
That’s all there is to making your adult coloring designs ready to publish.
Check Your Designs.
You know how to do it with free software. Let us know if you have any difficulty.
Oh Shan — I’m so glad I came to your blog today! THIS was the missing link for me, and it worked!! I’ve made lots of designs in the past month or two, and I knew they needed to be 300 dpi, but could not figure out how to do it! I have both Inkscape and Gimp, but didn’t know how to use them. But your instructions are perfectly clear, and it worked! Thank you so much!
Willena – you gave me the biggest smile ever! I wondered if anyone would be able to use my blog post and you did 😀
Thank you for telling me 🙂
Shan
This is a new area to me shan, and I love your step by step explanation above, do you think you can do specific niche related drawings, for time management related things for example?
Thanks, Mike.
I reckon I could. What sort of thing are you looking for?
Shan
Thanks Shan this is awesome. Didn’t know about Inkscape will have to check it out.
Any tips for actually coloring an image so you can use it for your book cover?
Thanks, Sue.
1. Make sure your image has strong lines which join so check it over first; any small gaps and the color goes everywhere!
2. For a smooth finish, I use the paint bucket tool in one of the graphics programs. I have a slight tremor in my right arm and found digital coloring with a pencil/pen tool a time suck because I’d color, have a tremor, the color would go where my tremor went, and I’d have to Undo and start again. I don’t have that problem with the paint bucket.
3. I find partially coloring an image works better than fully coloring. A partially colored image offers a “taste” of how the image could look without telling the viewer “You have to color it this way in these colors”.
Are these any good?
Shan
Thanks that’s great Shan, assuming then we need to color the large version and then resize it? I find sometimes that the color seems to have a few white spots in it when turned into an ecover. Hopefully your tips will help eliminate this.
Let me know how you get on, Sue. Out of interest, what’s your process for coloring when you’re turning it into an ecover?