Forum: Author Hangout

Can someone help me out on the intro page?

Ezzy 🚫

I was one of the early authors to release my stories with book covers as a graphic on the intro page. It seems to have caught on quite a bit in the last, dear lord has it really been a decade and a half?

Anyways, I hadn't noticed any change in my entries until today, but honestly I don't look often. The first two stories are just as they've always been, but State of Chaos has this huge green area above the graphic. One could even misconstrue that Storiesonline was claiming copyright to the art work below, though I don't think that's the case.

Not having posted anything in said decade plus, how do I remove that? It's just kind of strange that it's only that one story.

Replies: Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@Ezzy

https://storiesonline.net/h/71/how-do-i-change-my-storys-cover-image

In this story's case, your cover is tiny, so you'll need a bigger version (minimum width 750px).

After your replace the green block with a large version of your cover, let me know and I'll remove the old cover for you.

When I introduced full support for covers a couple of years ago, I went through all the stories that had covers in the index page, and moved the cover to the support system. Your cover was too small so it wasn't moved.

Replies: Ezzy

Ezzy 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

OK, I converted the original book cover that was a 44mb .tif file to .jpg and uploaded it. It should be 350dpi as was required for the actual published version. It definitely seems big enough, so please remove the old one sir, and thank you!

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Ezzy

I've always stuck with a 300dpi standard, as that was the publishing industry standard for the time. But I also create a variety of images of varying sizes, mostly for listing the story on my site.

But that was before Lazeez started revising the sizes. But I start with a 9"x5" print cover (full wrap-around, including the binder), the modify the front cover for various web-uses (the initial display to get readers to read the brief discussion, the larger display once they click on the display to read about the story), and then the actual eBook covers.

Yet each has the same basic size ratios, just adjusted for the size of each display.

Unfortunately, if .350dpi is the new standard, I'd rather not have to redo each cover, as the resize option only blurs the images, mainly sharpening the edges while the rest of the image get fuzzier. :(

Replies: Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Vincent Berg

Unfortunately, if .350dpi is the new standard,

Unless you're going for high end, art printing (very expensive, and which book covers don't fall under, even hard cover), the common LPI screening (Line Per Inch) is still 150 LPI. Since the upper bounds for 150 LPI required resolution is 2 x LPI, then 300ppi (pixel per inch) is still the default/standard.

High end books, especially where the artwork is important, and usually printed on glossy/glassy paper, can go up to 300LPI, requiring up to 600ppi images.

Basically, you don't need to change anything really. Even if the printing facilities handling any printing of your covers is doing the low end of high end printing by default (175 LPI) and since the rule for ppi x lpi is between 1.5 and 2, then 300ppi images are still more than enough.

Ok, that's enough technical jargon for the whole thread.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Thanks, as usual, Lazeeez, as that definitely clarifies the discrepancy. And as a one-time graphic artist, I can easily recognize the difference in quality in printed images.

And frankly, AI is a bigger problem in art than it is in literature, because now anyone can create 3000 versions of a picture in a day, all of which look nothing like reality.

So, I've given up on downloading image reference files for my writing (as I used to do to help describe what my characters physically look like).

I have a known problem of being unable to describe appearances or even visually recognize friends and family. It's so bad, I couldn't even recognize women I was dating when I was younger, as I'd have to recall specific details to recognize those I knew (blond, wears heels rather than shoes, etc.)

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Forum: Author Hangout

Can someone help me out on the intro page?

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