How to Make a Book Spine with GIMP

About this video

A short follow-up tutorial answering a viewer who asked where the spine was in Dale’s earlier GIMP book-cover video. First, the CreateSpace rules on spine matter: for books with 130 pages or less, CreateSpace strongly recommends a blank spine, and blank spines are required for books with fewer than 101 pages — Dale warns from experience that violating this produces wonky covers or rejections. He also advises keeping all cover material away from the pink bleed lines. Then he gives a ten-step GIMP process for adding spine text: select the Text Tool; type the spine text; highlight it and set the font and size in the bar above the text box; open the Layer tab; hover over Transform; choose Rotate 90 degrees clockwise; use the Move Tool to position the text between the pink bleed lines on the spine; use the Alignment Tool on the spine text layer and apply both centering options in the Align menu; and if the text doesn’t appear, make sure that layer is on top in the layers menu using the green arrow keys. He closes by teasing a follow-up on the back cover.

Key takeaways

• CreateSpace: blank spine recommended at 130 pages or less, required under 101 pages
• Keep all cover material away from the pink bleed lines
• Type spine text, then rotate it 90 degrees clockwise via Layer > Transform
• Position spine text with the Move Tool between the bleed lines
• Use the Alignment Tool’s centering options; check the layer is on top if text is hidden

Episode details: published July 12, 2017 · 3:14 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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