Pressbook Covers

The cover of your OER Pressbook is likely the first thing your learners and future instructors will see. For this reason, it deserves some thoughtful attention. We have designed a number of covers you may use, or you may choose to collaborate with your students to create your own.

OERFSJ Covers

The graphic designers at the William H. Hannon Library created a variety of cover options. If you would like to use one of these, please let us know which one (the names appear under each cover image), and we will send you the template for you and your team to adapt for your use.

Gray Series 1	Gray Series 2	Gray Series 3
Blue Series 1	Blue Series 2	Blue Series 3
Blue Series 4	Cornflower Series 1	Cornflower Series 2
Black and White Series 1	Black and White Series 2	Black and White Series 3
Hex Series 1	Hex Series 2	Colored Lights
Metal Basket	Oils Colors	Ocean

Create your own cover

Depending on your design skills and budget, you may want to:

• make a cover yourself or with your students using a free online design tool like Canva (however to keep your open text copyright compliant avoid using Canva’s templates and assets – including images and icons – and instead source your own images with Creative Commons licenses). The Finding Open Educational Resources chapter has suggestions of where to start.
• use Pressbook’s Cover Generator.

Cover art

If you decide to include an image on the cover, you can use an original photo or artwork, or search for an image in one of the many repositories containing items that have been released with an open license. Take these steps for the best results.

• Check the permissions and/or license of the image.
• Find as large and high quality of an image as you can (preferably 300 DPI 7×5 inches or 2250×1500 pixels at 300 dpi) for optimal resolution and clarity.
• If you are undecided about cover art, consider an abstract, even generic, photo or illustration that conveys the theme of your book rather than a specific image. Color often works better than black and white.
• If the image is taken from an external source, record the following information for the attribution statement:
  • name of the image and its link
  • name of the creator and a link (if available) to the creator’s home page in the repository used
  • the license or permission type, or if it is in the public domain

Resizing your image

You will need to resize your cover to be used in Pressbooks. It must be at least 800px in height. 900px width x 1200px height, .75 aspect ratio is recommended.

For your web version, you can directly upload your book cover image to the Book Info.

Using the Pressbooks Cover Generator

If you don’t have design experience or access to professional designers, you can use Pressbook’s Cover Generator to create a cover for your open text. Some benefits of using the Pressbooks Cover Generator:

• files are automatically sized to fit industry specifications (Pressbooks recommends 900px W x 1200px H with an aspect ratio of .75 if you are designing your own cover)
• your cover will match your book theme
• you can upload your front cover image and customize colors for the front, back and spine (Mays, 2015).

How to place cover image

This guidance is for the cover of your webbook and EPUB exports. Pressbooks also offers guidance for covers of printed books.

Step 1: Check the size

Once you have adapted or created the image for your cover, you will need to ensure it is the correct size. According to the Pressbooks User Guide, the image should be at least 800px tall with an aspect ratio (width to height) between .66 and 1. If the image does not meet these standards, you will receive an error message when you try to upload it. If you receive an error message, you will need to make the needed changes to your image and upload again.

Step 2: Upload to your Pressbook

Select Book Info from the menu on the left of your screen [1]. Under Cover Image, select Choose File [2].

Locate and select your book cover file from your computer [1] and select Open to upload the file into your Pressbook. [2].

Then select Save.

Your cover image will be saved to the Media Library of your Pressbook and displayed on the homepage of your OER Pressbook.