If I could give "hearts" for this video I would. I would love more of these type videos as I learn from your skills. I would love to learn more from the pc commands you use as you are creating. My skills seem so crude to yours. Thank you for this video!!
I wanted to include the keystrokes but didn't have time. Here are a few I used in this video. 1.) Command + C to copy 2.) Command + V to paste 3.) V for the Move tool 4.) W for the Quick Selection tool 5.) Command + T for the Transform tool. I use this to resize and rotate images. 6.) Command + J to copy a selection onto a new layer If you mouse over any of the tools in the toolbar on the left a popup window will show up with the keyboard shortcut for the tool. I mainly use MacOS so not too familiar with PC shortcuts. I believe on PC you can switch out "Command" with either "Alt" or "Control". 🤓
Thanks. I am struggling with the learning curve . love tangent templates but struggling with getting my covers to fit using the kdp cover creator. I am going to try this method, I love canva and I feel like I can get this to work. keep making great videos. love all yours and Kathrine's videos.
I use Inkscape for covers. It gives me all the functionality Illustrator has, but it's free. I love my covers/interiors to be vector graphics - that way I never have issues with pixelated images. Until now I worked with the kdp templates and do exactly what Isaac does with it. Place it in an extra layer, make it 50% transparent and set the guides. Might check out the Tangent Templates cover templates and see if it saves me some time and effort.
Yes! I think KDP's Cover Creator is great. It's free and handles a lot of the technical stuff for you. Our KDP Helper Tool in Tangent Templates gives you the recommended dimensions for using KDP's Cover Creator. With KDP's Cover Creator you can upload any large image you want and resize it directly in the editor. The only downside is that it lacks some customization features such as using a different image for the front and back cover of your book. We find once someone gets the hang of creating Print-Ready PDFs then it quickly becomes the preferred option.
Thanks for your video. I'm having some issues with my cover. I used the kdp template, created my cover using GIMP, 300 dpi, flattened all the layers down to one single layer, saved as a pdf, uploaded onto my bookshelf for my print book. So, Amazon accepts my cover and my book is live, but on the amazon sales platform, the image of the print book looks super grainy and a little dark compared to my ebook cover image, which is super high quality. I'm wondering about this print-ready version of the PDF and having trouble figuring out if my 12 MB pdf qualifies. Any thoughts? thanks.
Hello! KDP ebook listings use a different system from their printed books. Print PDFs get converted into CMYK (for printing). The thumbnails for print listings tend to be heavily compressed and can look exactly as you described (although they are fine when printed). I suspect since there's no conversion for Ebook listings the thumbnails might look crisper - Isaac
@@katharynetreasure Thanks for your reply. The thing is, when I look at any other book listing on Amazon, the 'photo' image for the print book is crystal clear. There's no way to promote my book with such a low-quality cover pic. It's really bad marketing, and I still can't figure out why it looks like this. On KDP, they ask for a print-ready PDF. I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out what this means, and if my PDF is indeed print-ready (my first message describes some details about this) thanks.
@@amazonjunglespirit has the book gone up recently? Sometimes book previews can look fuzzy in the first week and then they update them. If you’d like to email us at support@tangent.rocks we can work with you to try and figure it out :)
@@katharynetreasure Thanks Katharyne, yes it was recently published. Okay, thank you, that is good to know. It's surprising that no one mentions this in the KDP community forum or in the set-up process.
@@katharynetreasure it all worked out somehow, maybe I had forgotten to 'flatten' the image in the gimp file, I had merged all the layers but missed the little 'flatten' button!
When usung CANVA for interior And exterior do i need to show margins from file to ensure the content is away from edges? With bleed or no bleed? THANKS
Hi Ero, It depends on what you want to accomplish. You can get a lot done with Canva and some people are more than happy with the results. I personally prefer and highly recommend using Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Once you have access to Adobe Creative Suite the only limitations are your skills and creativity.
I have a question about the outline or the farthest cut line of your template. I did this in Canva and uploaded to KDP but the final print had a white line across the top. How could this happen and how to prevent it?
The template itself is nothing more but a guide to show you the margins, bar code and spine. It's meant to be removed once your design is finished. We've gone through this process several times, have ordered books form KDP to tests the results and found everything works as expected. If you like you can email us a copy of your Print-Ready PDF and we can take a closer look to see what's going on.
