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[RosesnWater]

Hello! I often need help with art, but today I really need help with title readability. I’m not sure how to position the title.

So if you’d like to exchange some advice or if you’d like me say what I like about your cover I’d be happy to give my opinion! I won’t say anything harsh, we’re mostly all just Part-time artists here ^^’

So I like (for the most part) the ‘survive a faerie tale’ But I am struggling with how to position ‘the ultimate guide to’ nothing seems to fit naturally. Also any colour/font advice for the words would be helpful, tho I’d like the ‘survive’ and ‘faerie tale‘ to stand out.

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[dannygorny]

I recommend not overthinking it. It's easy to have high-contrast letters on a background like that, if you just use the negative space you already have.

[skippyjoeskilling]

the 'Survive a Faerie Tale' part looks pretty good, but the 'Ultimate Guide To' is very hard to read. The 'To' especially is getting lost. I would try to space those out more and cut down on letters that overlap in height.

If you want it to pop out more, I would suggest darkening the forest over the monster's shoulders, and the moss on the ground. Try to limit the yellow in the image just to the text and the monster's eyes.

Otherwise though it looks pretty good! I really like the composition, and you popped off with the fonts, which I really appreciate. Good luck!

[skicoak]

My rough take on it...

Word placement only.

[RosesnWater]

Damn! That’s also really good! That brighter yellow could really work ^^

[RosesnWater]

I think you’ve got something! I’m not in love with the ‘the’ But the balance to the other words looks great ^^ that may be a good idea! Thanks for all the effort ^^

[domisotto]

I am not sure I like the wording of the title. I made a quick search, and i think the wording is usually something like:

“Ultimate Guide to Surviving the Fairy Tales

to plus -ing verb seems to be a way it word it normally.

Also, I feel because the cover is so colourful, I would prefer cool neutral text, white or gray, with backlight glow maybe.

hope this helps!

So, in my case, I am open to suggestions, but I am limited to basic Canva

[RosesnWater]

Yah, you pretty much called the parts I was unhappy with. I think I got some help for the balancing of the top words that should work it out.

I was also thinking of switching the regular font to blue, so that could also pop?? I really appreciate the look you took at it and the advice was spot on!

[RosesnWater]

I agree with you, the surviving was what I originally went with but it was unfortunately too long for the size of font I needed ^^’ Although true enough playing around or checking similar titles for how to books could definitely help! And I’m thinking yah maybe a blue or lighter cool colour might work for the font!

If you’re limited just because of platform, I used sketchbook On my phone to do all of my cover! You can also get a special app depending on what your phone Type is and you can pick out more fonts if you just want a greater selection!

I like the red contrasting with the blue, thats some of my favourite colour pairings, and I think that adding the black cut out sections has definitely Made the image more dynamic which is better had it just been the picture of the guy. I ALWAYS support glowing letters in fonts lol, and if you did the glow effect yourself, well done! It looks very even. Tho I suppose I get why the shadow behind the ‘with’ is there, It sticks out weirdly to me, but I would have no solutions to make it less apparent unless you can make the shadow translucent and glad red might come off too flat. I think it makes for a decent cover especially considering your limited access to tools.

I don’t pay for any of the art apps/programs I use And they’re mostly user friendly so let me know if you’d like a list of what I use ^^

[domisotto]

I use Canva, it does the glow/backlight etc for fonts

[dannygorny]

I think as long as you remember that your cover art is doing the selling, you'll end up with something great.

[rajillustration]

I really like this font and the idea you're going for, I just don't think you need to change so many elements of the font throughout--like when I was in graphic design classes, I would do these really illustrative and fancy font situations like you are, but I got in trouble for it, and my teacher once lectured me on how you should always avoid changing more than one element in your font because it makes it unclear what's a title and what's a subtitle, and what order to read everything.

So I keep reading this title out of order, because there are so many different sizes and colors, and the space where the creatures head is acts kind of like a gutter between columns of text. So, while it is visually real interesting, and I do like that, it's too much. I would reign it back. You got a really good thing going with the font and the color, just choose one, and knock off all the excess.

And as for stuff going in front of the title? I wouldn't' do it. This is going to be real, real small when you see it on Tapas, especially on a phone, and unlike a book cover where you can just hold it closer to your face, this is going to be rough to read. I'd just have the font cover everything.

But really, I like it, I think it looks cool.

[RosesnWater]

That is some very sound advice, I am absolutely guilty of doing the fancy fonts even to my own destruction.

I think I like what I've done now, but I am thinking about changing the survive font to the other one I have for the blue lettering now. I really appreciate your educated view, I've never take a graphic design class so it's helpful ^^ I'm not releasing it for awhile, but you've given me a lot to think about!

[Eiranyx]

Since The other pointers were already mentioned I think the advice I can only give is limit the use of colors for the font of the titles
I noticed that since the background is very detailed and you have a limited free space, you may not want to overwhelm it with bold colors --- it will kill the purpose of the illustration - which is the first thing that a person will look at before actually reading the title. I suggest sticking to a more neutral shade to compliment the cover as long as it compliments the colors of the illustration
Also mind the spacing, it looks too crowded and unbalanced if it is near the edges, put a bit of allowance from the edge to create balance between the picture and text ^^