Guide to Color Scheming

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Just like fonts, there is a world of colors out there. Choosing the right one can be really hard. But no sweat, I'm here to teach you how to find that one color.

Some tips:

-Stay away from too much red. 

Red is used to convey such a wide variety of emotions, but it is also overwhelming to the human eye. It's a warm color, but to the extreme. If you're going to use it, try to stay away from pure red, and go a little deeper or a little lighter. Use gradients and shadows. 

-Some combos to never have together: 

-Some combos to never have together: 

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Even if you have a Christmas novel. This can be great in real life, but when it's on a computer, it is super hard to read and clashes. The human eye reacts negatively.. and if you look at them you can possibly actually see a vibration

 and if you look at them you can possibly actually see a vibration

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Never use yellow on green. They can just be... super obnoxious and honestly unreadable. They're way too close to one another to use. 

Never use purple on green

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Never use purple on green. This is along the same lines of red and green, and you don't want to make the viewer uncomfortable or want to look away. 

Red on black, though popular for darker, mysterious or even sultry novels, should not be used

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Red on black, though popular for darker, mysterious or even sultry novels, should not be used. It's almost completely unreadable. You should actually try to avoid using colored text on a completely black background. 

Blue on red

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Blue on red... not on the web. MAJOR vibrations. Even if you're Spider-Man.

As briefly discussed in the last chapter, please only use up to three colors. Black and white are awesome, but if you have two many colors, it'll look super unprofessional. 

Example from the last chapter:

If you have a cover that has a TON of color for whatever reason (try to stay away from this though, sometimes it can be just way too busy) you can always put a small faded background behind the title so it stands out

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If you have a cover that has a TON of color for whatever reason (try to stay away from this though, sometimes it can be just way too busy) you can always put a small faded background behind the title so it stands out. 

For example, look at this with and without the background:

For example, look at this with and without the background:

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The first one looks a whole lot more professional (again, those were put together super fast just for example purposes, not actual covers nor are they something I would put out without more work)

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The first one looks a whole lot more professional (again, those were put together super fast just for example purposes, not actual covers nor are they something I would put out without more work)


It is important to note that your cover is not supposed to be something you whip up within minutes. TAKE TIME to look at the fonts you have access to, and what you personally like and dislike. Play around with the colors, how large you want words to be, that kind of thing. 

A tip though- take a word or two and make them stressed. Use them as the word that's another color, or another font. 

The basic font I have used in most of my examples is Trajan Pro. I absolutely love it, and use it OFTEN. 


If anyone has any questions, do not hesitate to post it below. I will try to get to it, and if I do not, I know other readers love to help each other out! 

Thank you guys for the support! Please vote and comment :)

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