YourCover Forum

Uploading a photo to the design system is probably the hardest part of designing your magazine cover.  For the web-savvy it is no big deal but if you're not all that familiar with digital photography it can be frustrating. 

#1 - you need a photo with a high resolution - we recommend 1024 x 1280 but about half that size will be fine. 200 x 300 will not be fine.  Just because it looks good on your computer screen doesn't mean it will look good when printed at 8.5" x 11" (or on a poster at 20" x 24").  Photos from Facebook or that you download from a friend's KodakGallery account won't be at a high enough resolution.  Check your photo's resolution by right clicking on the photo and looking under properties (you can also open it in a photo application like Microsoft Office Picture Manager or Paint to see the properties/attributes).

#2 - scan a photo - if you want to use an older photo from the pre-digital days; make sure you scan it at a minimum dpi of 300. (DPI means dots per inch and indicates how many dots of color are in each inch of the photo)  Also if you are only using a small portion of a 4x6 photo, scan it as a 5 x 7 or an 8 x10 so that when you crop into a small portion it is still at a high resolution.  Some scanners will allow you to scan just a portion of your photo so you can crop the image you want to see on the magazine cover prior to uploading it.