Special technologies can be used on dust jackets and covers to make books stand out to consumers and national retail buyers. Two such technologies are Elkote (also called JagKote, depending on the vendor) and ink on foil, which only recently appeared in bookstores. Because they are newly developed, not all printers can produce books with these technologies, but several vendors are starting to leverage Elkote and ink on foil to create brilliant covers designed to attract buyers.

What do the new technologies offer you? Simply put, Elkote and ink on foil make your book stand out on the shelf. The Elkote process blends superb special effects with practical resilience. It is an alternative to matte lamination coatings, where books are run through laminators that apply a coating to the cover. Elkote applies a liquid coating to paper similar to the application of ink. The coating is printed onto the surface with pinpoint precision. It stands up against scuffing far better than matte lamination and offers new aesthetic possibilities. Elkote makes it possible to produce a gradient from gloss to dull, when desired.

For a sleek metallic appearance to be added to your cover, take a look at ink on foil. This breakthrough technology applies foil to paper and allows for inks to be printed on top of the foil. Most book covers currently using this new process are covered completely with foil before being printed, but it is also possible to apply foil only to select areas on the cover. Less costly alternatives to ink on foil are available, such as foil with no ink overprint and metallic ink instead of foil.

Before starting your next cover design, give some thought to the impressive new technologies, Elkote and ink on foil, and make sure to hire a designer who is familiar with cutting edge materials and technologies. With the right design, they could help you get noticed by the big buyers.

Not all fonts are created equal, and not all fonts are appropriate for all uses. The following three fonts are perfect for text-dense interior pages. These typefaces have great legibility and also include multiple weights and styles and extended ligature sets, which allow you to use them in many different ways and situations.

1. Bembo

2. Adobe Caslon Pro

3. Minion Pro

I don’t know about you, but gasoline prices have been on the forefront of my mind these days. So I’ve decided to take a look at books currently on the shelves about the coming oil shortage.

My favorite in this category is The Party’s Over by Richard Heinberg.

This is a perfect marriage of title and image. The dark humor is shocking yet completely appropriate for the dire subject matter. The type is well-placed and does not deter from the powerful image.

Now, compare the revised and updated cover to the original:

It is clear why this cover needed a redesign. The typography used is almost identical, but the image is so much less effective. It took me several minutes to even realize that the illustration is a tipped over wine glass. This is not a horrible idea, but it is undeveloped.

Now, compare these two covers:

The photographs used are very similar, an oilfield during sunset. But in Twilight in the Desert, the image is reduced to its bare essentials: a single tower and the setting sun. The Twilight in the Desert cover succeeds where Hubbert’s Peak fails because Twilight’s title and the image on the cover work together and all the design elements are clean and simple.

I have two final covers:

Both of these covers work. The words of the titles are reinforced visually, and the type is handled well. For example, on The Bottomless Well’s cover, the title is slightly obscured by the gasoline and the pump. This overlap serves to marry the image and the type. In Out of Gas, the subtitle visually completes the trajectory of the drop of oil. If I had to choose, I prefer the more contemporary approach of The Bottomless Well, but both designs are truly well executed.