The cover your publishing house has provided to you can be any size, so it may need to be edited to be the correct size for display onscreen.

This FAQ provides basic information about images and how to work with them.

• What's the best way of getting my cover art?
• Why does the cover image have to be any particular size? Can't you just use whatever I send you?
• What's a pixel?
• How can I create an image that meets the specifications?
• What if I have only a small image to start with? It looks awful when I scale it up to be 400 pixels wide.
• What resolution should I use when I scan the photo?
• My electronic image doesn't look as good as my hardcopy cover.
• My image looks great in my photo application but it looks fuzzy in my web browser.

What's the best way of getting my cover art?

By far, the simplest solution is to:

1. Browse to Amazon.com.
2. Find your book.
3. On your book's display page, click the View larger image link under the cover.
4. Right-click on the image.
5. In the right-click menu, select "Save Image As..." or "Save Target As..." (or similar option for your browser).
6. Save the image with its ISBN as its name.

Now you have a perfectly sized cover image you can upload during the entry process.

Why does the cover image have to be any particular size? Can't you just use whatever I send you?

The images should all be roughly the same size so that the judging will be as fair as possible.

We understand that you may not have access to a large, high-resolution image that you can scale down to make a nice, clean image for the contest, so we're allowing a range of widths in pixels (300-400) to accommodate the lower resolution images.

What's a pixel?

A pixel is basically a dot that helps make up the image that you see onscreen or on a printed page. "Pixel" and "dot" are used interchangeably (e.g., pixels per inch, dots per inch). A pixel contains information that's used to generate the color you see.

The number of pixels per inch (or dots per inch, also known as DPI) determine the resolution of an image. The more pixels per inch, the higher the resolution. More pixels per inch means more image data, hence a better, smoother picture.

You know when you zoom in on an image and it gets blocky? Each of those blocks you see is a pixel.

For our contest, you don't have to worry about the pixels per inch. Just make sure the cover image is 300-400 pixels wide and it'll be fine.

How can I create an image that meets the specifications?

Your publishing house has most likely provided you with a high-resolution cover image that you can start with. And most photo manipulation tools -- like Paintshop Photo Album or other photo tools -- will allow you to change the image size.

While step-by-step instructions for every photo tool is beyond the scope of this FAQ, we can provide you some general guidelines:

1. Make sure the "aspect ratio" is set to on or locked. This will ensure the cover will scale properly in width and height without distortion.
2. Change the pixel dimensions so that the width is 400 pixels or less.
3. SaveAs your cover image so you don't overwrite your original file.

Advanced Users: If you have more sophisticated software, such as Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks, you can manually set the image resolution to 72 DPI and scale your image accordingly. Just be sure to change the resolution first, then the image size.

What if I have only a small image to start with? It looks awful when I scale it up to be 400 pixels wide.

You can either ask your publishing house for a larger image, or scan your cover or cover flat using a desktop scanner.

What resolution should I use when I scan the photo?

A resolution of 180 DPI or higher should yield good results for our contest. You will probably have to resize the image to be 400 pixels or less in width, but the image will look good. Experiment and see which scan resolution will give you the best end result.

My electronic image doesn't look as good as my hardcopy cover.

This is normal. The average high-end publishing system prints 1200 DPI images and text, whereas onscreen displays use 72 or 96 DPI. The higher the DPI (dots per inch), the more image data there is to create the image.

My cover looks great in my photo application but it looks fuzzy in my web browser.

Chances are, you're using Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP and you have a nice, new(ish) high resolution screen.

Many new screens have a resolution that's higher than 72 or 96 DPI -- more along the lines of 120 -- and Windows XP doesn't support the high resolution natively. This means that Internet Explorer can't, either, and so your cover image will appear fuzzy in IE.

You have two choices for fixing this problem:

• Change the screen resolution to 96 DPI as described at the Microsoft help site, or
• Change the registry entry for Internet Explorer so that it doesn't try to resize images for your high resolution display. (Though this is the simpler solution, be warned that editing the Windows Registry should always be done with caution.)

HBA is working with the judges to ensure all such technology issues are resolved before the judging phase begins. We want you to look good, too!

More questions? Ask us and we'll add to this FAQ!