How To Put a Picture onto a CD Cover

By Carol Adams

Create a professional looking cover for your CD case.
i Hemera Technologies/Photos.com/Getty Images

In the old days, if you said you were recording an album, it meant you had access to a recording studio. Thanks to CD burners and at-home recording software, anyone can create their own music CD. However, if you want to make it look like a professional CD and not one you cobbled together in your mother's basement, you have to give some thought to the design that will go on the cover for the CD case. Covers are usually simple inserts that you can print out yourself once you have the design.

Load the image you want to use for the cover onto your computer. It is customary for this to be a photo of your band, either in performance or at some dramatic locale, like a beach or mountain.

Open your graphics application and start a new document. Set the width and height parameters to 4.75 by 4.72 inches.

Open the image you want to place on your CD cover. Use the "Copy" and "Paste" function to place the image in the CD cover document. Scale and position the image to fit the cover. Unless they are the same proportion, some cropping will probably occur.

Select the "Text" tool. Choose a font and color that will so up well against the photo. The type in the name of your band in the name of the album. Save your work and print it. Trim the result and slide it into the CD case.

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