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You’ll find black covers in the horror, thriller, and mystery genres. White covers suggest a straight-forward, simple book.īlack is obviously very serious and signifies mystery and death. White is well-known as a symbol of purity. This is the color you’ll see on covers for political memoirs and nonfiction as well as more thought-provoking fiction. Here are the main book cover design colors and what they are telling you without you realizing:īlue is the color of mental engagement. You might not realize it, but the color of the book is what draws your eye or makes you skim right past. They know you’re choosing from a ton of books and their goal is to get as much information across about that particular book in the millisecond it takes you to glance at it. Book Cover Design: What Colors ConveyĬolor theory has long been studied and applied in everyday situations, from the best colors to paint a baby’s room to color schemes on a website.īook cover designers fall into the same patterns when choosing a color for covers. Why did you choose that book, in particular? Most likely, the color stood out to you.
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You pull it from the shelf and give the cover a read. You’re looking at spines, and only spines, most of the time. Think about walking through your local bookstore or perusing your library’s shelves. And it's easy to make quick judgements based on book cover design. It’s in our nature to make quick assumptions about things, especially when we have literally millions of books to choose from. No matter how much the adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is trotted out, we all do it.
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