The Good

Simple cover creator software with powerful 3D editing mode.

The Bad

The anti-aliasing of the 3D cover does not create a truly straight line.

Bottom Line

Easy to create cover. Need some fine tuning to achieve smooth 3D look like the cover shown on their homepage. The problem with anti-aliasing can be compensated by shrinking the output ecover slightly before using.

Reviewer’s Comment

When using this software, remember that you will need to ’scroll’ the editing menu on the right hand side to see the full option of the 3D mode menu.

Features/Benefits

• Choice of Box, Book, CD, Books-in-Box, Magazine, Special Report covers etc.
• Wide variety of graphics template to choose from.
• 3D rotate function to achieve the desired effect.
• 7 days money back guarantee.
• Works in Windows 95, 98, NT, ME, 2000, or XP.

Price

$89.90

Homepage

Visit Virtual Cover Creator

The Good
Provides the possibility of previewing the product cover in real time or rendered format. Three easy steps; 3D Object Handling->Floor Texture/Reflection/Scene Setting->Light Positioning

The Bad
There is not too much option for creating custom boxes. Also, the function of the built in image editor is comparable only to Windows Paint.

Bottom Line
If you are into easy step by step eCover design software, without the hassle of having to use Photoshop, this would be the software to choose. This software however, is somewhat rigid in terms of custom functions.

Features/Benefits

• Ability to create a standard box, ebook cover, thin box, wide box, custom box, CD/DVD Case, ebook, spiral notebook, wide spiral notebook, box with 2 books, Box with 3 books, Box with 4 books, magazine
• Improved camera rotation / movement(compared to previous version). Now users can rotate the camera along its X, Y and Z axis relative to the center of the eCover
• Improved light source rotation / movement(compared to previous version). Now users can rotate the camera along its X, Y and Z axis relative to the center of the eCover
• Ability to select between speed and quality
• Ability to specify the light color, which will affect the look of the eCover
• Ability to show the X, Y, Z axes, which helps to a better positioning of the light source and camera
• Multi language support: English, French, German, Brazilian, Russian, Romanian, Japanese

Sample

Price

$38

Homepage

Download eCover Engineer Free Trial

The Good

Cover Factory is cheap and only costs $39.95. Cover Factory includes an integrated graphics editing program allowing you to draw shapes, add gradients and textures, redo/undo, rotate/align, different types of binding and positioning of objects, shadow and lighting, reflections, variable observer positions, and more.

The Bad
From the point of view of a newbie, it has more setting/parameter to play with and this is definitely beneficial to those who enjoys editing.

The Bottom Line
Cover Factory would be recommended to those who love self-editing without burning a big hole in the pocket.

Benefits/Features:

• Creates images of books, books with CD-ROMs, binders, binders with CD-ROMs, boxes, boxes with CD-ROMs, Floppy Disks, Zip Disks, CD-ROMs.
• Gradient, Pattern, Texture and Solid Color fills for sides and background.
• 10-steps Undo/Redo.
• Draw on top of sides using vector objects, including: lines, barcodes, text, rectangles, circles/ellipses, pictures, polygons, polylines, margins.
• Cut, Copy and Paste vector objects.
• Move, Rotate, Align, Change Ordering, Delete or Edit Properties of vectors.
• Supports comb and spiral binding styles on binders
• Choice of CD-ROM position options on binders, books and boxes.
• Special effects include gray scale, lens flare, buttonize, color balancing, brightness, contrast, and more.
• Set up shadows using multiple lights from an array of 25.
• Add reflections.
• Edit almost any property of your object at any time.
• Rotate your object around all 3 axes
• Render your final image to a file (JPEG, PNG, BMP) or the Windows Clipboard.
• FREE access to ecover libraries of 200+ photographic images (spectacular skies, beautiful landscapes, animals, plants and more)

Sample Cover

Price
$39.95

Homepage
Visit Cover Factory

The Good

Easy step by step wizard that will guide you through the process of creating a professional eCover in minutes.

The Bad

Too much choice of settings requires user to take some time to familiarize with the tools. Would prefer to have a video tutorial on how to use eCover Studio instead of few pages of tutorials.

Bottom Line

Once you are familiar with the tools, you can create your next eCovers easily. If you are looking for easy eCover creation tool that can help you create your eCover by going through some easy tutorials, then this software will work well for you.

Features/Benefits

• Choice of Box, Book, CD, DVD, Cassette, VHS or Ezine covers, etc.
• High-quality graphics output.
• You can rotate freely to to achieve the desired effect.
• Offers templates and presets bonus.
• Works in Windows 95, 98, NT, ME, 2000, or XP.

Sample

Price

$97

Homepage

Visit eCover Studio

The Good

1. Raytracing, photorealistic result, highest quality. The only software that uses it.
2. Skydome lighting, soft realistic shadows.
3. Complex shapes (like books stack).

The Bad

1. Long rendering time (because of using raytracing)

The Bottom Line

Box Shot 3D is the ultimate solution for virtual 3D cover design. With Box Shot 3D high-quality software box, ebook cover or 3d screenshot can be created in just a few mouse clicks.

System Requirement

Pentium4 2GHz or better
256 MB RAM
Microsoft Windows 2000/XP Operating System
No hardware acceleration is required

Features/Benefits

• Boxshot 3D uses raytracing . The use of raytracing leads to “realistic” shadows.

• Boxshot also Calculating skylight (or atmospheric light) - light emitted by sky.

• Box Shot 3D use many tricks for fast and efficient antialiasing to make sure you have smooth edges in the image created.

• You can fully control the box reflection, transparency and depth on the floor and adjust them with sliders to see result in realtime.

• If you want to use the rendered image in a complex project, you can easily output your image with transparent backgrounds (PNG format) for use in your favorite graphics editor.

• Box Shot 3D contains many different shapes that can be used for rendering boxes, dvd- and cd-cases, screenshots, books with soft and hard covers or stacks of books.

Sample Cover

Price

$50

(Note: You may download a demo-version absolutely free)

Homepage

Visit Boxshot 3D

The Good

Does not require having Photoshop. Good for animated/moving covers(e.g Cover opening up and DVD popping out)

The Bad

This software is not user friendly. In some functions where supposedly users are guided to knowing where to click, they are instead left totally confused as to what to do next.

You need to be really clear on where you click in this software, or you risk LOSING EVERYTHING you worked on. You will need to start from scratch when the software crashes.

Bottom Line

Although it does not requires you to have Photoshop, you will at least need to know a little about it, as some terms used are rather technical. If you are going for an animated cover, this software could be considered.

Features/Benefits

• Work from 150 pre-designed covers or imported images.
• 2D Environment and 3D view by rotating the image to any angle possible, adjust scaling, shadow light direction and floor reflection in real time.
• Full support and help including a full help manual, online help, quick start video and customer service center.

Sample

Price

$97

Homepage

Visit eCover 3D

The Good

Offers highest definition 3D cover compared to  all cover softwares in the market. Wide variety of covers to choose from.

The Bad

Requires Adobe Photoshop to work with. You can’t rotate the 3D cover ‘looks’ as its already pre-defined in the Photoshop Action Script.

Bottom Line

Although it requires you to have Photoshop to work with the Action Script, by following the video tutorial, you are able to create very quality cover with just few clicks. The quality of the cover just stands out from other eCover creator software out there and easily blows your competitors away.

Features/Benefits

• Choice of eBook cover, Report, Software Box, DVD case, CD case, Membership Card, Combo Box etc.
• High-definition of graphics output at 300dpi.
• Ability to combine different cover types in a single graphic.
• Offers bonus templates and video tutorials to get your started.
• Works in both Mac and PC.
• Free updates at no additional charges.

Sample

Price

$97 (limited time discount from $127)

Homepage

Visit Cover Action Pro