Cover art (and user icons generally)

Do:

• Do create the art and design yourself, if possible. If not, find someone who can and will for a reasonable price (or trade, or whatever form of mutual exchange works).
• Do use simple art, strong contrast, and PNG format to have a prayer of being readable at small sizes. That’s why my user icon is just a heavy white outline on a black background.
• Do make type big and bold, and place it outside the art—which is what I do—or at least on a plain backdrop beyond the art. Spindly type may look elegant at large sizes, but disappears when reduced.
• Do double-check readability by viewing art at the smallest size used (~128 pixels square, in Fimfiction’s case). If it isn’t readable at small sizes, it’s just a muddy smudge that can’t do its job of attracting views.

Don’t:

• Don’t rip off art. Ask permission. If permission can’t be obtained for whatever reason, don’t use it. How would you feel if someone plagiarized your story?
• Don’t slap the art onto the site without a link back to the original source. If site rules prohibit that, such as Fimfiction’s rule against linking to NSFW art, credit it completely and correctly.
• Don’t link to Pinterest, Know Your Meme, or some other aggregator site. Find the original post if possible and link to that—usually I can find a source post in fairly short order by checking Deviantart, Derpibooru, or a Web search. When checking Derpibooru, be sure to scroll down below the image and check for a link! Every time an image goes up on Fimfiction without the correct original “Source” in the corner, a kitten dies.
• Don’t use grotty low-quality images with aliased edges, slap clashing art styles or mismatched sizes onto a background, take a screen-shot including Photoshop’s checkerboard backdrop, or use JPEG.

Author reserves the right to expand these lists as needed.

Comments

[Super Trampoline]

• Use grotty low-quality images with aliased edges, slap clashing art styles or mismatched sizes onto a background, take a screen-shot including Photoshop’s checkerboard backdrop, or use JPEG.

So you’re saying this isn’t a masterpiece of design?!
cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/evhu-1480240142-331788-full

[Dave Bryant]

5033640
Parody gets a pass. Especially when it’s well executed.