Need Help Making Book Cover (GIMP)

[tlowr4]

G'day all. I was torn posting this between here and the Computers and Technology forum but I guess this would be the better place. Here's the story:

I havn't played with Gimp for a good few years and have forgotten most of what I remember. I'm trying to make a book cover for a Swedish friend of mine. This is the screenshot of the requirements the website/organization want:

Translated that says:

Remember that paperback format of the volcano is a portrait A5, with (A) 3mm bleed.

<diagram>

Your book is 369 pages long and has a (C) 18.45 mm thick back
PDF cover overall dimensions are therefore, Height: (A + E + A) 216mm Width: (A + B + C + D + A) 320.45 mm

This is conflicting information. It's saying that the entire size of the document which will end up being a PDF, is A5, which has the dimentions of 209 x 148. However it then says the entire thing is going to be 320.45 x 216...

So should I go ahead and use the custom resolution of 320.45 x 216mm and use an appropriately sized margin for (A) scaling from 3mm (which off the top of my head might be about 3.9mm - 4.2mm), or should I just fit it all in the A5 size document and use a 3mm margin?

 

[TB]

A5 paper is 148x210mm

A+E+A=height
3+210+3=216

A+B+C+D+A=width
3+148+18.45+148+3=320.45

Just like the instructions tell you.

 

[wfooshee]

The A5 reference is not your cover size. Your cover sheet will be the front cover, back cover, spine, and bleed space. The book is A5 sized, but your cover sheet wraps around it front to back, thus the "too large" dimension.

Your cover sheet is then two A5 sheets side by side, with the spine thickness between them, plus the 3mm bleed all around.

 

[tlowr4]

^ Oooohhhh! Ah I feel dumb now, I get it. So the A5 is just a reference for the effective book size, and the dimensions for the cover are bigger for it to wrap around. Got it.

3mm isn't a very big, however, can I still drag the cover image all the way to the edge (minus the 3mm bleed, mind you), and will it still all fit into place on the finished article?

 

[TB]

Make your image 210mm tall and 314.45mm wide and your canvas size 216x320.45mm.

I'll let you figure out the conversion to pixels as it's dependent on your print resolution.

 

[tlowr4]

Alright, good.

One more slightly urgent question though, considering I'm finishing it up now, but do I put the image (front of the book) on (D) or (B). I thought D because the way it wraps around if it was to be pasted on, it would be on the front... am I right?

 

[TB]

Yes.