When a book-cover design is finished, it is neatly mounted on cardboard and a careful note is written on the margin, telling how the design is to be executed by the binder, the kind of cloth to be used, and its number in a particular sample book. Unless the design is executed on a piece of book cloth, a sample of the cloth desired is pasted under the directions. The design is then cut in brass by a die cutter, as described in the next chapter, and the covers are stamped in gold or inks from this die by the binder. The design must be the exact size of the future book or drawn larger in exact proportion for reduction to the proper size.
Gold is of course the most expensive way of reproducing a cover design, and a publisher generally tries to get as good an effect as possible without the use of gold, or he limits its use to the title lines or to a small part of the design. Four inks is usually the extreme number used, and more often only two or three are used, or gold and one ink.
Several styles of decoration are used in designing book covers; but they may be put roughly into two classes,--those that are purely ornamental and those that are pictorial. Personally I am in favor of the purely ornamental cover, as being more dignified; but there are books that seem to require a pictorial cover that is treated somewhat in the fashion of a decorative poster.
A book-cover designer to be successful should be very versatile and able to make use of figures as well as thoroughly versed in the use of ornament.
One of the most important parts of a book cover is the title, to which the amateur and inexperienced designer does not always give sufficient attention. The title must be clearly drawn and everything else in the cover made subservient to it, so that the first thing the eye falls on is the title. For this reason a thorough study of lettering is necessary for the successful cover designer, and much practice in order to become proficient. A very successful cover may be due simply to a well-selected cloth with lettering properly drawn and placed so that the eye is perfectly satisfied and the whole has an air of distinction. Each designer grows insensibly into his or her own particular style, which those who are interested in book covers grow to know; but the more varied his style the more in demand will be the designer.