Some designs that you may find at covermymusic.com have dark coloured 'back covers'. Obviously writing on these with a pen would not achieve the best effects!! So why not use your computer to add text to them. Other designs have light coloured backgrounds which is more 'pen - friendly'. Below are a few pointers to adding text to your covers.

Adding text with MS Publisher

Microsoft publisher allows you to use transparent text boxes. Firstly make sure your cover is setup completely for printing (see printing). Once setup, draw your text box with the 'A' icon on the interface. You can then choose whatever colour, font and size you want for your text.

The only thing you may not know how to do is make the box transparent. To do this find the fill colour options (Under Format Fill colour (on 2000 edition) or select the bucket with the coloured band underneath it). Select 'None' or 'Clear' (whichever your edition has) and viola!!! Ready to print.

Adding text with MS Word

First you should set your page to landscape by selecting landscape from the file page setup pop up option window. Then import your cover into Word (Insert Picture From file). Your next move is to create a 'text box' over the image. Choose Insert Text box and drag a text box over the area in which you want to add text. Once you have finished adding the text, you will need to make the text box transparent with no border. To do this select the text box and choose Format Test box. Choose No Fill and No Line from the pop up option window.

Adding text with a graphics package

The text icon on most graphic packages can differ - some have 'T' and others have 'A'. Just click on this and click anywhere on your image where you would like your text. Photoshop makes a new layer automatically when you apply text so be sure to Layer Flatten image once you have applied all your text (this is so you can save it as a jpeg etc..). Other graphics packages do similar things so if you cannot save your image as a jpeg after applying your text then check out 'layer' or 'merging' options.