An Introduction to QuotesCover
QuotesCover.com is a website to turns any text, especially quotes, into nice looking quotes picture. At the beginning in 2011 we developed it with simple idea: user just need to add the text and the website will generate a better looking image with text over it and can download it at any size for any purpose. This beautiful quotes image is useful for increasing social media engagement, wall poster, or you can use it for greeting card And today we have enhanced it with more sophisticated features and richer assets at the backend and user can download it at any size they want making it a very flexible solution for creating graphic for any needs.
The concept of our Quote maker is simplicity and easiness. It require no sign up, work on both desktop and mobile devices, and don’t have a steep learning curve. You just choose or add your own quotes and choose the best design and et the program will think about the designing process. Of course you can always modify or manually design it.
the anatomy
Currently there is 5 Important area on our Quote maker application. They are the 1. Quick Mode, 2. Edit Background, 3.Edit Text, 4.Canvas and the 5.Download. OK Let’s go deeper on each area.
1. Quick mode area
Quick mode area is where you can generate the design automatically. We are building a algorhytm that can generate beautiful graphic design and this is where we are going to implement it. For now it is still basic randomization there, but as you might read on the feature plan and log, we will implement it very soon.
There are one automatic design button and two pair of change typography button and change background button. The Automatic button will generate completely new design. All design components are updated when you click it. The pair of typography button, just as it name is affect only on the typography. and so does the background button only affect on the background.
2. Edit Background
This area is where you can edit the background. There is three design component that form the background on QuotesCover. They are the picture background, the overlay solid color, and the overlay: gradient. Imagine there are three layer stacking, bottom is the picture, above it is the gradient overlay, and the top is solid color overlay. By varying the opacity slider you could create a nice looking background suitable for the typography above it.
2.1 The Picture
This is where you can choose or add your own photo. Quotescover by default provide you with tons of free for commercial use photo. You can check for the source using the link we provide below the canvas. You can also sort for the color. Let say you want to have a reddish dominant color photo, just click on the color dropdown and click next. The program will automatically choose the photo with your color criteria. Clicking next button again will generate another photo, and clicking previous button will show the previous photo.
You can also add your own photo there. Click on the upload button and your image will added instantly.
2.2. Overlay: Gradient
As the name suggest this is where you can add a gradient overlay above your photo. Combining this with photo result of a unique modern look and feel . Use the previous next button to generate gradient. We have added tons of designed gradient. You just need to choose the dominant color and click on the buttons.
The opacity slider is for changing the transparency of the gradient layer. max opacity means your background only show the gradient, and 0 opacity means no gradient. So if you dont want to get the gradient overlay you just slide the slider into the left end.
2.3. Overlay: Solid Color
This is similar to the gradient overlay above except that the overlayed is a solid color. This overlay layer is sit above all three layers so this means you can cover the picture and gradient wiith this. For example you want to create a solid background, just slide the opacity slider to right end (no transparency).
3. Edit Text
The edit text area is for creating or modifying the text shown on canvas. This text layer is sit above the background. In this area there is two tabs, first is is quotes text, for changeing the quotes text. And next is Description text tab, for changing the description, or by default the name of the authors. Currently Quotescover only have two textarea, we are planning to add more text (you may see more tabs) which have specific purpose. Now lets go deeper with each tab feature.
3.1. Quotes Text Format
Here you see there is a text box and some formatting icon button. To change the text you just need to type on that text area. The result will instantly shown on the canvas.
You can also change the alignment and text style. If you want to change text style, bold or italic, you need to select the text first and then hit the bold or italic button.
Letter spacing and Line height are easily changed by dragging the slider. The interesting feature is width and height. As you might notice that our app does not have font size control. But actually we have a unique mechanism to change font size. To change the font size you need to drag the width and height slider. the text size will automatically calculated and resized so that it can fit to the container (see the dashed green border when you slide it). This make it easier and faster to create more precission layout without thinking the font size.
3.2. Change Quotes Font
You can change the font by clicking on the next and previous button. There is hundretz of font there, but to make it easier we have sort it by the characteristic of the font. Click the dropdown above it to choose the font character/type you want and hit next and previous button. The program will generate the font based on the characteristic chategory you’ve choosen.
3.4. Font Color
you can change the font color by clicking the square button (by default it is white). the color picker will appear. You can choose the color you like and the result will directly shown to the canvas.
4. The Canvas
The center area is the canvas. This is where you can see the preview of your artwork. The text on the canvas is dragable, and by combining it with the width and height slider on the edit text you can create more creative layouts.
4.1. Change Dimension Dropdown
One of QuotesCover’s unique feature is change dimension dropdown. With this, you can swap to another dimension without breaking your layout. Even as extreme as changing from square social media post into vertical banner for advertisement, it wont break your layout. This feature is very usable for creating multiple campaign or output with the same look and feel.
4.2. undo and redo button
Just like the name suggest it is a controller for undo or redo.
5. The Download area
The download area currently only has one button, the download itself, but for the future, we are going to add download as transparent png, and downloasd as jpg. Stay tuned!
6. Bonus: Previous Version Button
In case you want to try our previous application, you can use this button (available on Desktop only). Just to let you know that as this article written, the application is on version 3. The first version is made using Adobe Flash. It is very powerful but unfortunately now Flash is dying so we are moving to more futureproof solution and improve it so it will surpasses the Flash version in terms of graphic processing and feature. The good news is that the current version is work on mobile which is very handy.
Next we are going to explain on HOW TO DESIGN USING QUOTESCOVER. Will be write it on a separate blog post.
