Six Facebook Cover Creators

If you have a facebook profile, then you’ve seen the facebook “covers” -aka the banners at the top of you profiles, pages, clubs, groups, and events:

If you have some graphic skills you can make your own in any art program (paintbrush, GIMP, paint shop pro, etc.) The best size to make them is 856 x 317 pixels. To upload you just go to your page, event, etc. and click on the cover image (or lack of cover image) and choose to upload your creation.

But what if you have no graphic skills? What if you don’t know how to use an art program? Never fear, there are some cool online generators you can use for free! I’m going to showcase six of them.

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Fun Photo Box

This generator has some really cool templates you can use – though to do this you need a photo of your own to insert. It can be your book cover, yourself, or one of your characters, whatever fits your page the best. To get started hit the “Get started” button:

They have several templates to choose from – scroll down to move through the pages, then click on the one you like best: (I have zoomed waaaaay out so you can see the whole page at once). Being a vampire author, you know which one I’m going for.

On the next page you can see the design larger, rate it, share it, or choose to make your cover:

Now you’ll want to upload your photo. Click the “from disk” button if it’s on your computer, or the “from facebook” if you want to use a facebook image (to do this you will have to give this app permission to access your facebook – if you don’t want to do that go to your facebook ahead of time and download the photo from it if you don’t have it elsewhere). Choose your image and click “open”. I’m going to use my main character Jorick for fun.

The new page will show the photo you chose and allow you to crop it by moving the dotty line box around. When you like it press the “go” button.

And Voila! Save your cover, then upload it to your facebook and you’re done:

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Image Chef

To use Image Chef you don’t *need* your own images, they have several on tap you can use, or you can upload your own. You can upload the finished image directly to facebook by connecting it to your facebook or you can use an email address and save it to “My Stuff” where you can save it to your computer and upload it manually (the option I chose). make the account FIRST or you will loose your design when you later try to create one!

To start out, pick your background image:

I chose sparkled because I like sparkles.
The next page takes you to the editor. It will automatically drop you down to the bottom portion, so to see your cover scroll up. I am going to zoom out a bunch so you can see the whole thing at once.:

You’ll want to get rid of the heart first (unless you like it) by clicking first on it, and then the trash can icon. You can do this any time you need to to get rid of things you decide you don’t want.

Now let’s add some text. Type your message into the box (it can be the name of your page, party, or event). Be sure to choose the color of your words (at the top hit the drop down arrow to get a little color palette) and your font – only the first four are available for free. If you click any after that it will just say “this feature is only available to silver members”.

When you like what you have, click add.

You can move it, and then resize it by grabbing the corners and dragging:

Now let’s add stickers. Choose the sticker tab, then your category and scroll through the options. When you fond one you like, click it to add it.

You can move these and resize them just like we did the words. You can also move elements on top of or behind one another by selecting them and choosing the bring to front or send to back option:

And of course you can delete, add more stickers or symbols, or add your own images:

When you’re finished, either upload it to your facebook or save it to “My Stuff”

If you save it, a new page will load. right click on your image and choose “Save Image As” to save it to your computer, and then you can manually upload it to your facebook.

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Cover Bash

First you’ll get a splash screen. read it and close it out

Like the last one, they have image you can choose from, or you can add your own. They don’t have much in the way of backgrounds except to let you choose a color, so we’re going to try adding our own . Choose the “add image” icon and then we’re going to pick the Choose Files. A pop up opens. Navigate to the desired image and choose “open”.

Just like the last editor, you can drag the image bigger or smaller – since we want it in the back we want it BIG.

Now we want to add some images to it. Choose the “cover maker image gallery” button on top:

This creates a pop up with categories. Since i have vampires, I’m choosing Halloween. To add the images you like, just click on them and then pick “insert image”. Add as many as you want, ad when you’re done click “close” in the right hand corner:

Drag the images into the position and size you want, just like we did with the background.

Now let’s add some text

Choose the text icon, then type your message, pick your font and your size and finally insert it.

Just as you added the background image, we can add other images. I’m going to add Jorick in for fun.

When you’re all done you can either upload it to your facebook or save it to your computer and upload manually (what I chose).

Click the S button. A pop up appears with your image. right click on it and choose “Save as”.

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Canva

This is a nicely designed site that feels very professional.

To start, click the Start designing facebook cover button

You’ll get the option for a tutorial. To skip it, just click off to the side

Now choose your layout. You’ll see that some are free and some aren’t. Click the one you want to use. (I’m cheap, so we’re going free all the way!)

Now choose the background tab and pick your background. Just as with layouts, some are NOT free, so be careful.

Now let’s do something with the mountains. Click the mountains and a box pops up that lets you delete them or move them or change their color. To change color click on each of the color circles and a box with some suggestions and a plus sign appears. Don’t like the suggestions? hit the + and you’ll get a color picker to choose your own color.

We can add images too. Choose the uploads tab, then choose to upload images and pick the images you want.

Add them to your layout and move them up or down to get the look you want.

Now time for text.

Since this design has text already, click it to edit it. A box appears where we can change the font, the color, the size and more.

We can also add illustrations, photos, and more. I’m going for an illustration since it matches the style.

You’ll notice some are free and some aren’t. After you find one, click it to add it and edit it just like we did the mountains.

When you’re happy with your design, download it. You’ll have an option to save it as an image or a PDF. Choose image and then upload it to facebook.

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Profile Timeline Covers

They have a nice background selection. Scroll through the pages and choose the one you like best.

You’ll have a pop up, close it and let’s start designing! First, let’s do our text.

There’s regular text – click the Text icon then type your text in the pop up and choose fonts and color (when you click on the color box a pallet pops up)

OR we can choose the “styalized text” – which means a bunch of fancy fonts. The colors and input box work the same. To choose your font, first choose a category (I went with “handwriting”) and then choose your font. When you like it, choose “Add Text”

Let’s upload an image. Hit the Upload Image, then choose whether they’re on your computer or facebook, then choose your image.

You can resize it by grabbing the box and dragging it around.

This editor also provides it’s own “icons” to add to your cover. Choose the icon button, which will give you a pop up. From there, choose a category. When you find one you like, click it.

OF NOTE: make sure you don’t have any items selected when you add the icon (such as your text) or the item will disappear and you will need to re-add it.

This editor has some cool filters you can use on your images. Select one and try it out by check marking different filters. When you have what you want, be sure to save your cover image:

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Picture to People

To use this one you need your own image. They have some very good instructions, but we’ll run through it quickly.

Scroll down, down, down and finally choose a filter for your picture:

Now choose an effect for your text

Now let’s build it. Choose what part of your image you want to show (default is probably good). Then choose your font and type in your text. Make sure to check mark the Text over Image button if you want text.

Now let’s upload the image

You can now view what it looks like or download it. I recommend just downloading, especially in chrome.

Here’s what I got:

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And if those aren’t enough to get you started, I don’t know what is.

Do you know of a better cover generator?