Hardcover Art

[DanM.]

Hi Again to All,

So everyone knows, I've only been working with the Affinity trio of products since June. I've watched many hours of tutorials from Affinity and other content creators, plus used the help function within the programs under "Help". With all the information available, some things just aren't covered, or possibly conveyed in a way that I do not understand. I appreciate all the help and patience. I have several questions and am trying to keep them as focused as possible.

So I created a 389 page book for KDP and have recreated it twice. I created the hardcover in Affinity Designer and the manuscript in Affinity Publisher (greyscale). The original background art was royalty free from an online source, which I downloaded as a PNG. There were also 2 additional graphic art that were layered on top of the background, these 2 were downloaded as PNG's and are transparent, text is on the same layer. 

So, I'm struggling with hardcover art clarity issues (background and images)and wondering if I need to create my own background art and the additional art to resolve this? My background base color is black, then using Paint Roller over in a grey gradient to achieve an abstract look. Paint Roller images downloads as PNG and JPEG, so I downloaded both, however, Designer uses the PNG version. I think that the majority of my problems are in the types of images I'm using (PNG, JPEG, SVG), layering, or both. Whatever it is, the final PDF export of the book cover looks like crap, the manuscript looks good. If anyone knows of a good knowledge base, tutorials or video resources I should be reviewing, please let me know. I've tried everything I can and am frustrated, but not giving up. Thanks

[Alfred]

If you’re creating a book in PDF and/or Kindle format, I’m not sure what you mean by “hardcover” in this context. That aside, if your cover illustration is a picture with overlaid text, PNG will almost always look better than JPEG because there won’t be any compression artefacts.

[DanM.]

Thanks Alfred,

That bit of information helps a lot. I use an online source for some art graphics, they offer PNG, SVG and JPEG. By saying hardcover, I just meant book cover, whether it's a paperback or hardcover doesn't matter, except for the size requirements.

[thomaso]

42 minutes ago, DanM. said:

as focused as possible
clarity issues (background and images)
the final PDF export of the book cover looks like crap,

What exactly would you expect to look different? "Clarity" can mean sharpness at edges or contrast in gradients or dull colours for instance.
Also I don't understand your file format info – you open them in Affinity and are satisfied, right? And only the export looks insufficient? So how would the image source file type influence the PDF if all looks fine in the Affinity layout?

Can you upload the documents – or at least a screenshot of your Affinity layout & the exported PDF side by side?