World Association of Zoos and Aquariums

A good wrapping leads to a good sale. When you would like to distribute an e-book or a piece of software, you should obtain a cool package for it. the good news is that you do not need real cartons or paper. There are three standard ways to create a virtual cover:

- Requesting it from a designer

- Learning the nuts and bolts of Photoshop

- Using some cool dedicated software

If you have a a company that can do it for you, the job will be a piece of cake. However, good designers ask for big money. Each new product box or e-book cover will Cost up to $160. Using Photoshop is fine if you know how to make the program do what you want from it. To do everything properly additional action scripts might be necessary that are not that cheap. Do not forget the value of Photoshop: it will rob you of $600. A more straightforward 3rd choice is to get yourself cute boxshot software. Starting from $15 you can get your hands on a product that will match your needs. There is obviously plenty room for your taste. Actually, there are 3 sorts of such programs:

Fixed templates, without free rotation

Simple 3D rendering programs

3D with ray tracing

If you go for pre-made templates, your box shot and e-book covers will be fine, but there will surely be certain limitations. You will not be able to rotate or scale the software box or ebook cover. The second option gives you more settings, but the simplified model produces fake shadows. You will not require James Bond's glasses to notice that the pictures look weak. The third choice does not suffer from such shortcomings. FXs are calculated for every pixel. As the result, you receive a very realistic image. The third kind is most appropriate if you want to achieve some flexibility in producing your software box. A wonderful example of such a program is Box Shot 3D. At 40 euros the program is extremely affordable. It allows the creation of software boxes, e-book covers, virtual CD/DVD boxes, member cards and other cool things. You can see some pictures below of ebook covers and software boxes.

It would take you quite a bit of work to achieve the same level of quality in Photoshop even if you have acquired some additional scripts. And not many such programs would allow you to produce anything of the same quality. The freedom is almost indefinite, modify whatever you wish. If you are in the mood of making a software box or an e-book cover, try Box Shot 3D. It will give your product a very cool packaging. And excellent packages will easily double sales. I am certain that Box Shot 3D is the optimal choice for you.