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I need to create a book cover, and would like to know what are the possible ways to do that using Ubuntu or Debian packages -- but I'm not an expert in graphic design. So far I know of:

  • LaTeX: it would possibly take too long to get all details right (choosing the right fonts, positioning elements, etc)
  • Scribus: seems to not make common tasks easy (I couldn't easily find a way to centralize text in a frame, or a frame in a page for example)
  • Gimp: a bit too complex maybe.

Are there any other packages that would make the task easier?

edit: it's my own book (self-publishing -- it's not for a publishing company). I'll probably want one or two images, the title and one or two lines of text.

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Well that heavily depends on your needs. The packages/ways that you mentioned are not overly complex given the tasks that they can solve.

You should probably give more details on: What do you want on the book cover, and who needs that cover? E.g. If you have a publishing company, then they might want a certain format.

To give some basic recommendations: Assuming you want text, then why not use LibreOffice Writer (or KOffice or Abiword)? Assuming you want graphics, then Inkscape (or LibreOffice Draw) might be another option.

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    +1 for the Inkscape recommendation, though it's not too simple to use at first.
    – Tom Brossman
    Jan 3, 2012 at 11:53
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    A friend of mine just published a children's book, and did all the artwork with Inkscape and Gimp.
    – Wolfger
    Jan 3, 2012 at 12:17
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There's nothing particularly difficult about handling alignment of objects on a page or text inside text frame.

For the former use Align and Distribute palette (available from Windows menu), for the latter look inside Properties Palette (F2) on the Text tab (or use text styles , F3) from ground up.

If you are a designer, you are supposed to grok professional software :)

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