Design a Healthy Cookbook Cover in Photoshop

In this design tutorial I will be showing you how to design a healthy cookbook cover full of designer-inspired recipes in Photoshop! In order to create our cover we will be using a handful of beautiful illustrations from Lisa Glanz along with several high quality (outlined) fonts from artists such as Fenotype, Latinotype, My Creative Land and Zetafonts! If you are ready to begin then fire up Photoshop and let’s get started!

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Here’s a look at what we’ll be creating:

Step 1: The Hungry Designer Cookbook

To begin we will open Photoshop and create a New Document and give our file a name. I will be naming my file ‘the-hungry-designer-cookbook’ to keep things simple. After naming your file, check that your document is 6” wide and 9” tall. Let’s set the ‘Resolution’ to ‘300’ and the ‘Color Mode’ to ‘CMYK’ and then we also want to change the image to ’8 bit’ with the ‘Background Contents’ set to ‘White’. Once you have applied those settings, go ahead and click the ‘Create’ button to make your new file.

After setting up your document you will notice that you now have a single ‘Background’ layer filled with white that has a small lock next to it. Let’s go ahead and double click this layer to unlock it.

At this point you will be prompted by the ‘New Layer’ dialog box asking you to enter a new name for the layer. Here I will simply type out ‘BACKGROUND’ and then hit ‘OK’ to proceed to the next step.

You will now still just have a single layer, but it should now be unlocked and your new name should appear in place of the previous layer name.

Step 2: Green Background

Next, double click on your ‘BACKGROUND’ layer to bring up the Layer Style panel and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option.

For the fill color, enter a hex value of ‘#4A4D3B’ and then press the ‘OK’ button twice to apply the changes and close out of both windows.

Your ‘BACKGROUND’ layer will now be a darker green color instead of white. Select your layer and then click on the small folder icon found at the bottom of the Layers Palette to put your layer into a new group. Double click on the ‘Group 1’ text to rename the folder ‘BACKGROUND’ so it matches the name of the layer inside. Your Layers Palette should now look like this:

Step 3: Decorative Frames

Go to the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Place Embedded…’ as shown in the image below:

In your Finder, navigate to the ‘Decorative_frame-01.png’ file in the freebies folder for the tutorial and then click on the ‘Place’ button in the lower right corner of the window.

Your frame png file will now be imported directly into your document and place in the center of the canvas. Press the ‘Enter’ key to paste the object before moving on.

Notice that after importing the frame file it not only has the file name for the layer, but it’s also been brought in as a Smart Object. This is a very useful way to bring objects into your document and definitely saves us a few steps! In the past I have opened the files, clicked and dragged them, positioned them, renamed them, and then converted them into Smart Object files so this is a pretty handy shortcut that will save you some time. Before we move on, select the frame layer, hold the Shift Key, and tap the up arrow 8-10 times so our frame is slightly above the horizontal center of our image.

Step 4: Leafy Greens

Double click on your decorative frame Smart Object layer to bring up the Layer Style panel and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option as shown here:

For the fill color, enter a hex value of ‘#7B9661’and then click ‘OK’ in both of the panels to close out and apply the changes.

Notice that once we’ve applied the color change, a small ‘fx’ icon appears next to your layer, and there is a small sub menu beneath the layer showing you the effects. You can turn the visibility of this effect on and off by poking the eyeball or collapse the sub menu by clicking on the small arrow to the right of the ‘fx’ icon. Your decorative frame should now look like this:

Select the frame Smart Object layer and then click on the small folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette once again to put the layer into a new folder. Double click on the ‘Group 1’ text and this time change the name of the folder to ‘DECORATIVE FRAME’ as shown here:

Step 5: The Bearded Man

Go to the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Place Embedded…’ once again.

Navigate to the ‘Bearded_man_decorative.png’ file and then choose ‘Place’ from the lower right.

When your file is first imported you should have a bounding box around it allowing you to transform the image. Hold the Alt/Option+Shift keys and drag inwards from any of the four corners of the bounding box to scale the image down proportionally from the center until it’s about the same size as the image below:

After placing your image in the document and scaling it down, press the ‘Enter’ key to apply the changes. From here, press Command/Ctrl+J two times to create two copies of the bearded man illustration. Select the top copy, and then hold the Shift Key and select the third copy so all three are selected simultaneously as shown below:

Instead of clicking on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette, this time we will use the keyboard shortcut Command/Ctrl+G to place all three copies of the bearded man into a folder. Double click on the ‘Group 1’ text to change the folder name to ‘BEARDED MAN’ like the image below:

Step 6: Mellow Yellow

This time, rather than double clicking on a layer to bring up the Layer Style panel, we will double click on the ‘BEARDED MAN’ folder. Once the dialog box is revealed, check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option.

For the fill color, enter the hex value ‘#FAE659’ and then press ‘OK’ two times to apply the changes and close both of the panels.

You should now see the small ‘fx’ icon appear next to your folder name as we’ve changed the color of our bearded man to a pale yellow color.

Step 7: Mellow Yellow

Return to the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Place Embedded…’ as shown below:

This time we will navigate to the ‘Designer.eps’ file in the freebies folder for this tutorial. You will notice that there are several versions of each of the EPS files so be sure to choose the version that matches the version of Illustrator you have on your machine. Once you select the correct EPS file choose ‘Place’ and you will then be prompted with the following dialog box:

Here we will simply click ‘OK’ to proceed and bring our outlined text into our working file. This outlined font was created using the typefaces from Zetafonts and we will be using it a few more times throughout this tutorial. Once your text has been imported, hold the Shift Key and drag inwards from any of the four corners of the bounding box to scale it down and place it to the left of the bearded man. Use the image below as a guide for sizing and placement:

Repeat this step for the ‘Cookbook_xx.eps’ file to import it and scale it down, placing it on the opposite side of the bearded man as we did before. Once you have placed the ‘Cookbook’ text opposite our ‘Designer’ text we can hold the Command/Ctrl Key and click on each word so they are both selected at the same time as shown here:

Press Command/Ctrl+G to place both of these outlined text layers into a new folder and then double click on the ‘Group 1’ text to rename the folder ‘DESIGNER COOKBOOK’ as shown in the image below:

Step 8: Designer Cookbook Blues

Double click on the ‘DESIGNER COOKBOOK’ folder to bring up the Layer Style dialog box and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option.

For the fill color let’s type in the hex value ‘#7EBFB7’ and then click ‘OK’ twice to apply the changes and close out of both panels.

You should now see your ‘DESIGNER COOKBOOK’ group folder with a small ‘fx’ icon next to it after changing both words to a light shade of blue. It’s okay that the decorative pattern is interfering with our text – we are going to fix that a bit later in the tutorial!

Step 9: Ornaments

Return to the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Place Embedded…’ once again. This time, navigate to the ‘Ornament_xx.eps’ file in the freebies folder for the tutorial (These graphics were created using the ornaments from Fenotype.) Once you’ve found them, click on ‘Place’ in the lower right corner of the dialog box to import the graphic.

You will now be prompted with a dialog box that says ‘Rasterize EPS Format’ which we can simply click ‘OK’ on to bypass and continue bringing in our object.

Reduce the size of the ornament by dragging inwards from any of the four corners of the bounding box while holding the Alt/Option+Shift keys until it fits nicely under the outlined ‘Designer’ text as shown here:

Step 10: Double the Ornaments Double the Fun

Select your ‘Ornament_xx.eps’ layer and press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate it. Press Command/Ctrl+T to initiate a Free Transform and then hold the Shift Key and drag the ornament over towards the right until it fits nicely beneath the outlined ‘Cookbook’ text. After that, hold the Control Key and click on the ornament to reveal a dropdown menu where we want to choose the ‘Flip Horizontal’ option as shown below:

Press ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ on the keyboard to commit to the changes so that you have a mirror image of the ornament. After that, hold the Command/Ctrl Key and click on both of the ornaments so they are selected at the same time. From here, press Command/Ctrl+G to put them into a new folder and double click on the ‘Group 1’ text to rename the folder ‘ORNAMENTS’ as shown here:

Double click on the ‘ORNAMENTS’ folder to bring up the Layer Style panel and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option.

For the fill color let’s enter a hex value of ‘#7B9661’ as shown below:

After applying the color changes, both of the ornaments should now be the same color as the decorative frame Smart Object in the background.

Step 11: Hungry Designer

Go to the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Place Embedded…’ before navigating to the ‘Hungry_xx.eps’ file in the freebies folder. This outlined text was created using a font from My Creative Land and it will serve as a nice, rough, and organic looking title for our cookbook cover. Once you have navigated to the file choose ‘Place’ from the lower right hand corner to import the text.

When prompted with the ‘Rasterize EPS Format’ dialog box you can simply press ‘OK’ to continue.

Hold the Alt/Option+Shift keys and scale the text down until it closely resembles the image shown here:

After placing your outlined type, press the ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ key on the keyboard to apply the transformation changes. From here, select the layer and press Command/Ctrl+G to place it into a new folder and double click the ‘Group 1’ text to rename the folder ‘HUNGRY’ as shown below:

Step 12: Changing Colors

Double click the ‘HUNGRY’ folder to bring up the Layer Style panel and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option.

Here we want to change the hex value to ‘#DE6C2A’ as shown in the image below:

Press ‘OK’ twice to apply the changes and close out of both dialog boxes. Your image should now look like this:

Step 13: Creative Recipes for Creative People

Go to the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Place Embedded…’ once again.

Navigate to the ‘Tagline_xx.eps’ file and then choose ‘Place’ as shown below:

When prompted with the ‘Rasterize EPS Format’ panel simply click ‘OK’ to bypass it and continue the import.

Hold the Alt/Option+Shift Keys and drag inwards from any of the four corners of the bounding box to scale the outlined text down a bit. Place the tagline below the bearded man as shown in the image below:

After placing the outlined tagline text, select the layer and press Command/Ctrl+G to put it into a new folder. Double click on the folder name and change it to ‘TAGLINE’ before double clicking on it to bring up the Layer Style panel where we will check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option. For the fill color let’s use the same hex value as our ‘HUNGRY’ text – ‘#DE6C2A’. After that, go ahead and press ‘OK’ two times to apply the changes and close out of both dialog boxes.

Step 14: Starving Artist

Go to the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Place Embedded…’ and then navigate to the ‘Publishing_Co_xx.eps’ file from Latinotype as shown below:

Choose ‘Place’ and then press ‘OK’ on the ‘Rasterize EPS Format’ pop up to proceed. Scale the outlined ‘Starving Artist Publishing Co.’ text down by dragging inward on any of the four corners of the bounding box while holding the Alt/Option+Shift keys and place the copy down below the tagline. Once you’ve placed the text, click on the layer and press Command/Ctrl+G to place it into a new folder. Double click on the ‘Group 1’ text to rename the folder ‘PUBLISHING CO’ as shown below:

Once you’ve set up the folder, double click on it and choose the ‘Color Overlay’ option from the Layer Style panel and make the fill color the same as the ‘DESIGNER COOKBOOK’ text – ‘#7EBFB7’. After applying the color changes click ‘OK’ two times to close out of both panels and your image should now look like this:

Step 15: Placing the Catchword

Go to the ‘File’ menu and use the same ‘Place Embedded…’ technique to find the ‘Catchword_xx.eps’ file in your finder. This text was created using the same font as our ‘Publishing_Co_xx.eps’ file from the previous step. Let’s go ahead and import the catch word and size it down by dragging any of the four corners inwards while holding Alt/Option+Shift on the keyboard until it’s about the same size and placement as the image below:

After placing the catchword in your document. hold the Alt/Option Key and click on the small ‘fx’ icon next to the ‘BEARDED MAN’ group folder before dragging it onto the ‘Catchword_xx’ layer at the top. Doing this should apply the same pale yellow color effect as shown here:

From here, select the catchword layer and press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate it, and then Command/Ctrl+[ to move the layer down one position so that the copy is below your original layer. Next, hold the Shift Key and tap the down arrow once, and then the right arrow once to offset the text. You should have something like this:

Double click on the duplicate layer beneath the original to bring up the Layer Style panel and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ box.

For the fill color, change the hex value to ‘#4A4D3B’ and then click ‘OK’ twice to close out of both panels and apply the changes.

Now your catchword should have a darker green offset shadow creating a nice effect like this:

We are going to repeat that once more so this time grab your duplicate catchword layer and press Command/Ctrl+J to make a third copy. Move this third copy below the previous two and now just use the down and right arrows to offset the text a bit more. Double click on the third copy to once again bring up the Layer Styles where we will apply another ‘Color Overlay’ effect.

For the fill color let’s have this copy match our light green from our decorative frame. Use the hex value ‘#7B9661’ as shown below and then click ‘OK’ to apply the changes and close out of both panels.

We now have a nicely stylized catchword that is going to help anchor our title and balance it out.

Step 16: Making the Rules

Now that we’ve placed our catchword at the top of our image we can import the ‘Catchword_Rules_xx.eps’ file using the same method we have been using thus far. Import the file to your document and then scale it down, placing it just to the left of our catchword like this:

Select the ‘Catchword_Rules_xx’ layer and then press Command/Ctrl+T to apply a Free Transform. Hold the Control Key and grab the left, middle handle of the bounding box and drag it inwards to make the rules a little bit less wide. Once you’re happy with the length and it looks about the same as the image press the ‘Return’ key to apply the changes.

Next, hold the Alt/Option Key and click and drag the small ‘fx’ icon from the ‘HUNGRY’ folder onto the rules Smart Object layer. Doing this should apply the same orange/red color that we used for our main title text.

After applying the same color effects, select the rules layer and press Command/Ctrl+J to make a copy of it. After that, press Command/Ctrl+[ to move it below the original layer in your Layers Palette. Press Command/Ctrl+T with the duplicate layer selected, and then hold the Shift Key and slide this new copy over to the right side. You should now have one copy of the rules Smart Object on each side of your catchword. What we want to do next is select the top ‘Catchword_Rules_xx’ Smart Object layer, hold the Shift Key, and then click on the third copy of the regular ‘Catchword_xx’ layer so that all five of these layers are selected together.

With your layers still selected, press Command/Ctrl+G to place them into a new folder and double click the ‘Group 1’ text to change the name of the folder to ‘CATCHWORD’ as shown here:

Step 17: Merged Masks

Select the ‘CATCHWORD’ folder, hold the Shift Key, and then click on the ‘BEARDED MAN’ folder towards the bottom of your Layers Palette.

With all of your folders except for the ‘BACKGROUND’ and ‘DECORATIVE FRAME’ folders selected, press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate them.

Press Command/Ctrl+E to merge all of the duplicate folders together into a single layer.

Next, hold the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of your newly merged layer to activate a selection around it.

While the selection is still active, go to the ‘Select’ menu and choose ‘Modify > Expand’ as shown here:

For the ‘Expand Selection’ value, let’s enter ’20’ and then click ‘OK’.

You should now notice that the marching ants around your merged layer have expanded. While this new selection is still active, press ‘D’ on your keyboard to get your default colors, and then press the Alt/Option+Delete keys to fill your selection with your foreground color, which in this case is solid black. Once you have done that, press Command/Ctrl+D to deselect everything.

We will now grab our Brush Tool (B) and check the settings along the top toolbar to make sure we have a hard round brush selected at full opacity. Here my brush is set to a size of about ’25’ but you can make it a bit larger or smaller using the right and left bracket keys respectively.

All we are going to do here is use our black round brush to paint in any small or odd gaps in between the letters and illustrations in our solid black merged layer. You should end up with something like this:

Step 18: Frame Knockout

Now that we have a layer containing a solid black expanded selection, hold Command/Ctrl and click on the layer thumbnail icon of your merged layer at the top of the Layers Palette to activate a selection around it.

While the selection is still active, select the ‘DECORATIVE FRAME’ folder in your Layers Palette.

From here we want to go to the ‘Select’ menu an choose ‘Inverse’ to invert our selection.

Now we have an inverted selection that should still be active and we will make sure the ‘DECORATIVE FRAME’ folder is selected. All we have to do now is click on the ‘Add Layer Mask’ icon found at the bottom of the Layers Palette and presto!

We have now knocked all of our text and illustrations out of the frame with a little bit of breathing room to keep things from feeling too crowded. Our cover is really starting to come together now and you should now have something very similar to this:

Step 19: Bursting with Flavor

Create a new layer at the top of your Layers Palette by pressing Command/Ctrl+Alt/Option+Shift+N on the keyboard. Next, press the ‘I’ key to grab your Eyedropper Tool and sample some of the orange-red color from the ‘HUNGRY’ text. Once you have done that, click and hold your cursor on top of the ‘Rectangle Tool’ in the toolbar towards the bottom. Doing this will reveal an expanded menu with a few more tools nested inside. From this list we are going to select the ‘Custom Shape Tool’ as shown below:

Now let’s take a look at the toolbar running across the top of the interface. There will be a small black and white icon with a preview image of your custom shapes. Click on this icon to reveal a dropdown menu where we can then choose from an array of different shapes. The one that we are going to use now is highlighted by the green box in the image below:

After selecting our custom shape, hold the Shift Key and drag out a small shape towards the bottom of the design, just to the right of the ‘Publishing_Co_xx’ Smart Object layer as shown here:

Step 20: Callout Text

Go to the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Place Embedded…’ before navigating to the ‘Callout_2_xx.eps’ file and then choose ‘Place’ to import it into your document.

Hold the Alt/Option+Shift keys and drag inwards from any of the four corners of the bounding box to scale the outlined text down until it fits nicely inside of the custom shape, and then press ‘Return’ on the keyboard to apply the changes.

Double click on the callout text to bring up the Layer Styles and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option.

For the fill color enter a hex value of ‘#FCF9CE’ and then press ‘OK’ twice to close out and apply the changes.

After changing the color of the callout text let’s select the layer, hold the Shift Key, and then select the custom shape layer below. From here, press Command/Ctrl+G to place both layers into a new folder and double click the ‘Group 1’ text to change the folder name to ‘CALLOUT 2’. Once you have done that, select the ‘CALLOUT 2’ folder and press Command/Ctrl+T to initiate a Free Transform. Hold the Shift Key and rotate the callout about 15-30 degrees clockwise to give it a bit of a tilt like the image below:

Step 21: More Callouts

Select the ‘CALLOUT 2’ folder and press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate it. Change the new folder name to read ‘CALLOUT 1’ instead of ‘2’ and then press Command/Ctrl+T to initiate a Free Transform. Hold the Shift Key and slide the ‘CALLOUT 1’ folder over to the left side of the ‘Publishing_Co_xx’ text.

Using the same method as the previous steps, import the ‘Callout_1_xx.eps’ file into the document.

Hold the Shift Key to scale the text down and rotate it to match the angle of the text currently inside the ‘CALLOUT 1’ folder. Here I have expanded the ‘CALLOUT 1’ folder and placed the new callout text inside. From here let’s hold the Alt/Option Key and click and drag the small ‘fx’ icon off of our ‘Callout_2_xx’ layer onto our ‘Callout_1_xx’ layer to apply the same color. Once you have done that you can delete the ‘Callout_2_xx’ layer from inside of this folder.

Next, select the whole ‘CALLOUT 1’ folder and press Command/Ctrl+T to initiate a Free Transform once again. Hold the Shift Key and move your cursor over any of the four corners of the bounding box and rotate the callout so that the text inside is more upright so that it will match the opposite side better. Your callout should now look more like this:

Step 22: Filling Out the Background

At this point the last thing we are going to need to work on is filling out some of our background. For this step we will be using the remaining freebies consisting of various foods, vegetables and objects courtesy of Lisa Glanz. Along with a few really nice typefaces Lisa has a large selection of illustrations that you can gain access to in the full bundle, but for now we will just be using about 10 of them. Throughout the tutorial you have learned how to import and place objects that will automatically be brought into the document as Smart Objects and with the correct file name already in place. We have also seen how to scale, rotate, and reposition elements as well as how to apply a ‘Color Overlay’ using the Layer Style panel. Now we will be putting all of that together as we round out our cookbook cover design. Let’s start by importing the ‘Squash.png’ file from he freebies and placing it towards the bottom right of our image and rotating it clockwise slightly. We also want to make sure that these layers are placed all the way at the bottom of our Layers Palette, just above the ‘BACKGROUND’ folder.

Now let’s double click on the layer to bring up the Layer Styles and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option once again.

For the fill color we will be using only the colors that are already in our cover design, so let’s go with the pale yellow color for the squash – ‘#FAE659’.

After applying the color effects, press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer. Now let’s move this copy towards the top of our design just above the ‘HUNGRY’ text and use the Free Transform (Command/Ctrl+T) to scale it down and rotate it the opposite way so that it sits nicely above the letter ‘Y’. We are also going to double click the layer and change the ‘Color Overlay’ from pale yellow to the red-orange color used in our title.

Let’s now repeat this process to continue bringing in more of our illustrated objects, each time playing with the size, rotation, and color so we can start to fill out the background more. Feel free to duplicate some of the illustrations as you go, just like we have done with our squash.

As we continue, try to be mindful of the balance of colors that are being used. I am using mostly the lighter green color so some of the objects blend in, and then using the red-orange and yellow colors more sparingly throughout so as not to be too distracting in the design, but rather just to pepper in some color. Once you are happy with the size and placement of your background illustrations, select the top one in your Layers Palette, then hold the Shift Key and select the very bottom illustration.

With all of your background illustrations selected, press Command/Ctrl+G to place them into a new folder and double click the ‘Group 1’ text to change the folder name to ‘WALLPAPER’ as shown below:

Voila! At this point we have completed our designer-inspired cookbook cover! We’ve created our design using just a handful of elements from this diverse and jam packed design bundle. The complete collection offers some of the best-selling fonts from around the world and is an absolute must for any designer’s collection. We can’t wait to see what you create with these amazing resources!

Remember that whether it’s your outcome for this tutorial or something new you’ve made, we’d love to see your designs on our Facebook page.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions. I always look forward to hearing from you!

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