CD Covers Into Dvd Covers?

[Mrlips]

What is the best way to turn cd covers into dvd covers I've tried to do it and they always turn out bad.

[scarmullet]

There are a number of ways to accomplish this. One is to use custom artwork based on the original. Another is to balloon the artwork to DVD size while keeping proportion, etc. Its not easy in the slightest, and damn who says it is easy. Its much easier to deal with the 8-disc poly cases.

[Mrlips]

Well I have probably around 600 old pc games in cd cases that I wont to convert and I really need to learn how to do it. I have very basic photoshop skills so if anyone knows the easiest and fastest way please let me know.

[sheep2001]

selective stretching is also key - instead of stretching the whole image, you can sometimes get away with stretching the top or bottom third by a greater degree - ie parts that are only sky or background, etc.

to do this highlight a portion that you want to stretch within the layer - press CTRL + T to transform and then stretch.  Double click the image when you are finished.

This CANNOT always be done successfully, but will usually give better results than trying to fit a square into a rectangle.  Also the better the quality scan the bettwer the result - so you are better off applying all your transformations at 600dpi - then rescale to 300 dpi when you are happy with the results.

[Mrlips]

Ok thanks that's good to know, I didn't even know how to do that so there's some knowledge. Any more tips?

[comradesnarky]

selective stretching is also key - instead of stretching the whole image, you can sometimes get away with stretching the top or bottom third by a greater degree - ie parts that are only sky or background, etc.

to do this highlight a portion that you want to stretch within the layer - press CTRL + T to transform and then stretch.  Double click the image when you are finished.

This CANNOT always be done successfully, but will usually give better results than trying to fit a square into a rectangle.  Also the better the quality scan the bettwer the result - so you are better off applying all your transformations at 600dpi - then rescale to 300 dpi when you are happy with the results.

Damn, that's a really great tip. I didn't know you could selectively transform an image.

[sheep2001]

Ok thanks that's good to know, I didn't even know how to do that so there's some knowledge. Any more tips?

well - quite possibly the best tip i have ever been given, was from our very own TikTekTak.  Even a decent 600dpi scan can struggle to give clear text, and his tip was as follows:

"I mostly use the unsharp mask tool in photoshop with the settings

Amount: 60%
Radius: 1,4 pixels
Threshold: 1

You can find the tool under filter -> sharpen -> unsharp mask

You just have to be carefull because if you apply this filter more than two or max. three times it can make the legal text a bit edgy and pictures often tend to show every flaw/dust/speckle when sharpened with the filter.... Some pictures(I suppose it depends on the scanner) don't tolerate the filter at all unfortunately and can look pretty bad when sharpened with the unsharp mask...."

I have played around with other sharpening tools, and even the smart sharpen in CS5, but the above settings give the best consistant results.  Just remember not to apply it too the whole document, as it will create grainy effects - just highlight the text portion within a layer and apply once or twice and check the results.

[MedaForce]

If you have Photoshop CS5 the Content Aware feature can be a big help when trying to make art work fit.
IMO it work great for removing unneeded text or logos and stretching out not busy areas like the sky. This tool alone has helped me out ALOT.

Here is a video demo Adobe did for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH0aEp1oDOI