Readabilty? No kidding! The text is illegible as a thumbnail, and in the bottom it’s a blur at any size.
Catie
9 years ago
This genuinely makes me want to scream. The artwork seems to be excellent, at least the original probably is, when it’s not ruined by the craptastic photographing with the freaking flash on. Not book cover art, but I wouldn’t be ashamed hanging it on my wall. It’s not easy getting those grapes to look so shiny. Then the author went and shat the text all over it. Ugly, illegible, photoshoped to death text. It’s criminal. If this were my artwork, it’d be the last time I ever draw anything for the author even if he paid me. I do find it interesting though that the artist’s signature is in the same font (I can’t even read the name, it’s too small) so the artist must have known at least to some extent what the author was planning to do with it.
And to add insult to injury, there’s a version of the artwork without the shitty letters inside, but it’s so small it’s little more than a purple blur. “You made this nice art for my cover? Let me wipe my ass with it.” This cover really pisses me off.
My brain always wants to read this font as Hebrew text (right to left) at first, because 10 of the letters in the alphabet are made to look like actual Hebrew letters. Of course, the letters they styled them as don’t actually correspond to the Latin letters they are meant to convey, so it makes the whole thing completely illegible. I know that’s not a problem the majority of the population has, but when your subject matter is Passover, it’s probably safe to assume a fair number of readers will have the same difficulty as me.
I find it generally annoying with other languages as well (Greek would be the other one I’m most familiar with), but it feels particularly egregious with Hebrew due to the added element of reading direction.
![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/cover125-500x647.jpg)
Readabilty? No kidding! The text is illegible as a thumbnail, and in the bottom it’s a blur at any size.
This genuinely makes me want to scream. The artwork seems to be excellent, at least the original probably is, when it’s not ruined by the craptastic photographing with the freaking flash on. Not book cover art, but I wouldn’t be ashamed hanging it on my wall. It’s not easy getting those grapes to look so shiny. Then the author went and shat the text all over it. Ugly, illegible, photoshoped to death text. It’s criminal. If this were my artwork, it’d be the last time I ever draw anything for the author even if he paid me. I do find it interesting though that the artist’s signature is in the same font (I can’t even read the name, it’s too small) so the artist must have known at least to some extent what the author was planning to do with it.
And to add insult to injury, there’s a version of the artwork without the shitty letters inside, but it’s so small it’s little more than a purple blur. “You made this nice art for my cover? Let me wipe my ass with it.” This cover really pisses me off.
I was thinking along the same lines. Such a competent still life and it’s promptly crapped on.
My brain always wants to read this font as Hebrew text (right to left) at first, because 10 of the letters in the alphabet are made to look like actual Hebrew letters. Of course, the letters they styled them as don’t actually correspond to the Latin letters they are meant to convey, so it makes the whole thing completely illegible. I know that’s not a problem the majority of the population has, but when your subject matter is Passover, it’s probably safe to assume a fair number of readers will have the same difficulty as me.
That’s always bothered me in fake foreign alphabet fonts — like when people use Russian capital Ya to represent R, or or De to represent A.
Toys Я Us! Oh so cutesy-wootsy.
I find it generally annoying with other languages as well (Greek would be the other one I’m most familiar with), but it feels particularly egregious with Hebrew due to the added element of reading direction.