Merchandizing specialists realized a long time ago that packages matter. When you sell a book or some software, you should obtain a nice package for it. the good news is that you do not need real cartons or paper. There are 3 typical approaches to making a virtual cover:

- Asking someone to do it for you

- Drawing it yourself in Photoshop

- Employing some fancy dedicated software

The first option looks pretty straightforward. Nevertheless, excellent designers ask for big money. Each new boxshot or ebook cover will round up to $150. Using Photoshop is okay as long as you know how to work with it. Certainly, the work will require obtaining a few action scripts that could raise your expenses by another Benjamin. And there is the price of Photoshop, of course, which is about $700. The last option is to go for the dedicated boxshot software. It is good to know that the supply of such products is competitive with the price range of $15-100. There is obviously plenty room for choice. Actually, there are three sorts of such solutions:

Ready made templates which give no freedom

3D with polygonal rendering

3D with ray tracing

If you choose fixed templates, your boxshot and e-book covers will look nicely, but the choice of tools will be the limited by the templates provided. Making big changes will not come easy to the software box or ebook cover. The second choice gives you more settings, but the simplified model produces unnatural shadows. It is not a problem to observe that the picture is somewhat unnatural. Choosing 3D ray tracing will help you avoid such troubles. For every pixel the software calculates millions of rays, determines shadows, glitter and other effects. In the end, you get a very realistic image. If you want to have more options and quality, you should use the third sort of product box. Box Shot 3D is a nice piece of such software. At 40 euros the solution is extremely affordable. It lets you create software boxes, e-book covers, covers for CD/DVD boxes, VIP cards and what not. You can see some pics underneath of ebook covers and software boxes.

It would take you quite a bit of work to deliver equal level of graphic detail in Photoshop unless you possess the necessary scripts. There are not so many solutions that can deliver such a result. The room for creativity is nearly absolute, modify whatever you wish. No software box or e-book cover should be developed without Box Shot 3D. Your products will obtain the packaging they deserve. Attract the prospect with style. I am sure that Box Shot 3D is the optimal solution for you.