Firstly, a huge THANK YOU to Amit Offir for the inspiration behind this post. Amit is a renowned illustrator, author, and comics artist, and the inspiration for this post came from his Malta Travel Guide.

Travel Guide Competition

I don’t think you can be a good writer unless you read other books in your niche. Not only does it inspire you to up your game when you read an excellent travel book, it can fill you full of confidence when you read a badly written or badly organized travel guide, because you know you can do better.

Travel Guide Cover

I downloaded a travel guide the other day by travel writer Amit Offir, called Malta the Ultimate Island. I love the cover image and layout because it has a real warmth to it. I think the shade of blue and warm yellow/orange that’s he’s used to create an ocean/beach feel, creates a really cohesive cover. I also like the addition of the page turn down, with Amit’s image peeking through.

Internal Book Images

But it wasn’t the cover image that struck me the most, it was the way he’s laid out his internal images. Historically I’ve included single images per page in the ebook versions of my travel guides, but Amit uses a collection of images displayed on a page.

I think this approach is genius, and wish I’d thought about it! In one of these examples he uses a main image with a collection of four smaller images.

In this second example he combines a group of horizontal panoramic images with a collection of smaller images, and both of these layouts examples create an image that delivers quite an impact.

Creating Image Grids

You could create these images in a free image program like Canva, as they have a collection of pre-made grids available to use. You can find these templates in: Elements > Grids. If you can’t find a grid layout you like, you can always create your own.

Start off by creating a custom image in Canva, and then overlay one of their Grids onto it. According to Pub.Ink an image that’s 600 pixels wide by 800 pixels tall is a good compromise for all ereaders:

“On some devices, such as an iPhone, a 600 x 800 image will take up most or all of the screen real estate. On others it will take less space, allowing some lines of text to accompany the image on the screen.”

But, this size has an aspect ratio of 3:4, and when I display Amit’s book on my Kindle Cloud Reader his image is closer to a 2:3 aspect ratio (his image is 290×450 pixels, but a 300×450 = a 2:3 aspect ratio). Obviously those display dimensions are based on me being on a Mac book Air laptop, and it will differ based on whether computer or screen you’re using. But as you can see from the examples above, the grid of images is the only element displayed on a single page, and there’s no text.

This image grid and no text layout isn’t possible on every single different ereader, because every reader has a different dimension. Think about the slimmer Kindle Fire vs. the wider iPad. When I opened Amit’s book on my iPhone, the image grid displays on a page with some text. So the presentation of the image grid will vary depending on the platform it’s displayed on. (Also, don’t forget that a Kindle Paperwhite only displays in black and white! )

The most effective image grids are the ones that use images with the same color tones, and they have the most impact. Amit’s grids that are primarily sea and sky, have a pleasing cohesiveness about them. But once you start mixing in different image themes or color tones, I think the image grids lose their impact because that Wow! factor is diluted.

I’m going to experiment with image size grids for my Cambodia Travel Guide, and see which size is optimal, I’m also going to reach out to Amit and see what image dimensions you uses for his source image grid.

Your Feedback

If you’ve been working with image grids in your ebooks, or have other suggestions about how to display images in an ebook, please leave your comments below.

Read more articles in my How to Write a Travel Guide Series

I’m putting the finishing touches on my How to Write and Self-Publish a Travel Guide Series, which details a step by step approach for writing and producing your own travel guide. It’s part of a four-part series aimed at helping travel bloggers achieve passive income based on their passions and existing content.

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