Photoshop vs Photoshop Elements for book cover

[iemproductions]

I am going to have a book cover template designed for a series of books. For each book I need to change the following:

1. The background color of the book
2. Part of the book title
3. Information on the back cover.

After doing some research, it seems like the best software package to have the book cover template created in is Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. I'd like to know the following:

1. Does Photoshop Elements have the "layers" option that Photoshop has.
2. How compatible is photoshop 5.2 with the current version. I have 5.2, but have never used it.

I do not know how to use either of these software packages. I've read descriptions of books for them, but can't figure out which one has instructions on how to make the changes that I need to make. I'm hoping that someone can recommend a book or a series of tutorials that are truly step by step that a novice can follow.

Thank you.

 

[jimoblak]

Book covers (a type of page layout) are done in a page layout application like InDesign or QuarkXPress, not in a photo manipulation program. You can attempt to do this in Photoshop but you will not make your print service provider or publisher very happy.

If you do not know how to use either Photoshop app, don't start learning to use them for this.

 

[iemproductions]

Hi Jimoblak,

I guess I should have added that the final format of the book cover will be in pdf format, which is what the printers require.

I don't plan to create the cover from scratch. I just want to be able to change the 3 things I listed in my previous message and then give the file back to the book designer to save in pdf and jpg format, as well as create the size of the spine. It's not like I really want to do this, but in the past, I've had to wait weeks sometimes to have the font size of text changed, which has slowed down the process of getting the books in production.