Cover Expert is a software that enables you to create virtual covers for your CDs, DVDs, books, brochures, magazines, and others. It's the kind of tool you need with marketing presentations.

The user interface of the program is simple and intuitive. On the left side of the screen you can preview results and on the right you can select objects and actions from several tabs.

So, you can start by inserting an object in the "Preview" window, from templates or from "Scene" (e.g. billboard, book, card, LCD TV, paperback).

Then you can add textures (from your hard drive) to each side of the object. From this point on, you can use tools to verify results, such as "Translate", "Rotate", "Scale".

Furthermore, you can adjust the camera settings (e.g. horizontal and vertical rotation, zoom, perspective), lighting (e.g. global light brightness, distance for each light source), shadows (direction, length, intensity, blur) and reflection (length, opacity, background color).

Once you are satisfied with the results, you can configure rendering options (format, output name and destination, image size and properties) and, finally save your image. Plus, you can change the interface theme and language, save the project in the Covert Expert format or as a template.

The program uses a moderate-to-high amount of system resources and comes with a comprehensive help file (with snapshots). However, we have encountered a major flaw in our tests. If you want to delete any object from the scene, Cover Expert crashes.

Besides the fact that its trial version is limited (a watermark is displayed on the output file), Cover Expert saves an image only from the current angle. So, you have to manually adjust the picture and take multiple shots if you want a full presentation.

All in all, Cover Expert is a great tool for creating virtual covers, but it needs some debugging and upgrades. Even so, we recommend it to all users, due to the fact that it's easy to work with.