Blur and Glitch Effects on Book Covers

This is a collection of book covers which make use of blur, glitch and other distortion effects.

The set of four Tove Ditlevsen book covers each exemplify a different kind of blur and glitch effect, so it’s nice to see them all together:

Another trio:

the Polish book covers to Murakami’s IQ84

English readers got a vellum sheet which created a blur effect

Here are some other examples of blur and glitch. These ones hurt my eyes a bit, and I’m quite sure they’re meant to:

The possibilities for blur and glitch effects are endless, and some of the most interesting images don’t involve the application of a filter. These examples will have been created manually:

CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v80), quality = 82

GRADIENT BLUR

NOISY BLURRED GRADIENTS

This effect seems to be having a moment:

STRETCHED

BLUR EFFECTS WITH PHOTOS

Oftentimes the designer uses a mask to blur out certain aspects of an image to manage the focus, for example letting text or eyes stand out. Light leaks can also create a blur effect, reminiscent of summer or the 1970s.