Consider the purpose of the recipe book. If it will be sold, care must be taken when choosing photos. When getting photos online, be sure to read the agreements to determine whether they can be used for commercial purposes.
Determine the feel for the recipe book. If it is being made for family members, consider adding photos that will bring back special memories. Look through photo albums for pictures of grandma making her famous apple pie or Uncle Jim cooking on the grill. On the other hand, if the recipe book will be sold, consider going online and looking for photos of delicious-looking foods. Stick with simple photos, like pictures of fruit and vegetables. It's best not to use a photo of a dish whose recipe isn't in the book.
Decide which category you'd like to highlight. Look through the recipes and see which category features the best ones. It could be desserts or even appetizers. If there is one recipe that stands out, prepare the dish and take a photo for the cover.
Look for clip art. There are thousands of pieces of clip art online. There are even hundreds of pieces offered through Microsoft Word. Depending on the purpose of the recipe book, you may have to pay for the clip art. For family recipe books, however, clip art from Microsoft Word can be used for free.
Print a test to see how the photo you chose looks on the book before you invest in professional printing. Organize your title and photos in a graphics software program, or even a word processing program, and keep printing test pages until you get the look you're going for.