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What is on the GTA 4 cover: every panel explained
Niko Bellic holds the tall centre column of the GTA 4 cover, and eight panels of Liberty City surround him: a helicopter top left with a woman beneath it, a motorcycle top right, a sniper down the right side, a man with a pistol filling the left, a cable car under Niko, a police stop across the bottom and a man in glasses in the corner. Overcast light, no saturation, nobody smiling. It is also the strictest grid Rockstar has drawn.
- Panels
- Nine, all four cornered quads. The only grid here with no odd shape in it.
- Centre column
- 618 pixels of a 960 pixel canvas, and the only panel with four true right angles.
- Gutters
- 8 to 19 base pixels, most of them 12, the tightest set of the five covers.
- Tilt
- Horizontal dividers only, up to 7 degrees. Every vertical edge is exactly vertical.
- Build your own
- GTA 4 cover maker, free, exports at 1666 by 1920 pixels.
What is in each panel?
- 1. Helicopter, top left.
- 2. Niko Bellic, the tall centre column.
- 3. Motorcycle, top right.
- 4. Woman, under the helicopter.
- 5. Sniper, down the right side.
- 6. Man with a pistol, filling the left.
- 7. Cable car, directly under Niko.
- 8. Car and police, across the bottom.
- 9. Man in glasses, bottom right corner.
Why does Niko's panel matter so much?
Panel 2 runs 618 pixels down a 960 pixel canvas, close to two thirds of the cover's height, and it is the only panel in any of the five grids on this site with four true right angles. Everything else here, in every game, is a trapezoid or worse. GTA IV refuses to sell anything: Niko stands rather than poses, and the cover gives him the one honest rectangle on it.
If you are filling this grid yourself, that column is the decision. A head and shoulders portrait leaves it half empty. A full length figure fills it the way Niko does.
Is there a gap between the GTA IV panels?
Yes, though it is easy to miss. The gutters measure 8 to 19 base pixels, most of them 12, the tightest set on this site, and like GTA V they are gaps left between separately traced panels rather than a stroke painted along a seam. The margin around the outside runs 25 to 33 pixels. So the cover does read as one grainy photograph cut into pieces, but the cuts are real gaps and not zero.
The narrowness has a consequence. At 12 pixels the lines barely separate anything, so two neighbouring photos of similar tone bleed into each other. Alternating light and dark across the grid is the fix. The wide, uneven 20 to 30 pixel gaps on the GTA V grid are far more forgiving in this respect.
Which way do the GTA IV panels tilt?
Horizontally, and only horizontally. GTA IV is the one grid where every vertical edge is exactly vertical, holding a single x value from top to bottom. All the movement is in the horizontals, which tilt by as much as 7 degrees while others sit dead flat. Look at panel 8: its top edge falls 47 pixels as it runs left to right. Panel 6 leans the other way, its top edge rising 29 pixels over the same run.
Reading those slants as straight bands is what made an earlier version of this grid drift, which is why each gutter here was fitted to a line by least squares over its own pixels rather than to a bounding box.
How do you make your own GTA 4 cover?
Open the GTA 4 cover maker, click each panel to drop in a photo, drag and zoom inside it to frame the subject, set the frame colour, then download. It exports at 1666 by 1920 pixels as PNG, JPEG or WebP, free, with no watermark and no account, and every photo is drawn in your own browser rather than uploaded.
Which photos suit this grid?
- Stand somebody in the centre column. Full length, not a portrait crop, or two thirds of the cover sits empty.
- Alternate light and dark. Tight gutters punish sameness, so neighbouring panels need different tone.
- Put horizons on the slants. Only the horizontal dividers tilt. A skyline or a rooftop near one looks deliberate; a face in the same spot looks badly cropped.
- Keep it overcast. The original sits deliberately dark and slightly underexposed. One bright holiday photo among eight grey ones breaks the whole tone.
GTA 4 cover FAQ
What is on the GTA 4 cover?
Niko Bellic holds the tall centre column. Around him are a helicopter top left with a woman beneath it, a motorcycle top right, a sniper down the right side, a man with a pistol filling the left, a cable car under Niko, a police stop across the bottom and a man in glasses in the corner.
How many panels are on the GTA 4 cover?
Nine, and GTA IV is the only Grand Theft Auto grid where all nine are plain four cornered quads.
Is there a gap between the GTA IV panels?
Yes. The gutters measure 8 to 19 base pixels, most of them 12, the tightest set of any cover on this site, and they are gaps between the traced panels rather than a painted stroke.
How tall is Niko's panel on the GTA IV cover?
618 pixels of a 960 pixel canvas, close to two thirds of the cover's height. It is also the only panel in any of these five grids with four true right angles.
Are the GTA IV panels tilted?
Only horizontally. Every vertical edge on the GTA IV cover is exactly vertical, holding a single x value top to bottom, while the horizontal dividers tilt by as much as 7 degrees.
What resolution does a GTA 4 cover export at?
1666 by 1920 pixels, twice the 833 by 960 base canvas, as PNG, JPEG or WebP, free and with no watermark.