Considering the recent trend by the publishers to use the unfinished preview covers on their official pages to promote the comics ahead of time. I think it is time to highlight the problem and ask editors NOT to use the preview covers. It is best to wait for the retail covers to be scanned after they are made available to the public.
We would also prefer the digital covers not to be the main image for issues. So do try to find the retail ones. Scanner tags and watermarks also shouldn't be on the covers used.
And DO NOT use AI upscaled images. The upscaling ruins the original art, no matter how good job you think AI does.
Examples (retail covers on the left side)
Some covers only have tiny changes: missing barcode, or price tag. This is also the case on digital cover vs. retail covers.
Western comics don't usually have preview backcovers, but mangas have been known to show one, those can also have missing information and should not be used.
Some covers have small design differences, like moving the creator names or issue numbers to different location. There can be added or missing part on the cover with quotes, publisher tags, etc.
Some have incorrect information: Creator names are wrong or missing partly, or missing its entirety. On the Wolverine cover the middle image also has some layout lines, that sometimes have been left on the preview cover that have been removed in final cover
Some covers can even have unfinished art, or altered art.
Publisher sometimes use their own watermarks on the preview covers, those should not be used as well.
Examples of Scanner tags and third party watermarks that are not allowed.
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