Create a new
Book
1.
Book Type
At this stage you simply choose
the Book type you want and give it a name. In my case I chose
the huge 20 page 12"x12" Linen Hardcover Photo Book
- exclusive for the Photographers Program - and named it Against
the Light. Basically, at this point you just create a project
and a project name. You can return to your project at all
times to add pages or make adjustments.
As
you are going to design your book yourself, you'll be pleased
to know that you can choose from a variety of templates, each
customized for its particular subject.
I chose the 12" Photoshop
template, complete with a grid and guidelines to make life
easier. Chances are you never before designed a photo book
in your life, let alone in Photoshop, but it really is very
simple.
The template is that of a
double page spread, and you should design your book like this.
The file format should be PSD, and each spread should be a
separate layer. This method allows you to easily flip through
the different spreads and change the order or contents. When
you have finished your design, you simply crop each spread
into two individual pages according to the guidelines. Each
individual page is cropped to a larger size than it was as
part of the spread, which is to compensate for the area of
the page that disappears into the spine of the book. Good
thinking.
When designing your book it
is important to think carefully about how many pages you will
need, the order of the pages and to make sure that the design
makes sense. Ask yourself who the book is for, what will be
its function, do you need text, and if so, how much and where?
For my book I had made a selection
of 30 shots that perfectly fitted the idea behind it - images
that were taken shooting against the light. During the designing
process, I decided to make full use of the 12" format,
which meant that I had to narrow down the selection to a maximum
of 12 shots. As this book was going to be all about the images,
I only added small captions to the shots and some ornamental
type for esthetic reasons.
After cropping all the spreads
to single pages and converting them to high quality jpegs,
I put them together in a folder and turned it into a ZIP file.
2. Upload Pages
The next step is to either
upload your pages individually or as a ZIP file. You have
250MB of available storage space, which should be more than
sufficient.
3. Publish Options
At
this stage you can decide how you want your book to be published.
How many pages do you want? Cover weight or text weight? Do
you want to have a Cover Label on your book or perhaps text-only
foil stamping? Do you want your pages to have a matte-finish
or gloss-finish? Single-sided or double-sided printing? And
what about a handmade leather cover? Or special premium end
sheets? Here you can completely customize your book.
4.
Preview
This
is one of the most important steps in the process, serving
as a final check on your book before it gets printed.
At this stage I realized that I forgot about the cover
of my book. I already designed a title page, but I wanted
my monogram to feature the cover label. After I uploaded
the label, I did one final close inspection of the pages
and then proceeded to the final step. |
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5.
Order
Pay
for your book and wait...
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