Photo books

[Joe Franek]

I am planning to buy my first photo printer later this year. Rather than printing small prints and sticking them into album, I have this idea of printing A3 size album pages containing several pictures and text, assembled as one image in PS.
Are there any problems with this idea?
Is there a special paper available for this?

Joe

 

[Diane B]

I am planning to buy my first photo printer later this year. Rather
than printing small prints and sticking them into album, I have
this idea of printing A3 size album pages containing several
pictures and text, assembled as one image in PS.
Are there any problems with this idea?
Is there a special paper available for this?

Joe

Joe, that would totally depend upon your own personal 'likes' as to paper. You can choose any paper that prints well with your printer and do this--I print with an Epson 2200 and generally print with Epson Velvet or Hahnemuhle PHotorag (you would most likely choose a good matte paper less expensive than this for an album) and Epson Semigloss. If you are going to use a pigmented paper and place it in an album, I would tend to choose a good matte paper. YOu will need to choose a paper size that will fit your album.
--
Diane B
black and white lover, but color is seducing me
http://www.pbase.com/picnic/galleries

 

[mamallama]

I am planning to buy my first photo printer later this year. Rather
than printing small prints and sticking them into album, I have
this idea of printing A3 size album pages containing several
pictures and text, assembled as one image in PS.
Are there any problems with this idea?
Is there a special paper available for this?

Joe

Joe:

Depending on how many pages you are dealing with, the one image in PS method may the the hard way. If you are takling about more than a few pages I would seriously consider using a printing program that has album assembling capabilities. There are several out there but the one I think is most versatile is ACDSee Foto Slate because it has photo placement capability and allows you to create your own page design. It also allows you to save the album and as long as the source photos are in the same location you can go back and modify and print as you wish.

There is no special requirement on paper.

--mamallama

 

[Brad Evans]

Joe,

I think that's an excellent idea.

I did something similar recently for my street photography pix. My book is 4 3/4 x 7 3/4, in a horizontal format. I carry it whenever I'm out shooting on the street. It's great for showing people your work and starting a conversation.

The nice thing about going through the process is that it forces you to edit your work towards a goal - which is a good thing.

My book is printed two-sided on Pictorico Dual Side photo paper - it's about 10 mils thick.

I took some photos of my book (not all that great) and put into a Flash presentation which you can see here - you need a fast connection:

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/b-evans/Images9/Book.htm

Good luck with your idea - it's a lot of work, but in the end you have something that shows nicely.

Brad

I am planning to buy my first photo printer later this year. Rather
than printing small prints and sticking them into album, I have
this idea of printing A3 size album pages containing several
pictures and text, assembled as one image in PS.
Are there any problems with this idea?
Is there a special paper available for this?

Joe

 

[D Parsons]

I am planning to buy my first photo printer later this year. Rather
than printing small prints and sticking them into album, I have
this idea of printing A3 size album pages containing several
pictures and text, assembled as one image in PS.
Are there any problems with this idea?
Is there a special paper available for this?

Joe

I printed at 64-page book (32 sheets of paper) on Ink Jet Art's Duo Brite Matte paper (double-sided) with my Epson 2200. Normal letter size paper.

I laid out the pages in MS Publisher.

I had the book spiral bound at Office Depot.

My cost was just under $30 a book.

You can see a sample of it at...
http://www.fairchild24.com/home.htm

don

 

[Joe Franek]

Thank you all for suggestions. Soon I will start making myself familiar with papers available here in Oz. I will try the ACDsee Slate if I can get demo. I agree doing it in PS is hard, but again I am only a beginner in PS.

Brad your photobook is very close to what I want to produce with family photographs, travel, and maybe one day street pictures like yours. (That title picture is a beauty - I hope it is posted somewhere for people to see.)

Could I ask a few questions -

Do you print each entire page incl the perforated area as a borderless picture;

Is the background just plain solid black or do you use some sort of texture/pattern;

Do you buy the perforated paper, spiral and covers as a kit, or do you have to do it yourself;
What type of finish (matt, satin, gloss) do you think looks best;

10 mils - is that 10/1000 of an inch? (we are metric down here);

Joe

I think that's an excellent idea.

I did something similar recently for my street photography pix. My
book is 4 3/4 x 7 3/4, in a horizontal format. I carry it whenever
I'm out shooting on the street. It's great for showing people your
work and starting a conversation.

The nice thing about going through the process is that it forces
you to edit your work towards a goal - which is a good thing.

My book is printed two-sided on Pictorico Dual Side photo paper -
it's about 10 mils thick.

I took some photos of my book (not all that great) and put into a
Flash presentation which you can see here - you need a fast
connection:

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/b-evans/Images9/Book.htm

Good luck with your idea - it's a lot of work, but in the end you
have something that shows nicely.

Brad

I am planning to buy my first photo printer later this year. Rather
than printing small prints and sticking them into album, I have
this idea of printing A3 size album pages containing several
pictures and text, assembled as one image in PS.
Are there any problems with this idea?
Is there a special paper available for this?

Joe

 

[mamallama]

Joe:

You can get a full version 30-day trial of ACDSee Photo Slate from the ACDSee web site. (Google ACDSee) Unfortunately it comes in the ACDSee Power Pack and is not available separately. The other parts of the Power Pack are useful though. Get Version 7. Album assembly capability is available in other printer programs like Photoshop Album, Qimage and Picasa2, but are less robust than the one on ACDSee. Piscasa 2 is a free download from Google and is quite good. I don't remember how it handles Albums however.

good luck,
--mamallama

Brad your photobook is very close to what I want to produce with
family photographs, travel, and maybe one day street pictures like
yours. (That title picture is a beauty - I hope it is posted
somewhere for people to see.)

Could I ask a few questions -

Do you print each entire page incl the perforated area as a
borderless picture;
Is the background just plain solid black or do you use some sort of
texture/pattern;
Do you buy the perforated paper, spiral and covers as a kit, or do
you have to do it yourself;
What type of finish (matt, satin, gloss) do you think looks best;

10 mils - is that 10/1000 of an inch? (we are metric down here);

Joe

I think that's an excellent idea.

I did something similar recently for my street photography pix. My
book is 4 3/4 x 7 3/4, in a horizontal format. I carry it whenever
I'm out shooting on the street. It's great for showing people your
work and starting a conversation.

The nice thing about going through the process is that it forces
you to edit your work towards a goal - which is a good thing.

My book is printed two-sided on Pictorico Dual Side photo paper -
it's about 10 mils thick.

I took some photos of my book (not all that great) and put into a
Flash presentation which you can see here - you need a fast
connection:

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/b-evans/Images9/Book.htm

Good luck with your idea - it's a lot of work, but in the end you
have something that shows nicely.

Brad

I am planning to buy my first photo printer later this year. Rather
than printing small prints and sticking them into album, I have
this idea of printing A3 size album pages containing several
pictures and text, assembled as one image in PS.
Are there any problems with this idea?
Is there a special paper available for this?

Joe

 

[Joe Franek]

Thanks for your help mamallama

I have already downloaded ACD FotoSlate 3 directly from ACDSystems. It is available on it's own, and it seems to be working OK. I don't have any other ACD software on my PC. I only tried it for a while, but it looks very promising. You can create pages very quickly without having to learn it. You can start a page with one of the pre-loaded layouts, but easily re-arrange it as you go. The only question is will it retain the quality of images edited on PS when I resize them to suit the layout, i.e. do they use a good quality algorithm for resizing. I am really after the best possible quality output.

Joe

Joe:

You can get a full version 30-day trial of ACDSee Photo Slate from
the ACDSee web site. (Google ACDSee) Unfortunately it comes in the
ACDSee Power Pack and is not available separately. The other parts
of the Power Pack are useful though. Get Version 7. Album assembly
capability is available in other printer programs like Photoshop
Album, Qimage and Picasa2, but are less robust than the one on
ACDSee. Piscasa 2 is a free download from Google and is quite good.
I don't remember how it handles Albums however.

good luck,
--mamallama

 

[mamallama]

Joe:

I'm glad you are up and running. So far, I have not noticed any degradation in image quality using it. I've created several vacation albums and working on a large album of wedding pictures. I'm in the US and using 8.5" x 11" sheets. I'm assembling them in Itoya art porfolio books which are good but not elegant. Can't expect more for $US6 for 24 pages (48 sides) of archival pocket sheets.

--mamallama

Joe

Joe:

You can get a full version 30-day trial of ACDSee Photo Slate from
the ACDSee web site. (Google ACDSee) Unfortunately it comes in the
ACDSee Power Pack and is not available separately. The other parts
of the Power Pack are useful though. Get Version 7. Album assembly
capability is available in other printer programs like Photoshop
Album, Qimage and Picasa2, but are less robust than the one on
ACDSee. Piscasa 2 is a free download from Google and is quite good.
I don't remember how it handles Albums however.

good luck,
--mamallama

 

[toniko]

I'm also very interested in making my own photobooks. Can anybody recommend papers which can be use for that task (good tactile qualities, printable on both sides, elegant, durable).

Regards

Tomek

 

[toniko]

I'm also very interested in making my own photobooks. Can anybody
recommend papers which can be use for that task (good tactile
qualities, printable on both sides, elegant, durable).

I want to add that I'm interested in papers for both pigment inks (Epson 1290 + UT2 MIS) and dye (HP DJ 30).

Tomek

 

[toniko]

Brad,

your photo book looks excellent. The slight wear even adds to the images. Can you tell me what printer and inks you used? Haven't you run out of black ink? ;-)

I'm from Europe, this Pictorico brand is not well known here. Do you know of any other paper suitable for double sided printing and looking good simultaneously?

I want to print b&w with Epson 1290 + UT2 grayscale inks (pigment) and HP Designjet 30 (dye inks).

Regards

Tomek
http://www.zakrzewski.art.pl

 

[Many Feathers]

I have been using PS to do this for quite some time. There are some great websites out there that tell you exactly how to do it. You can get as detailed or as simple as you like...and there's lots of support too. Here's one of my favorites: http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/tutorials/ps_basicpage.shtml

That's the site for beginning with PS. They have online classes, etc. too. And there's tutorials for other programs. Go to the Galleries tab and you'll find tons and tons of ideas...complicated and simple.

Hope this helps... Enjoy!

MF

I am planning to buy my first photo printer later this year. Rather
than printing small prints and sticking them into album, I have
this idea of printing A3 size album pages containing several
pictures and text, assembled as one image in PS.
Are there any problems with this idea?
Is there a special paper available for this?

Joe

 

[xpress]

I have done this for a wedding album.

You can also try something like lumapix Fotofusion which is very easy to use for arranging mutiple photos on a page. http://www.lumapix.com

For the album, I used Kolo post bound albums in various sizes, which are available in leather or cloth - they also sell refill inkjet double sided matte paper in 2 sizes: 11x14 and 8.5 x11. http://www.kolo.com