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About Picture Window Pro is a powerful photo editing program, with all the advanced image manipulation features of a professional program. PWP Album functions are used for laying out and printing photo albums described at right. A free 30 day trial is available.     |
| Making Your Own Photo Books by Kiril Sinkel (last updated: 23 Aug 2010) Why Make Photo Books? Assembling your images into photo books is a great way to present your photographs. Placing them into a book puts them into context and lets you tell a story. You can base a book on a photographic theme, an event or a trip. You also get to use more of your images—some as the main blockbusters and others in supporting roles. All in all, making a book is a very satisfying way to wrap up a project and move on to the next one. Another important advantage books have is accessibility. They are simply maximally accessible. The eyes are the only playback device needed. One can simply pull a book off the shelf and show it to friends without any additional paraphernalia. Their hard-copy form also makes them the most likely to endure. After all, I can still view family photographs from the early 1900s while slides from the 1970s have become more or less inaccessible. And the same can be said for a host of other obsolete machine-readable formats like long-playing records, 8mm movies, cassette tapes, floppy discs, and VHS tapes. All were easily and ubiquitously playable in their day. Sure, in theory they are still accessible now. But as time passes the effort required to convert them grows until someone is certain to simply toss all the boxes of old media rather than go to all the trouble. So when it comes to images that I hope will endure, my money is definitely on directly-viewable formats. |
The Leporello Photo Book
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This article is specifically about making leporello-bound albums using simple tools. What is special about leporello binding is that every page spread is a single continuous sheet of paper, giving you the greatest possible surface for laying out your images. The books in this example have a nominal size of about 7" x 8", creating 14" x 8" spreads. This size can be used for a single dramatic panoramic image (it's close to the 16:9 HD format) or for several images in other sizes. Another advantage is that its 8" width is printable on most letter-width ink jet printers, so you don't need expensive equipment. Of course if you have a wider printer, you can create even larger books by simply scaling up the instructions presented here. The large, uninterrupted page surface is achieved by the special way in which the book is assembled. Unlike saddle-stitched books, the pages are not stacked one upon another and stapled in the center fold. Instead, each interior page spread is a continuous sheet, glued back to back to its neighboring pages. After the interior pages are assembled, a wrap around cover is added. The cover is scored so that it has a square spine. The inside of the front cover is glued to the back of the first interior page. Likewise the inside of the back cover is glued to the back of the last interior page. Making an Album Making an album consists of three major steps—layout, printing, and assembly. 1. Lay out your images. Using Picture Window's Album function, create an album, drag and drop your images and position them as you would like them to appear in the finished book. Album is a wysiwyg tool inside Picture Window which allows you to easily position, crop, and zoom your images and then print them as an album. 2. Print the album. Printing itself is straightforward. PWP's Monitor Curves function can be very handy in making the print output match the screen, particularly when third party paper is involved. And, speaking of paper, leporello binding imposes additional constraints on paper choice. Since each page in the album consists of two sheets of paper glued back to back, normal photo paper is too heavy. Fortunately there are a number of light-weight paper choices which give album pages just the right heft.
This section provides describes how to use Picture Window's Album function to layout your images in the right format for a leporello photo book. Full documentation is available here. Start by considering where your pictures—the raw materials for your album—are located. If they are scattered among many folders, it's definitely worth your while to consolidate them by creating a new folder for your album and copying them into it. Once your images are consolidated, you are ready to begin laying out your pictures. We start with the interior pages. (Since the cover wraps round the interior pages and is therefore a bit longer, we'll do it separately later.) Laying out interior pages Open Picture Window. 1. Set the browser to the target folder. 2. Create a new blank album by clicking on the Album button in the browser window. This brings up a small configuration dialog. Choose Free Form mode, set Image Selection to Add Manually. Click the Printer Setup button. Set the page size to 8 1/2 x 14 and orientation to Landscape. Complete the Printer dialog and then click OK to the configuration dialog. You will now have a one-page blank album. The page that is displayed represents a full page spread.
3. Add new images to the album by dragging them from the browser. Then expand them to the desired size, crop them and position them as you like.
Laying out the cover The only difference between the cover and the interior pages is that the cover wraps. Its length is thus 14" plus the width of the spine. You can get a fairly good estimate by measuring the thickness of a stack of paper with the number of pages in your album. Allow at least another extra 1/4" to 3/8" at each end to give yourself some slack. Then create a new album in Picture Window using the longer page size. Since this will be an odd size, you may need to use a User Defined size setting in your printer dialog. You can now place your cover image or images on the page. Remember that the front of the cover is on the right-hand side of the page. To add a title to the cover image, use Picture Window's Text transformation.
Paper Selection Because pages are glued back to back, you only print on one side of each sheet and so two-sided paper is not needed. On the other hand, to keep the bulk down, you will want to select a thinner paper. In the US, paper thickness is typically specified as a weight or directly in mils (1 mil = .001 inches = .025 mm). Since paper does not have a standard density, weight is not a reliable indicator of thickness and so I prefer to use direct thickness measures whenever possible. Typical photo paper thickness is in the range of 10 - 12 mils (.25 - .30 mm), so using paper about half that thick will give the feel of photo paper after the pages are glued together. Here are a two light-weight papers to consider. (I have only personally used the first one.) A web search will certainly produce others. Red River light-weight glossy paper This is a 5.5 mil (32 lb) glossy paper. It is available in 8.5" x 11", 8.5" x 14" (SKU 8504), and 11" x 17" (SKU 8510) sizes. However, It is only compatible with dye-based ink jet printers. It does not work with pigment ink jets, so be sure to confirm printer compatibility before ordering. Epson presentation matte paper This is a 4.9 mil (28 lb) paper available in many sizes including 8.5" x 14" (SKU S041067) and 11" x 17" (SKU S041070) and compatible with both dye and pigment ink jet printers. The paper for the cover should be heavier than for the interior pages. One option is to use heavy weight photo paper. Another option is to sandwich in a piece of heavier stock between the cover and the inside pages when you do the glue-up. I have found that Pendaflex suspension file folders have a nice heft to them. As a bonus, Pendaflex folders have a series of parallel score marks, making it easier to fold the spine neatly. Note, since the cover is longer than 14" and not a standard size, you will have to cut stock for it from a larger sheet. Printing itself is straightforward. Print the interior pages and then print the cover on your printer.
1. Fold all the interior pages in half, so the blank side is on the outside. Stack them so they are in order, and oriented in the same direction. Place pages 1-2 on the alignment work surface, so the back of page 2 is up. 2. Glue adjacent pages together. Place folded pages 3 - 4 on the spray table so the back of page 3 is exposed. Keep the fold tight to prevent overspray from reaching inside the fold. Spray the back of page 3 with a thin coat of adhesive. Move back to the alignment station and adhere it to the back of page 2. Leave this new stack positioned on the alignment table so the back of page 4 is exposed. Continue this way, spraying the backs of the odd pages and adhering them to the even pages until all the interior pages are glued together. Leaf though the book and separate any pages which are stuck together.
If you were planning to make your cover heavier, glue the additional stock to it now. Cut it from a material like poster board or a Pendaflex folder. 3. Score and fold the cover. The cover requires 3 folds. Two of the folds create the spine. A third fold is a relief fold. Determine where the spine starts and ends. Draw light pencil lines on the inside of the cover to mark these locations and then go over them with a ball point pen, using moderate pressure. You want to crush the paper fibers but not press so hard that the line is visible on the good side of the cover. Score an additional fold on the inside of the back cover. The score should be spaced 3/4" from the rear spine crease on the inside of the rear cover. Fold the cover along the score lines. Flatten the cover and place it face down. Fit the stack of internal pages on top of the front cover and determine where the the front and rear covers should be trimmed. The folds in the stack of pages should be fairly snug against the inside of the spine. Trim the covers with a mat knife.
4. Attach the interior pages to the cover. Flatten the cover again and place it face down. Place masking tape on the area between the front fold and the relief fold to protect it from the adhesive. Spray the inside of the cover with adhesive. Remove the masking tape. Align the back of page one with the inside front cover and press it down. Do the same with the back of the last page and the inside of the back cover. Leaf through the book and unstick any stuck pages. I have found that any adhesive residue can be cleaned using rubbing alcohol and a paper towel. The rubbing alcohol did not affect my inks or paper. However, I suggest you test the procedure on a scrap print, since your materials may be different than mine. The album is now finished. Usually the edges are not perfectly aligned and so you may want to trim them slightly. In theory clamping the album and cutting it with a sharp mat knife guiding along a steel ruler should do the trick, but I have found it very hard to do a neat job this way. Here are two other suggestions: Take it to a high volume copy house like Kinkos (recently acquired by FedEx)or Staples. These places have large electric knives which can trim the book in three quick strokes. Alternatively, if you have access to a bench sander, you can sand the edges square. Mark the edges with faint pencil lines and simply sand to the lines. I have gotten great results using a disc sander and 80 grit paper. |
Page buttons to add new pages and delete pages.
