Marti
10-13-2007, 12:43 PM
I just received my first scrapbook layout book and am thrilled with it! It's 86 pages and I used the Costco discount. But as great as it is, it's not perfect, so here are a couple of suggestions to make a better layout book:
My layouts were done in PowerPoint at the 11x14 size and I'm using the classic MP book style. I centered each layout on a full-bleed page and reduced them to allow for about 1/4" of white space around each edge. When I viewed the book from the bookstore, each layout was centered perfectly on the page with white space all around. But when I received the book, the white space on the inside edge, the binding edge, was gone (obviously used for the binding), so the pages have white space on only three edges. And the binding cut off a tiny bit of the layout on the inside edge. Next time I will put the layout a little closer to the outside edge and leave more room on the inside. This will probably take some experimentation to get it perfect.
The other slight problem was that although the actual layout is perfect in color and is very crisp, some of the photos on a layout were a little darker than the actual photos. It's not a huge problem and I have no idea how anyone would know which photo might become darker and which wouldn't because this seems to be hit-or-miss throughout the book and only happened on a few photos.
Overall, the book is wonderful and looks 100 times more professional than a raw scrapbook because the layouts are actually in a real book. If I had made my layouts smaller and put several on a page, my book would look like something I bought at Michaels. Neat!
My layouts were done in PowerPoint at the 11x14 size and I'm using the classic MP book style. I centered each layout on a full-bleed page and reduced them to allow for about 1/4" of white space around each edge. When I viewed the book from the bookstore, each layout was centered perfectly on the page with white space all around. But when I received the book, the white space on the inside edge, the binding edge, was gone (obviously used for the binding), so the pages have white space on only three edges. And the binding cut off a tiny bit of the layout on the inside edge. Next time I will put the layout a little closer to the outside edge and leave more room on the inside. This will probably take some experimentation to get it perfect.
The other slight problem was that although the actual layout is perfect in color and is very crisp, some of the photos on a layout were a little darker than the actual photos. It's not a huge problem and I have no idea how anyone would know which photo might become darker and which wouldn't because this seems to be hit-or-miss throughout the book and only happened on a few photos.
Overall, the book is wonderful and looks 100 times more professional than a raw scrapbook because the layouts are actually in a real book. If I had made my layouts smaller and put several on a page, my book would look like something I bought at Michaels. Neat!