Two-Page Photo and Faded Photos

[Allison Fabian]

Many other companies offer the layout option of a single photo spanning two pages. Another nice feature would be the option of adding faded (watermark) photos as a background (with the option of adding photos on top of it...a layering effect).

It would be fantastic if mypublisher could add these features!

[osu9400]

I requested the same features. Check my post below.

I have a suggestion for the two-page spread, but you would need Photoshop to make it work. You could bring in your original photograph (it really needs to be a good photograph with high dpi) and crop it to the size of what a two page spread would be. For example, if you are creating a paperback pocketbook with page dimensions of 7.75? wide by 5.75? high, you would open your photograph, click on the crop tool and set the crop width to 15.5? wide and the crop height to 5.75? high. Set the dpi to 300 (photo should already be a high quality. If it?s too low, the photo will look pixilated when enlarged to this width). Your photo is now going to look like a panoramic type photo.

Now, create a vertical guide of 7.75? - this is your center. Go ahead and save your photo (Name it ORIGINAL or whatever helps you to remember) as this will be your original that you will work from. Your photo should be 15.5? wide by 5.75? high,

Next step: Click on crop tool and set width to 7.75? and height to 5.75?. You will now crop the left side of the photo ? be careful not to go past the center guideline in the photo. At this point you will want to save this new photo. Use the SAVE AS (instead of save) and rename your photo ? possibly including the LEFTSIDE or LEFT in the name.

Next step: Open up the first photo you created (that is 15.5? wide) and repeat the step above but this time you will crop the right side of the photo. Now do SAVE AS and name this photo with RIGHT SIDE OR RIGHT in the name.

You?re almost done. Now in My Publisher, you can bring each of these photos in as a full page by obviously putting the LEFT photo on the left side of the spread and the RIGHT photo on the right side. You now have one photo on two pages.

Hope this works for you!

Michele
ShellaBellaDesigns@tampabay.rr.com

[JennyB]

The problem with the above suggestion is that you will lose the center of your image to the gutter. To see the very center, you'd have to break the spine. If you've created mypublisher books before, note how much of your image dips into the spine.

Instead the left and right images should overlap in the center by about 0.25 inches for a pocketbook and up to 0.75 inches for a hardbound book (either size).

So, using the Pocketbook example below, you would crop your picture to be 15.25 x 5.75 at 300dpi (the width is calculated as 2 times the width of one page minus the overlap). Save as Original. Then crop from the right 7.75 x 5.75 and save as RIGHT, reload the original, crop from the left 7.75 x 5.75. Save as LEFT. As you do this you'll see that each crop took the same 0.25 inch from the center. That duplication will be hidden in the gutter, and so it will appear continuous.

The problem comes with mypublisher's cropping margin of 1/4 inch (which is very small in this business). This variable effects both how much of your image goes into the gutter and also if the left and right will line up properly (one side could be up to a half inch higher than the other). Because this variation would be well within mypublisher's acceptable margins, I doubt very seriously that they would fix it for you, which is probably why they don't list in their help guide how to do this.

If you have great faith in the mypublisher gods, then I recommend it as a full page spread is very dramatic. I'm going to take a chance and do it with my next hardback book with a 0.5 inch overlap. I'll let you know how it worked out on this thread.

If that made absolutely no sense, then PM me.

[karuth]

I have done this on several books with as little as 1/8" overlap for a Deluxe book and it works fine. Just don't stretch the pictures to fit the pages...

I set all my pages up in Photoshop Elements and can put as many or as few photos on the page as I like since it all gets saved as just 1 photo to insert into the book as a full bleed landscape oriented photo.

Try it!! You'll Like it..

[elias]

I tried to do a 2 page spread and it didn't line up either. I used InDesign and exported to jpg. I left a 1/4" margin and it didn't line up and parts fell into the gutter, additionally the preview looked perfect and I didn't stretch to fit either. Leaving a 1/2" on the gutter work? The cover also cropped out my text and I had 1/2" margin on the text. I actually ordered 2 copies and they both came out different neither was right and one was cropped more than the other.

Should I do something like this?
http://www.viovio.com/storage/users/136/1136/images/460883/large.jpg
Thanks

Message was edited by: elias

[mypublisher]

Hi Elias -

I've been watching you guys discuss the two page photo layout scenario and I really wish I had some words of wisdom to add, but I don't. Here's what I do know..

>All of our books are consistent with regard to the width of the binding/spine across classic and across deluxe
>This layout is extremely difficult to acheive, we actually crop the least amount from our customer's photos in the industry, yes still, cropping is slightly variable depending on how the pages are loaded into the press. If it's off by 1 millimeter it can throw off the design!
> The binding in the center behaves slightly differently depending on the thickness of the book. If you have more pages, it could cause the center to be a bit tighter, but fewer pages, a bit looser (if that makes any sense!).
> Realistically I think 1/2 an inch is a bit too much room to leave for the binding, I'd try closer to 1/4-1/3 of an inch.

Good luck!

MyPublisher

[kesar pista]

i am very much interested in the two-page photos, esp in the pocketbook size. results seem to be unpredictable in the hacked approaches posted so far.

[farscape1970]

I really like the idea of being able to layer in faded images as backgrounds. I often keep items from trips (like ticket stubs, maps, pamphlets). I usually use these for scrapbooks but it would be nice to scan them and use them as a backgrounds in My Publisher books.