I've heard a lot of good things about the WHCC hinged album but was wondering how the gutter is on the book? Are you designing one 10x10 side or as a 20x10 and then splitting it for the ROES software since it doesn't offer a 20x10 option? If you split it are you allowing for a gutter or is it pretty small and unnoticable?

Definitely allow for the gutter. We designed one as a 20x10 and then split them. You do lose some in the middle, so make sure nothing important is in the middle.

Don't cut through anyone's face, or through a light colored area. It is black, and about 3/16" so it is noticeable but designed right you can certainly do spreads if you want.

Be careful when designing to make sure you start with the correct dimensions per WHCC. We just did a 8.5x11, but with the cuts and bleed it is like 8.75x10.877 so make sure your spread accounts for the adjusted size unless some vendors like KISS. Also, we were told that there is NO cut on the inside of the page (right side for left pages and vice versa, so take that into account when designing as well.

We just designed as a spread and split with PS. Kind of annoying compared with easy vendors like KISS, but still wasn't too bad. Since it isn't listed on the PDF, it starts on the right side, ends on the left so take note of that as well.

Just to add, we haven't seen the album yet as we just ordered it last week, but wanted to pass along the info we received from WHCC customer service (which was quite helpful). I wish they would update their PDF file though...

I just went to WHCC.com dowloaded their current templates and it gives you the pages with the guides for photoshop. I just designed the pages as individuals and If I wanted to do spreads, I just pieced the two pages together into a new document and built it there and split it. There was virtually no trim- esp. in the middle and I love the way the book came out.

Thanks all. I'm familiar with album design and template use having designed by hand in the past but currently use AlbumDS which works great. I just remember hearing about their books not being "great" some time ago and recently I've been hearing just the opposite so I was curious about how the gutter has improved.