Hi Folks,

I've been lurking in this sub-forum for the last week or so. Lots of good info. Was wondering if some of you would give me a push in the right direction. I have many questions. So bare with me. Hopefully these are questions that others may have.

I plan on using Art Leather's 10"x10" Digital Montage Art Books for my albums. I was contemplating using their Design, Print and Bind Service. It takes all the work off my shoulders but it eats into the profits big time and deprives me of my vision of what the album could be.

I use Photoshop quite a bit. From what I'm reading, people can design albums in PS, but it appears using a layout program (such as InDesign - which I don't own) is preferred. So for now let's say I just use PS to design this album. I know that I can design only one spread at a time, which is not preferred. But I have to use what I've got for now.

So for starters, when I'm creating a spread, I assume my new document must be 10" high and 20" wide (at 300 pixels/inch?). Or should I add some extras space (1/4" or 1/2" for bleed)? RGB 8 bit?

Ok, so now I have my digital "spread". And lets say I have 4 main images I want on this spread. Obviously some of the images will be larger than others. When altering the sizes of images in PS, do you simply use Transform/Scale? Or do you resize the image?

Also I'm shooting with a Canon 20D (8.2 mp). Are people getting good results with that level of resolution on an album this big? When I place a full 8.2mp image on my 10x20" spread, it certainly leaves a bit of empty space. For some shots, I'd love to do a full page spread of one image. How would I do that? Do I scale the image to be larger? I know I would be degrading the shot a bit but wondering if I could get away with that.

Ok, so lets say my spread is complete. I proceed to do the rest of the album spreads. What do you recommend for the next step? Get them printed at my lab of choice and ship them to the album company for binding? Or have the album company print and bind them? Can anyone share their experiences with Art Leather? Can anyone share some general time saving tips?

Thanks so much everybody!

hey lou!

your first book. is this a sample? or for a client? you might want to practice or at least print some test prints before sending a whole album.

i posted my general album design process on my blog, if you want to check it out. bunch of pre-designs there, too.

i use lumapix for my design, and i am now an affiliate! so anyone interested in the software, let me know!! i'll be putting a link for the software up soon.

since my general steps are on my blog, i'l answer the 20d question here... you will be fine. i print 16x20's all the time - no problem, and i've done 12x12 full page panos (12x24) that are stunning.
you do not need to add for the bleed, but you DO NEED TO ADD FOR THE TRIMMING. keep all you critical elements about an inch away from the edge for the montage art book, IF you are printing and sending in prints....
we use WHCC, and they do over print, so we loose a little, and then it's trimmed. 1" seems good for the margin.

keep all key elements away from the gutter. never split eyes across a gutter. watch where that will go, so it looks planned.

i send my pages to print as 300ppi pages to whcc. flattened .jpgs at the highest resolution - they print a full spread at the same price as 2 of the smaller size. NEVER print a full spread as 2 separate pages, they will not line up.
for example DO NOT print 2-10x10's, print a 20x10.
i do my pages as 20x10 spreads, and print as 20x10 prints and then send them to bind. be carefull when shipping. whcc packaging is great. after i check the prints i just pack them back up and send them to art leather.

i love whcc, an at this point don't trust anyone else with my printing.

i like art leather. i think their products are beautiful, and i have great sales rep. they are quite slow with some things, but i bug my rep and he handles it. i have a lot of samples from them. our signature book it the montage artbook with the brushed metal cover.


hope that helps!

ciao!
~robin

Designing albums are a such a pain but can be very rewarding! Don't get frustrated, it just takes a little time.

Art leather's stuff is pretty good. Also look into Zookbinders and Asuka books.

Thanks for the reply Robin! I have a client who has requested an album so I'm trying to squeak out a sample album for myslef before I do theirs. So just trying to orient myself in the face of all of these details. I'm feeling pretty good and am excited to get started on this. I'll try to report back on how I've done.