The topic of albums came up at OSP Indy. We had a small discussion about what to call the parts of a book (I know, ground breaking stuff). It's obvious a lot of vendors use different names. I've seen album companies call two halves of a layout a leaf, a spread and a page. There was _somewhat_ of a consensus that the best way to describe a single album layout was 2 pages = 1 spread. Hopefully album vendors will arrive at some consensus. Maybe a push from OSPers can help with that.

2 page sides = 2 page sides when discussing "price-per-page" or how many page sides are included with this package. "Spread" when talking about a spread, like, "on the pg. 54-55 spread...."

I think most people can figure that out.

So the answer is: "it depends."

nate,

i call 1 side = 1 page.

this could be translated to mean 2 pages = 1 spread, or by the mathematical property of equality, 2 sides = 1 spread. the pages are, however consecutive, on two different leaves.

i try to stay away from using the term 'spread' because the first and last PAGE of my books are single pages = 1 side. also, i have a book that is only printed on one SIDE of the PAGE (or leaf). this book has no spreads.

this is a great point, and it would be nice if there was an accepted 'industry standard'.

+1

+1000!!!!!!! Industry leaders, are you listening to us?????

Yep! I am. Oh, wait....

good point robin - the way we get around it by calling the first and last page one spread. i would be happy calling the entire album only by pages. the problem comes up when you show a slideshow of the album and the b&g see a 'spread' and forget that it is actually two pages.

i clarify this point in the contract and a follow up email, that all the slides are 2 PAGE spreads. i say something like, 'your album is xx pages. each 2 page layout is shown as a single slide, the way it will look in your album.'

don't know if this will work for anyone else.

It sure does get confusing when the bride and groom dont remember that there are two actual pages in the spreads. They try to tell you what changes to make saying "page 9" when they really mean page 16. I sometimes have a hard time explaining it to them until they actually SEE their album.

Then its too late. *sigh*

1 side equals 1 page.
2 pages equal 1 spread.

I've worked with a lot of designers and advertising companies and this has always been the terminology. Luckily we very seldom have to design in signatures. Peoples eyes gloss over when you try to explain that to them.
kc

I concur (in my best LDC voice). Or maybe I should just write "+1"

No one even knows what a printer spread is, let alone a signature. And the one I hated is trying to explain why the pages in the middle are trimmed more than the pages at the beginning and ends. Luckily, most people never knew and if they did, they didn't care.

I'm just glad I never had to write "stripper" for a job description. Remember rubylith?

I just tell them it is a like a book. A page is a page. I don't even use the word spread

I'm willing to bet at least half the people here have never heard of rubylith. Or amberlith either.