Year Book - design of pages

ThOnda

So, ladies and gentlemen, the progress of the book cannot be stopped, only encuraged! And I have created few horrible examples of page layouts from Blurb software. We can change colours, fonts, allignment, but NOT possition of the text and pictures. If you don't believe, try your own. Please, do so to make the decision making process easier for you and therefore for us all.

The examples I have uploaded on my PIX account are for soft-cover version 8 x 10".
This is link to pix.ie/vlastik - just go to album called Book Previews, please.

The last page offers only small rectangular place for logo. I hope that we could put our logo there instead of Blurb one.

I would like to encurage discussion about:
1 - who is going to design the book
2 - what style of pages
* layout
* background colour
* font colour(s)
* font type(s)
* font sizes
3 - text on the back of the front cover - information about this project and SSF.

Edit: The pictures included in examples are taken by mobile phone in moments of absolute boredom - lunch, driving... Please, don't mention neither esthetical nor technical quality.
Edit2: Another link added.

Shiny

Access denied to the PIX account.

whyulittle

None of your samples are full page ThOnda. Is that on purpose or by accident?

Pigwidgeon

+1 account is private

ThOnda

(3300x2533) pictures. Album is PUBLIC, I have checked and set it twice already.
Well, setting for the whole account Sorry...

Shiny

Yep, working now Dank!

Pigwidgeon

looks good to me, no objections

ThOnda

kateos2 wrote: »

looks good to me, no objections

What page at least? What background colour? Black-Gray-White
What page layout? With-without text, text above-below-above&below

Sorry for asking, but you have to be very specific to prevent thondocracy - something like this.

dakar

White background. Black text below image. Nice clean font to be sorted out later. Don't mind which layout really. Go thOndocracy!

Edit, like the layout of test page 6

gandalf

This layout is the one I like the most. http://pix.ie/vlastik/700403

PopeBuckfastXVI

I'm for this:
http://pix.ie/vlastik/700403

ThOnda

Just for your information, the white background is A4 size sheet and the page layout is inside. In case of http://pix.ie/vlastik/700403 it is only the black area.

Please feel free to suggest font type(s), size(s) and colors.

Shiny

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

I'm for this:
http://pix.ie/vlastik/700403

I'm also in favour of this.

Quite happy to have white text on the black background.
Would prefer text below.

Font (Times), Size 14, Colour (White on black background)

Pretty much used all the above on a recent photobook i made from photobox and
it looks fine.

bernard0368

+ 1 http://pix.ie/vlastik/700403

Pigwidgeon

ThOnda wrote: »

What page at least? What background colour? Black-Gray-White
What page layout? With-without text, text above-below-above&below

Sorry for asking, but you have to be very specific to prevent thondocracy - something like this.

whoops sorry, thought i put in the urls in that... was a long day yesterday.
i really like this one and this one

sineadw

Shiny wrote: »

I'm also in favour of this.

Quite happy to have white text on the black background.
Would prefer text below.

Font (Times), Size 14, Colour (White on black background)

Pretty much used all the above on a recent photobook i made from photobox and
it looks fine.

+1

I'd go for http://pix.ie/vlastik/700403 aswell.I had one printed with Blurb recently with a black background and it really does make the photos look better.The brightness of a white background kind of distracts the eye from the actual photo while a black background lets the eye focus directly on the photo if that makes sense.

Setun

Any chance of helvetica instead of times for font?

dakar

Daddio wrote: »

Any chance of helvetica instead of times for font?

I agree, I'd prefer a 'cleaner' font, times is a bit samey. Helvetica is a nice clean modern font.

ThOnda

Another previews. I haven't found Helvetica, but that could be sorted. And that stupid software won't print cover preview.

Sample pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

We really NEED to find a DESIGNER of the book. The clock is ticking...

labbad

Defo for me http://pix.ie/vlastik/700403 I think it's perfect :cool::cool:

Pigwidgeon

should we have another poll for page design? just this seems to be a bit forgotten about at the moment, to keep things in motion you know, we should keep pushing on if we want to have the money for SSF this christmas!
has a deadline for photo submissions been decided yet?

ThOnda

This is a poll without a poll. And will be counted after midnight. Well, after breakfast.
The submission of the photos will be possible after selecting the book designer. It's so simple

sineadw

Ah I'd offer but I'm run off my feet at the moment...

whyulittle

What exactly is involved in putting the book together Thonda? I have never used Blurb before.

ThOnda

Just download it and try it. It is simplier than you could expect. And that's the issue.
The problem is to put everything together - picture, comment, name. 120 times. Plus cover.

whyulittle

How did you export them to Pix Thonda? I can only print them to PDF.

ThOnda

I have printed them to PDF as well and then saved the PDF file as JPG pages. I have found some "free" utility on Torrentz that could do so.

whyulittle

If we can settle on things like fonts, sizes etc, I'll put it together.

What is going to be included along with the pic?

Title
Photographer name
Description or not?

Looking at it last night, it looks like you could squeeze three lines under each photo by using a 10 or 12 pt font.

You can also put text in the footer instead of page number if desired.

Is it going to be a constant look throughout the book. If someone wants to go with a different layout on their page, are they going to be allowed?

Morrisseeee

There are so many threads etc on this that I'm sure I've missed something, ie. one thing I don't see is where to upload/send-in your picture for the book, or has it not been decided yet ?
Pls update me !;)

ThOnda

Morrisseeee - viz my post on previous page.

whyulittle, thank you for your offer. To keep it as simple as possible, there should be ONE page design to keep the work for the book designer (you) easier.
I would consider putting the frame, because it is just one click.

And to help with collecting pictures, I would like to get involved as much as possible to make the progress easier. So basically you should be only putting the data onto pages. And keep talking to the winner of the cover design. I will summarise the cover design thread after my come back from a dentist in late afternoon.

Morrisseeee

Thanks ThOnda, just looking for clarity.
I don't know how ye are going to get all the pics, ie. ye might have a solution already in place......but if ye don't, then could pix.ie be used.....upload your pic to pix.ie (dunno the file size limit !!) then give ownership to whoever is gathering the pics for download, I'm assuming most people use pix.ie, do ye think this is viable ?

ThOnda

Collection of the pictures is about to begin - the anonymous designer allready begun the preparing work and I am working on submitting system.

So please, everybody, post your final suggestions on page design.

So far it looks like something like this or this (just added frame in the Blurb software).

Covey

When it says no frame around photo does that mean that thick black frame will not appear around the photo?

ThOnda

The page is whole black. The frame is the tiny white line.
I have tried to explain it here.
The white page background is only because of print into PDF file. I am sorry for causing confusion, but I am not an expert in graphic and printing software. I like to use it few times a year only

PopeBuckfastXVI

Actually I quite like the thin white frame.

I know someone mentioned Helvetica as a font, but Arial is very similar to Helvetica and tends to be more widely available. Obviously Helvetica is the nicest, but isn't always available for free.

Covey

dakar wrote: »

White background. Black text below image. Nice clean font to be sorted out later. Don't mind which layout really. Go thOndocracy!

Edit, like the layout of test page 6

Me too ( or failing that no.2. ).

Most images look good with a plain white BG, only some with black, imo.

Morrisseeee

I like the 2nd option:

or this (just added frame in the Blurb software).

labbad

The second option (http://pix.ie/vlastik/702414) looks good and would be my choice

Morrisseeee

As requested:

I like the Papyrus font:



I've enlarged it for clarity......

dakar

-1 on the papyrus, I'm afraid. Its too fussy for my liking.

My 2c

whyulittle

It might look fine for just a title like above, but it wouldn't suit two to three lines of text.

ThOnda

I have to second that - the font must suit all types of photos. From romantic sunsets through sport to street photography.

thebaz

beside our name , i think it would be an idea if we could refernce our own website (for those that have one or want to ) -

PopeBuckfastXVI

Arial for the win!

Morrisseeee

Yeah, Papyrus would only work on its own.

How bout VERDANA ?

PS. Is it a big job to change font per person as the text is being put in anyway ? Or maybe its better to stick with SIMPLICITY....

ThOnda

Another question from our volunteer on the book layout.

Some people might say you should have just the title of the book on page 1, SSF/Boards info on page 2, and then the first photo on page 3. As I said earlier, I wouldn't like that idea as you would have the SSF text and the first photo side by side competing for attention.

I personally would put the title and SSF info on page one, and get right into the photos on page 2.

The last page would be a single page, so again I feel it wouldn't be fair to put someone's pic there.

So do you agree?

And there is also question what are we going to put there. If anybody wants to volunteer to create nice description of this project and also SSF, please, do so. The time and tide is waiting for no men and the X-mass is coming!

Fionn

just a few thoughts!

the general rule of thumb in page design is not more than four different font styles and generally two styles is sufficient.

so for Title text - Name of each photograph a Sans-Serif font usually works best (Verdana, Univers, Arial/Helvitica)

then for body text - discription/ photographers name/site etc I'd suggest a Serif Font (Times, Bookman, Garamond etc.)

I'd agree with ThOnda regarding page 1

i'd say have a uniform font style throughout the book - give it a better finish

ThOnda

Ladies and gentlemen, I have received a preview of one page, Sineadw's page. Here is how it is going to look. And here is direct link to full size image.

As you can see, Sineadw had very long comment/description. And to make it fit into the preset box, the designer had to decrease the font size.

sineadw

I wasn't sure on the description - could we have a word count limit maybe? Would make the designer's life easier and I don't mind editing..

I like serif fonts in print.

whyulittle

ssssssh my identity is secret!

In Sinead's sample above, the title is set to Arial 14, description to Arial 7, and Sinead's name to Arial 10. Personally I wouldn't be going too big with the description font size (everyone else is at 8 currently). It looks a bit gawky, distracting and also you run out of space very quickly if you are going up towards 10 or 12.