Avoid Photo Book Mistakes: 5 Tips

[michaelmalone]

Excellent advice. As a pastor, I learned that having someone else read documents I wrote was the way to go. Even if I reviewed them myself, I found that I could read something that was not there and miss an error. Thanks for your excellent advice.

[bobbiebluegill]

All great suggestions. How I wish Photoshop Elements would include a spell checker.
Another suggestion, print a blank page in your book, at the end or some place in the middle. That's to add thoughts or photos you wish you had included. Make a pocket on the back cover to add a couple extra pages.
When I made a book of my husband's memories, he edited and commented as I went. It was a great together time. When we had the book done the way we wanted, and we ready to have it printed, he came up with 3 more stories.
I made 2 more pages and titled them EXTRAS. This is the opening paragraph:
"When a book is finished, there are always extra memories that suddenly immerge. These are a few extra tidbits."
In the ending Paragraph I added: He is more than one story; larger than one

[loripohlman]

These are incredibly helpful tips and reminders. I also have an album or two on the shelf where there are errors and even if I’m the only one that notices them, it still bugs me!

[gmagpa]

Thanks, Linda! Great ideas. I've never managed a perfect book either, but at least some of them are done! I really like having a bound book rather than pages in an album. Books take up less space. Someone can't remove a page for just a minute and never put it back and they stay in order. Thanks for all you do to help us get our stories and histories and photos organized, scanned and printed.

[dianemorrall]

Thank-you for these tips Linda. The biggest mistake I have made is to forget to print 4 pages of a photobook of our last trip OS to Europe! I had organised my digital pages in correct order and went about uploading them to the online book printing company. Checked everything and then went and ordered it. It was only once I received the book in print that I realised something was missing. I was so cross. I have a very good online printing company that has printed individual pages for me with very good quality. I immediately contacted them and they printed the missing pages for me and I have slipped them in to the back of the book. Still very annoyed with myself.

[timothycalderwood]

Great list of tips--been there, done that! You can check and recheck, but the best way to find an error is to have the book printed—then the mistakes LEAP off the page! Groan, how could I/we have missed that?

It’s always good to have a new set of eyes carefully read through the text and look at the pictures, too. I can “see” things better from a printed page rather than the computer screen. So, I like to print out the pages. A cost-saving device is to buy a printer that has ink tanks instead of using those expensive cartridges. I have an Epson EcoTank-3760 Series color printer (~$400 from Amazon), and the ink seems to last “forever.” I’m over a year and a half and still have lots of ink left—plus some in the original bottles.

I also like the idea of setting it aside and coming back to it later, but that’s hard to do when you are in a hurry.

My wife is my best proofreader and content critic; however, I have started using Grammarly this year (I know it’s a bit pricey—I got it on sale), but it catches grammatical and spelling errors. (I used it for this post.)

The only way to beat this problem is to maybe publish as an eBook where you can back anytime and make corrections, additions, and deletions. Not sure how that works, but the idea of a virtual book is interesting. (Personally, I like the feel of a printed book in my hands.)

[kareneyrich]

Great video! I've had a few typos in my books as well. Another idea is if you're making a book with multiple copies to just print one copy, review it, and then have other copies made. You might have to pay extra for shipping, but could be worth it.

[WrightFarmhouse]

Working on our Wright family 2020 yearbook, including my sons first year. Thank you for the tips.

[FamilyHistoryHero]

Question from: Cathy Johnston
Do you have recommendations for online printing? I have used Shutterfly but it would be good to create entire pages in photoshop and the upload a book’s worth. My answer: I always create my book pages in Photoshop at 300 ppi rather than compiling the pages in Shutterfly. I save each PSD layered page as a single layer JPG and upload it to Shutterfly as a "photo." Then I use one of their simple books like the "Create Your Own" photo book listed under All Styles and also listed in the Family category. Those pages will be blank so you can click and drag each jpg page of your book onto a book page. I've printed a lot of books with Shutterfly using that option and choosing various sizes.