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Post by sherri on Mar 14, 2017 5:59:48 GMT
I'm currently working on an album. Sort of a family history type thing-dad's story but with a few photos and family trees added. Long, long way to go yet with proof reading, putting it together etc On some of the pages, I might put a background colour. I'm keeping to suggested theme colours which in this case are the mustard, green, burgundy, grey.
Which do you think looks best with this so far? I was leaning towards the mustard myself but my sister isn't keen on mustard. Not for this layout, just in life generally.
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Post by sherri on Mar 14, 2017 6:00:49 GMT
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Post by DADDY O on Mar 14, 2017 16:22:53 GMT
The last one. It sort of adds authenticity to the story if it is printed in a Sepia or Black & White format...........IMHO that is.
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Post by sherri on Mar 14, 2017 21:26:39 GMT
Thanks daddyo. The last one through is a soft green with a flower through it, although I know it looks white in the small version showing on screen. If you double click it, it should show normal size. I do like that last one and I will be using it on some pages as it feels subtle. But I will take on board what you say and keep to a black and white format for most of it. At the end though I am bringing it up to speed with things from the last few years, not in a story but in photos & captions. I am putting it together mainly for my children and my sister's children as I have found from experience that stuff our parents knew & took for granted was common knowledge, we kids didn't necessarily know & now the same is true of our kids. Plus most of the later photos will be of them so it will probably make it more interesting for them.
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Post by DADDY O on Mar 20, 2017 5:57:44 GMT
Check and see if your printer has "Sepia" for a printing color. It's more of a Gray & White color than Black & White, and to me, makes the photo's and narrative fit the chronological era you are trying to capture.
Great stuff Sherri. I hope your family understands the effort it takes to do this.
I would love to see a finished product, maybe in a pdf form.
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Post by sherri on Mar 20, 2017 20:28:27 GMT
I'm not sure how to do pdf, daddyo. There is a way to save it I think but I am always nervous with these projects till they are uploaded. I will see what I can do. I can change the photos themselves to sepia but there is no sepia background available as such in the program. This is a company I have not dealt with before. Blurb. American company I think. I have to admit, quite a few of the publishing companies that are in USA are excellent but the one thing I find is their sizes are often a bit smaller. For instance, a few years back I helped my daughter use Mixbook to make some extra thankyou cards after her wedding. The programs to help do it were outstanding, the service was excellent but the cards were on the small side. Lovely, but small. With my second daughter, we used Vistaprint (which I think might also be American based but has an aussie division) and their cards were also excellent but cheaper and twice as big.
The album size I am making this time around is what they call their standard portrait. 8x10. It is the only portrait format they offer in photobooks. I love their text options and set outs, which is why I am using them, but I could suggest a few improvements to their program (a back button would be useful for a start) but mo9stly I find it frustrating their book sizes are so small. Most portrait formats with companies over here would start at about A4 size at least.
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Post by DADDY O on Mar 21, 2017 10:51:27 GMT
I'm not sure how to do pdf, daddyo. There is a way to save it I think but I am always nervous with these projects till they are uploaded. I will see what I can do. I can change the photos themselves to sepia but there is no sepia background available as such in the program.
If you have Adobe Acrobat (a pdf program that is free) on your computer, simply print you sheet to the adobe printer. You will have to select the printer in settings. It will ask you for a file name and where you want to save it on your drive. After that, you have a pdf file that you can email to anyone.
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Post by sherri on Mar 21, 2017 20:44:44 GMT
Okay I will have a look. Can you save a whole project in adobe? I am sure I probably could with some formats but not sure about whether this blurb program would let me. I won't be printing it, I will upload it to Blurb and they print and bind it etc
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Post by DADDY O on Mar 21, 2017 22:05:45 GMT
Okay I will have a look. Can you save a whole project in adobe? I am sure I probably could with some formats but not sure about whether this blurb program would let me. I won't be printing it, I will upload it to Blurb and they print and bind it etc You save the project in whatever you are using to add photos...etc. When you are done, yes...it will print to a pdf file the entire project, and then yes, you can send it to whoever.......even the guy that prints and produces the books for you.
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Post by mrp on Mar 23, 2017 8:17:12 GMT
I'd go with either the cream, the bone, the white, the off-white, the ivory or the beige.
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Post by sherri on Mar 23, 2017 12:32:03 GMT
Thanks Mr P. It's hard to explain but the system offers a restricted range of colours in themes, although it is possible to go in and choose your own. I have pretty much decided to stick with the plain white. There isn't really a beige option unfortunately. That 4th photo colour is actually a very pale green although I know it looks cream in the small version till you enlarge it.
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Post by sherri on Jun 10, 2017 22:11:20 GMT
My usual computer died. I don't know how. Had not looked at any different sites, just my usual. It froze, I closed it down, nothing now seems to be able to reboot or revive it, can't open it at all or go back to previous settings, can't do any of the things that normally bring a computer back.
Trouble is, it is the computer where I was working on the book. Almost 200 pages of text and photos & family history. I do have files saved on an external harddrive but whether I will be able to get it back into that program I don't know.
Back to the drawing board!!
I had settled for white & grey, by the way!
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Post by sherri on Sept 18, 2017 1:56:28 GMT
There's no smiley that captures how I feel. The computer died again. I hope it is just the C drive like last time as at least I won't lose the whole book, just half. If it is D drive, I am up the creek without a paddle. But the timing could not be worse. Book is all but finished, was just proof reading & waiting for a sale by the company ( every couple of months they offer 40% off). Wish me luck! It feels like groundhog day with this book, I keep having to re-do bits.
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Post by DADDY O on Sept 18, 2017 15:12:16 GMT
Sherri - You can easily solve the problem by simply opening a "Drop Box" account and keep your files not only on your computer, but in the cloud as well (it automatically does it for you). You can get a free account for up to 2 or 5 Gigabytes (a lot of storage). If you need more than that, and you won't, the costs are pretty low. Look at this site: www.dropbox.comIf your computer goes down, all of the files you placed in your dropbox folder can be easily recovered by you. If you run out of space, move the older files to the C drive or Thumb drive.
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Post by sherri on Sept 18, 2017 23:26:44 GMT
I am not sure if it would save the programs as they were though. I have the relevant files saved on an external hard drive but what I found after our last melt down was the programs are still there but it is what is being worked on within the programs that may not be the same or up to date. The good news is-nothing major was wrong-there was a piece loose.
But I intend to do a last couple of proof reads then as soon as a special comes up-order.
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