YearBook Publishing And Printing

Your layout of your yearbook will say a lot about your style and approach to getting your yearbook done. Make sure to have your layout nice and tight. Text should be lined up and consistent throughout your book. Consistency will be what makes your yearbook memorable. If you use lines around your text on one page you will want to use lines around text throughout the entire yearbook. You want to keep the theme correct throughout the entire book. You want to keep your photo consistent as well. Taking all the photos you plan on using for the yearbook and running them all through photoshop and tightening them up will help the whole layout. Think of your yearbook as a brand and every page adds to the branding of your yearbook. brands are always consistent through out any creative that they put out for the public to see. Add your schools personal brand to the yearbook. If you have lines surrounding your text in the book try using school colors, logos and emblems to keep the message consistent.

What is the difference between a great and a boring yearbook layout? Boring or dull yearbook layouts have little to capture the attention and are poorly laid out. Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating an interesting yearbook layout:

• Eye-catching layout
• Good use of color
• Borders to make photos stand out
• Varying sizes of photos
• Easy to read text
• Color or larger sized fonts to highlight important points
• Quotes
• Page borders and titles with the theme integrated

Having yearbook layouts that catch the attention and that are interesting will make the yearbook that much more exciting and useful. Make sure you have balanced out the text and photos for pleasing content and most of all, enjoy the process. You can have a lot of fun.

There is a big temptation to throw everything you have at your yearbook layouts, but that doesn`t mean you should. In fact, while it`s fine to have some over the top or very elegant yearbook layouts within the book, it`s best to keep these to a minimum.

A few questions to ask yourself include:

What are you trying to convey? Does your yearbook layout give the impression that you want? Does each design element move the reader toward the final result?

Take the time to really examine what you are doing with each yearbook layout. Remember to focus on the important parts, the photos and journalism that will help kids remember their school years in several decades.

Simpler yearbook layouts have many advantages, including the ability to get through them faster with a deadline looming! Also, it`s easier for readers to focus on the actual photos if the layout is simpler. So it`s a good idea to keep your yearbook layouts fairly easy on the eye.

In a group of students, everything can take forever to decide. It`s not uncommon for even small decisions to take a very long time when they have to go through the group. Speeding things up is in everyone`s best interest, obviously, but how to make this happen?

You`ll find that there are a few ways to increase decision making time on yearbook layouts.

First of all, present only a couple of ideas to the students. If you run a brainstorming session, then don`t look at all the ideas next time around . . . weed out the majority and present two or three options.

Another way to go is to appoint a couple of students to do the weeding out. Once they`ve selected the best yearbook layout ideas, they can present them to the rest of the class.

Setting a time limit is also a good idea if you want to prevent problems. Making sure that the decision only takes 15 min. is a good way to ensure that other things get done, too.

Yearbook layouts can cause a lot of scheduling issues, so keep those decisions moving quickly and get more done.

If there`s one thing you want for your yearbook, it`s more publicity. Getting students excited about the yearbook is a great way to sell more of them, so it`s definitely a good idea to look into options for boosting public awareness.

A blog is an excellent way to keep students and their parents updated on the progress of the yearbook. You can put up requests for photos at special events, host contests and games where students can win a discount or even a free yearbook and include a few photos as the year goes by. You`ll find that once the word gets out, students will be checking back often.

It`s also possible to offer the yearbook pre-sales on your yearbook blog. Paypal is probably one of your best bets, since you can set up an account for the school and then accept credit cards securely online. Parents will make the most use of this service since it ensures they will get a yearbook and there`s no danger that the students will lose the money.

A blog can turn the yearbook into something that is interesting and exciting to students and drawing more attention will only make it that much more necessary to have.

If you have ever printed out a yearbook layout without any bleed, you know that it`s very likely that the edges will end up white. This is a very unprofessional look that can be easily remedied by adding 1/8″ at the edges of all your yearbook layouts.

This extra space should also be printed. For example, if you have a header in blue, the blue should extend past the actual page area. This way, when the yearbook layouts are cut, there is no danger of that unsightly white line along the edges of the page. The white is particularly ugly when it appears in the space between the two pages, especially if you have a photo that crosses the two page yearbook layout.

Depending on what program you are using for your yearbook layouts, you should be able to incorporate this bleed automatically. It really shouldn`t add much time at all to the production and you`ll be very glad of it when your yearbook comes back.

Make sure you talk to your yearbook printer about using bleed on your yearbook layouts. It will make everything go smoother.

It can get a bit chaotic this time of year as you juggle photos, text and yearbook layouts. It`s best to have a system so you can ensure that all your pages are ready to go by the time you need to send the yearbook in.

Even with a yearbook ladder, those yearbook layouts can get out of hand pretty quickly. This is particularly true if you are switching back and forth and moving the yearbook layouts around to find the best order for them. As the deadline draws closer, it`s very easy to lose track of whether or not you have everything you need.

To make life a little simpler, try keeping a notebook where you can jot down changes made. Include page numbers and make note of when you move a yearbook layout so that the page numbers change. This will make it quicker to find that specific yearbook layout that you need.

Don`t let your yearbook layouts get lost. Take the time to set up a system so you can manage them.

It happens almost every year. You`re nearly done and ready to send the yearbook off to be printed, but you still have a couple of yearbook layouts waiting for those last minute photos. It can be terribly frustrating, but if you prepare ahead of time, waiting for those last photos doesn`t have to be as stressful.

Last minute yearbook layouts don`t really need to be last minute. You can actually prepare them as much as possible. This includes designing the border and title and writing any text that you are able to ahead of time.

Once the photos come in, simply place them on the prepared yearbook layout and add any captions necessary. You might want to include pre-created borders for the yearbook layout and then proof the layout to be sure no spelling mistakes have been made.

By this point in time, you should have the rest of the yearbook layouts proofed and ready to go. All you need to do is pop in the photos and send the yearbook off to the printer.

Having a website for your yearbook is probably one of the best ways to help promote it. Even a simple page will draw students in and make them more likely to buy. So, what should you include on your webpage?

• Purchase form. Let parents and students order their yearbook online to make things extremely simple. Paypal.com allows you to accept credit cards and this will eliminate the problem of students losing or spending the money meant for yearbooks.
• Sample pages. Have some examples of what you`re doing with the yearbook layouts to give students an idea of what to expect. Just two or three layouts is all it takes, don`t give away the whole yearbook on the website.
• Fundraisers. Let the world know if you`re going to be doing fundraisers. This is a great way to get more participants and you`ll probably find that parents are some of the more avid readers of the page, so it can be beneficial to have their help.

A yearbook website is something that you can either keep extremely simple and leave up year after year, or make it more dynamic, updating with news and information as needed.

Often the text in a yearbook layout with lots of photos just fades into the background and isn`t really noticeable. There is a simple solution to this issue . . . just start using text boxes.

Text boxes are an excellent addition to any yearbook layout that includes text and photos. There are a couple of different ways to do them.

Bordered: This is as simple as running a border around the text. You could use a simple black line or go for something a bit more interesting like hearts, etc.

Colored boxes: Using a pale color behind the text will make it stand out. If the page is in black and white, then use gray.

Light on dark: A black text box with white text is a great way to grab attention on a yearbook layout where the photos are dominating.

Text boxes keep the text nice and neat and also help it stand out. It`s a great way to add interest to a yearbook layout.