Digital Yearbook Guidelines

Transcription

1 Digital Yearbook Guidelines USE THIS GUIDE FOR YEARBOOKS DESIGNED ON A COMPUTER Tel: Toll Free: Fax:

2 DIGITAL YEARBOOK GUIDELINES PLEASE READ BEFORE STARTING!!! The idea of creating your yearbook pages in a digital format may seem daunting at first, but it will quickly become easy and fun to work with. Once you ve completed your pages, follow the tutorial on changing these files to Portable Document Format (PDF). In order to obtain the best results for your yearbook and to avoid any delays, we have compiled a list of suggestions. DO follow our calendar included in our Yearbook Kit. In order to meet your yearbook delivery date, we require that your files be submitted according to our schedule. DO use the software that you have available and are comfortable using. DO keep your pages to 8½ x 11 with ½ margin all around for an image area of 7½ x 10. DO keep the number of fonts used in your yearbook to a minimum. DO shoot your digital photos at a high quality setting (check your camera instructions). DO scan your photos or pages at a high resolution (600 dpi resolution is best). DO convert all photos to grayscale for all black & white pages. DO change all files to PDF format (press quality) before submitting. DO ensure that all linked files (photos, fonts, clipart) are on the computer that you are using to make your PDF files. DO ensure that all file names include your school name and page numbers. DO encourage each member of your team to read these notes. DO NOT use images from the internet that are 72 dpi or less. DO print out a master set of numbered pages to submit to Print Graphics with your digital files. Please label your colour pages if applicable. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our team and we will be glad to offer any assistance that you may require. 2

3 Welcome to the Wonderful World of School Yearbooks. If this is your first attempt at creating a new yearbook for your school, fear not! This booklet was produced to help guide you with suggestions on how you may streamline the process of putting together your yearbook. It also lists situations to watch out for before they become problems. Even if you have already produced a yearbook (or many), you may pick up a tip or two by reading through this booklet. We hope that it will become a useful tool in your journey through the steps of creating your own school yearbook. If you have any questions, or need to schedule your press time, please call us at , Toll Free at or us at yearbooks@printgraphics.ca and we will be pleased to help you. Enjoy creating a book that will keep many memories alive. 3

4 Mrs. Smith s Class Grade Track & Field Page # Chart Graduating Class Hallowe en Pre-Planning The first step in this yearbook adventure is to recruit a committee of volunteers and hold a planning session. Determine who will be in charge of each different task involved in the production of your yearbook. Using scrap paper, make a mock-up book by writing the categories required on each page to determine how many pages are needed in your book as well as placement in relation to each other. The total number of pages in your book (not including cover or inside cover) must be divisible by four (Please refer to the Page # Chart). If you need to add pages to your book to do this, consider putting in autograph pages at the end. Some suggestions for page categories include: Classes Sports Spiritual Events Plays Hallowe en Christmas Trips Staff Clubs Competition Winners Candid photos Principal s Message Autographs Many yearbooks contain a special section of a few pages dedicated to the graduating class. These may contain separate photographs of the students with information beside each photo as to who they are, ambitions, nicknames, etc. Avoid use of emoticons when typing text as certain fonts will convert them to different symbols. 4

5 Layout Suggestions & Colour Pages An easy way to layout your class pages is to use 2 facing pages to create the desired 2 page spread. On the left place your class picture and below the students names. The right page can be used for additional photos, illustrations, poems, stories, etc. Yearbooks can be in black & white, full colour or a combination of both. Determine if you would like to Mrs Smith (Gr.3) have any full colour pages inside the book. These colour pages are reproduced using a Digital Colour Printer. They are done as an entire 11 x 17 spread (2 pages) which means that for every page designated as being copied in colour, there will be a corresponding page that will also be in colour (please see example 1 or contact our office for more direction on this procedure). 2 3 Student Pictures TIP: Even number pages are always on the left hand side while odd number pages are always on the right hand side. Example 1: The colour spread for page 5 of this guidebook corresponds with page 12. 5

6 Sponsors Business Card 1/4 Page Ad Business Card 1/2 Page Ad BINGO Sponsors Bake sale Fundraising With your committee (and possibly with the help of your P.T.A.), determine if you wish to do any fund raising activities throughout the year to help offset the cost of your book (i.e. bake sale, bingo, book sale, sponsors). Determine if you wish to sell advertising within the book to also help offset the cost. As well as contacting local establishments for possible advertising, you may wish to send a letter home with the students. You could offer an opportunity to parents who may wish to advertise their business or families who may wish to sponsor a page within the book. Ads can be separated and priced in accordance to the area given. Print Graphics will separate them with borders at no charge! Page sponsorship by families should be sold at a lower price than ads and could include their name in small print at the bottom of the page (i.e. This page sponsored by the Smith Family ). TIP: If there are no advertisements within your yearbook, then only G.S.T. applies (subject to change). 6

7 Photographs Use only digital pictures with a high resolution. To ensure your digital camera is set to a high resolution make sure the quality is set to best, high or fine. High Resolution You have the flexibility of using either black & white or colour photographs or a combination of both. Have your photographer(s) try to get candid photos of students in everyday situations around the school as well as the special events. Look through all the photos available and determine which ones are suitable for use. Categorize these photos to determine which pages they will be used on. Tip: Use high resolution digital photos only. Low Resolution When choosing your photos from all available, look for good contrasting photos which will reproduce best. Also look for close ups which show expression rather than long distance group shots. Pictures from the internet should not be used and may result in poor quality on the finished yearbook. Low resolution photos may look good on screen but once printed, the pixels spread out, creating poor quality. Tip: Low resolution photos will not show fine detail and reproduce poorly. 7

8 Photographs Uncropped Image Cropped Image Crop the photos to eliminate the areas not needed and to draw the attention to the area that you want the observer to centre on. Try to look at the tonal values in a photograph rather than the colour (keep in mind that the end result may be printed in black & white). A dark red object beside a dark green object may show great separation in colour, but have a similar tone value when changed to black and white losing the separation. (Hint: If in doubt regarding the tonal values in a photograph, make a black & white photocopy of the photo. This will give you a rough indication of how the colours will separate). If possible, try to arrange that the class photos be taken against a light background. In colour, the students may stand out against a dark blue stage curtain, but in black & white, the students with dark hair will disappear into the background. When working on the class pages, have each individual class teacher write out the students names according to their location in the class photo. After the Yearbook Committee has typed these names, the page should go back to the teachers for proofreading to eliminate any errors. 8

9 Final Assembly After you ve assembled each individual page with photos, graphics and text, name each file (page001schoolname). For colour pages include the word colour after your file name (page001schoolname_colour). When we import your pages we will place them in the proper position for printing, and add a computer generated page number to the bottom of each page. Convert all files to PDF (see pages 11-13). (Print out a final sample mock up with page numbers for submission to Print Graphics). When completed, send us your files as separate pages via CD or website ftp. We will assemble them in the correct order to be printed in the 11 x 17 final format that makes up your yearbook. Determine which book style you would like to order. Our Classic yearbook is printed on a Vellum 70 lb. paperstock. Our Premium, Budget and Full Colour books are printed on a Glossy 70 lb. paperstock. Then choose your binding from the samples below: Sports 26 Wire-O Perfect Bound Plastikoil Saddle Stitch 9

10 125? 100 Ordering The best way to judge how many yearbooks will be needed to purchase for your school is to pre-sell the books. Send a letter home with the students explaining the sale cost of the books and the date by which the orders must be in. We have included posters in your package to display in the hallways of your school. Once you determine how many pre-sales you have, increase that number by approximately 25. From 175 experience, we have seen that many schools give out books to the trustees, board, teachers, volunteers, etc. You will also have students who did not pre-order a yearbook asking for one once they arrive at the school. Any books over and above the number needed can be offered to these students on a first-come, first-served basis You may wish to distribute your yearbooks to the 350 students at the end of the school year in June, or you may wish to wait until school begins again in September. The advantage to waiting until September is that you can now include all of the events that occurred at the end of the school year. We also offer a discount on September books. Whichever delivery date that you choose, please contact us as early as possible to determine the scheduled time-line involved. Please consult your yearbook calendar included in your package for additional information. If you have any other questions, please call us at or Toll Free at You can also us at yearbooks@printgraphics.ca. We will be pleased to assist you in any way that we can. 10

11 How to create an online Portable Document Format (PDF) of your Yearbook *First ask your peers, parents or teachers if they are able to make a PDF, or call Print Graphics. If you do not have access to Adobe Acrobat software please follow the steps below. Ready? Then let s get started This tutorial will help you in creating an Adobe PDF file of your yearbook from whatever program you originally created it in. All digitally created yearbooks submitted to Print Graphics must be converted to PDF format. Keeping the file s integrity is important, and making a PDF of your work will ensure that nothing will be lost. Feel free to print out these instructions from our website and follow them carefully. Please note that a High Speed internet connection is required. Step 1. Open your Internet Browser and type in Step 2. In the middle of the web page, there is a link called Online PDF Creation click on it. Step 3. On the next window that comes up, click on the Subscribe Now button on the left hand side of the page. NOTE: This will allow you to make up to 5 free PDF files. Each file that is uploaded may be up to 100 MB maximum. If you require more than 5, you may sign-up for a subscription for the cost of USD $14.99 per month. This subscription may be cancelled at any time. 11

12 Step 4. Next Click on the free plan link on the right hand side of the page. Now you can fill in your account info. Fill in the information in all the boxes as shown in the picture to your right. Once you have your information all filled in, click Sign Up. NOTE: If you used this method last year, and still have some of your 5 conversions remaining, you may still log in on the right and use last year s conversions. Adobe will still have you on file! Step 5. Now you will come to a new web page where you can upload a file to be converted. Click upload on the left hand side under the actions panel. 12

13 Step 6. A new window will open where you can select the file you would like to upload. Click on the Pick File Link and select the file you would like to convert. IMPORTANT NOTE! Please be patient during the file selection process. You are uploading your file to the Adobe servers, and depending on file size (maximum of 100 MB) and your internet connection, this may take several minutes. An indicator of how many bytes loaded so far will eventually appear below your selected file. Now you can relax, you have just completed the hard part. Smile and make a list of all the people you will impress with your savvy computer skills! All that s left is to retrieve your new PDF file! Step 7. Now under the All Files section on the right hand side click on your finished PDF and select the grey arrow on the right. Then select download from the drop down menu. Step 8. After Selecting download a new window opens where you can pick the location you would like your file to download to. Select a destination and your finished! Step 9. Once all of your yearbook files have been converted and you have double-checked each file, you may send them to Print Graphics through our FTP site. Please call us at or Toll Free at for instructions on how to access this. Or just go to our website at and click on file uploads. Now sit back and give yourself a big pat on the back. Your file is now a PDF! 13

14 Supported files you can make into a PDF Microsoft Office Formats: Word (.doc), PowerPoint (.ppt), Excel (.xls), Publisher (.pub) Note: Create Adobe PDF Online converts documents which Microsoft Office 2000, Microsoft Publisher 2002 or Publisher 2003 are able to successfully open and print. Adobe Formats (CS / CS2 / CS3 / CS4) Illustrator (.ai), InDesign (.indd), PageMaker (.pm,.pm6,.p65,.pmd,.pmt), Photoshop (.psd) Note: Files from Illustrator version 9 or later are already stored as PDF files and do not require conversion. InDesign files earlier than version 2.0 are not supported for conversion. AutoCAD AutoCAD (.dwg) Note: Create Adobe PDF Online only supports AutoCAD files saved as versions Release 2.5 through AutoCAD Corel WordPerfect Office Formats WordPerfect (.wpd) Adobe PostScript Formats PostScript (.ps,.prn), Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) Text Formats Rich Text Format (.rtf), Text (.txt) Image Formats Windows bitmap (.bmp), GIF (.gif), JPEG (.jpg), PCX (.pcx), PICT (.pct,.pict), PNG (.png), RLE (.rle), TIFF (.tif) Note: If you are unable to convert your file to a PDF please don t hesitate to call Print Graphics at or Toll Free at

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