Create a Family Cookbook - General Guidelines

Here are some general guidelines on organizing your material to create your family cookbook from prints or digital photos.

Choose about 35 of your favorite photographs. When choosing your photos pay attention to details such as focus and color quality. If you have selected similar pictures try to choose the best one. Digital photos with a low resolution will not print well (ideally the file size should hover around 1MB or above.)

By creating a custom family cookbook you are opening up a myriad of possibilities. Do you want to include materials other than photos? hand written recipe cards, family memories, etc...

ALL OF YOUR ORIGINAL MATERIALS WILL BE RETURNED TO YOU WITH YOUR ORDER!

Think about a title for your book and a dedication.

Would you like a background color for your pages?

Separator pages like chapter headings for the different food groups or family members?

Envision your ideal family cookbook and describe it for us and we will make it happen.

Create a Family Cookbook - Organizing your photographs

Number your pictures in the order you would like them to appear in your book. You can do this with post-its on the back or using a ballpoint pen lightly on the back of the photo. If you are using digital pictures just number the files in the order you would like them to appear in your book before saving them to a disk.

Mark the print(s) you would like for the cover with a "C" as well as the number. For a digital photo, just include "C" along with the number you have assigned in the file name.

If you would like to make sure that a number of pictures appear on the same page just give them the same number followed by a letter (1a, 1b, etc..).

We adapt our layouts to display your pictures in the best possible way and make our books as pleasing as possible. If you have a preference as to which pictures you would like to have as a full page (8 x 8) or (8.5 x 11) please give them an * along side the number you have assigned them.

Create a Family Cookbook - Organizing your text

Unless you want recipes scanned and reproduced onto the page as they are (therefore counting in your photo count) please type all of your recipes.

Type the captions for your photos or write them on a post-it and attach it to the photograph it is to accompany or include a separate piece of paper with this order form and write the text along with the number of the photograph it is to accompany. For captions for digital photos and for recipes please include a text file on your cd referencing the photo they are to accompany.

For pages of text please give them a number, as if they were a picture, according to the order in which you would like them to appear in your book.

For all text saved to a file make sure the picture number it is to accompany is clear.

For any additional instructions or information you feel we might need to make your book exactly what you want, please include them with your order form.

Putting it all together

Print out an order form from this site and send it in with the materials you have assembled. Your book will be in your hands in 2-3 weeks! All of your original material will be sent back with your book and we will keep your book on file for a year should you want to order additional copies.

Before you get your family cookbook

For all of our books you get to see a pdf proof of what your book will look like before we print. That way you can make any changes you need to to get it just right!

For the computer savvy

If you are doing your own page layouts in a program like photoshop set your page size to 8.5 x 11 or 8 x 8 depending on the size of your book. You can do your design as a double page spread (17 x 11 or 16 x 8) but price wise your files will count as 2 photos/files.

Don't put any important information such as text or faces too close to the edge of your page or to the inside margin. We usually set up guides before we start a quarter inch from each of the edges of my page and a half of an inch from the inside edge (bind).

The color space we use is Adobe RGB (1998) and print in CMYK U.S. web coated SWOP.

Regardless of the application you are using you should be able to save your pages as jpegs (jpg.) If you are using photoshop and want to save your files as .psd files feel free but please flatten your layers!

If you insist on doing your own cover design (which we completely understand), go ahead and make it as a normal double page spread (17 x 11 or 16 x 8 depending on the size of your book) or break it up into a front cover (normal page size) and a back cover (normal page size) and we will enlarge the file as needed. The text should be nowhere near any of the edges of your layout. Giving exact dimensions is not possible because they are dependant on the size of the spine. If you can stand relinquishing control just save the files you wanted to use on the cover and let us do the assembly. You always get to see a proof so you are not really risking anything!

We are always available to answer your questions so contact us if you need help. We are always happy to hear from you.

Thank you for your interest in publishing a Family Cookbook. We look forward to receiving your order!

Download and Print a Family Cookbook Order Form

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