Quick album design question

I've created pretty simplistic albums before, but want to play around with more empty spaces, collages, etc.

So just a quick question...

Just as a simple example, let's say you have a 10x10 album. Say you want 2 photos on the page each photo is 3 inches wide. You want it the 2 photos spread evenly across the page.

Simple enough, and I know how to do this of course, but my question is, with all this stuff about "safety zone" and all the different trim margins, how do you really know if it's going to come out even?

Like if you design some kind of elaborate collage that has empty space between the photos, and perhaps to at the end of the page, etc, how do you know it's going to come out symmetrical as far as actual margin is concerned?

OK, so let's say this simple page...just for illustration purposes.

nickson

Im using picture creator pro. All i have to do is set the guidelines to what the bleed is, Usually 1/8th" and it comes our perfect. Ive designed 2 albums with the program and finally feel like im getting a good feel for what it will do. I spent a couple of hours with Kevin who designed the program and he got me up to speed with it as i felt my photoshop skills were not up to his level. Once he explained some things, the program was actually very easy to use and when you set the guidlines up, it comes out as you would see it in your screene that is shown.

PJ has the margins all set up for you, if you use proper resources. You just space and align your images, then hit the centre button, it works out fine.

OK, because a lot of these album makers make it sound like trimming the edges for finishing is random. So I was just wondering how I can make sure things are aligned and symmetrical, that's all.

I'll need to check PJ out. Right now, I am doing everything in Photoshop. Not so bad, but things could be quicker!

Nick,

My guess is they have an acceptable margin of error to allow variances in cutting. They plan to get it right on, but they dont want you to get upset if it cuts out something important. When I have used Millers for my engagement books, they have been right on. Just be weary of the edges.

If you use PJ everything is all setup for you. You choose the supplier and the album size etc and its all selected automatically.
Great software to use

Red Tie Photography wrote in post #12416065
Nick,

My guess is they have an acceptable margin of error to allow variances in cutting. They plan to get it right on, but they dont want you to get upset if it cuts out something important. When I have used Millers for my engagement books, they have been right on. Just be weary of the edges.

Yeah, that's what I thought. On full bleed pages, they always specify the "safe zone" and this differs between album companies it seems.

I try to keep any important details from being outside of the "safe zone", but was just wondering how strict I should be...

You can never rely on exact positioning of the cuts, that's why it's a safe zone not a cut line.

PJ will take a little while to learn, but once you know it your album design and rework time will fall by 80%. Changes take very little time if the customer requests them. You can still export to psd and tweak as much as you like before the order's sent off.

So in the case of the sample I posted, how would you do it? The margin on that sample is rather small...like 25px. Would you put the entire thing in the safe zone? Just seems like the area outside of the safe zone is pretty substantial. Just trying to figure out whether this is just a precautionary thing or there's a chance that they would butcher it!

You can't do a layout like that, one that relies on a specific width border. I'd make the images smaller so they either take up only the center 50% of the image (just for effect), or so everything including a small border is just within the safe zone.

Yeah, That's what I started to do. Pretty much eliminated any specific edge border. I was just wondering how others managed, that's all.

Yeah there aren't many options.

Cool. Thanks for your help Tim.

I use Lumapix pro and it makes all this very simple.