ON-LINE YEARBOOKS
Program, licence and on-line server space to save files for your yearbook per year
Any school based document can use this system. Payment is for the academic year to the end of August 2007, and includes some great free documents to help guide students through the yearbook design and management process. For some schools, creating an on-line publication is all that is needed to share information with students, and some schools will choose not to go to the print stage or to do printing in house, but this may not be the best or most cost efficient mechanism.
To go to print, there are three main options:
Don’t forget to think about paper quality
Center stitched. Design your layout so that you create groups of 2 or 4 A3 oversize pages, (finished as 8 or 16 A4 pages) in a block, ready to be stitched.
A 3mm all round bleed area is included so that the book is cropped to A4 when finished, and you don’t have a white margin all round on every page. By organising the book in this way, student groups have manageable sections to create and control the editing processes. Groups of 8 or 16 pages can be accumulated, so that pages lie as flat as possible when the bound book is opened at any page. Adding an extra sheet gives an extra block of 4 A4 pages of content, but you can always use additional pages for autograph or message space. This is the superior binding option, because pages are held most securely and is the traditional binding method used for centuries. The stitches can be seen if you open the pages fully in the centre of the 8 or 16 page block, and cut across double page spreads, but perhaps you would like a photograph of the entire year formally and informally as double page spreads on the inside front and back covers and flyleaves which will not have any stitching or binding problem to interrupt that great whole school years photograph, and so achieve the best overall luxury option.
Edge stitched. You design your layout to oversize A4 pages, with a 10mm extra large edge margin, and 3mm bleed area all round.
The pages are created in the order you determine from the front to the back of the book, and if you decide to add an odd additional sheet anywhere in the book, you only add 2 A4 pages to the page count. Edge stitching does mean that the book is easier to read during the whole editing process because pagination changes are more easily automated. It is slightly weaker stitching, and pages could theoretically be more easily torn out, but the pages are very tightly stitched and gluing methods have improved enormously to the point that many people would not notice the difference. The whole book cannot open completely flat at any point, but those two double page spread options on the inside and back covers will lie flat. It is just a little harder to achieve effective double page spread layout at other points in the book without allowing extra for the curved centre point. Our team can guide teachers and students through such technical difficulties if you decide to buy this option.
Perfect bound
You design your layout to oversize A4 pages with a narrower extra edge margin and 3mm bleed area all round.
The pages are created in the order you determine from the front to the back of the book, and if you decide to add an odd additional sheet anywhere in the book, you only add 2 A4 pages to the page count. Gluing and glued Perfect bound techniques have improved enormously in recent years. It means that a full colour printed linen-effect softer cover can be used to keep costs lower, even for very short runs, though for stitched binding, of course a printed dustcover can be created for any book to achieve a similar effect. Edge gluing does mean that the book will eventually be able to fold flat, but may leave the spine creased, and over time, pages could loosen, and the spine more easily damaged. However, yearbooks are often handled with care, because they contain such treasured memories, so they are unlikely to be used in quite the same abandonment as a cheap paperback novel. It is easy to read during the whole editing process because pagination changes are easily automated. Double page spreads must be handled with care to avoid loss of image.
Paper quality. We recommend a silk finish, so there is less reflective glare from high gloss finished surfaces, but the choice is yours. Yearbooks could have a ‘shelf life’ of a hundred years as we live longer and longer and pass on our memories to successive generations. Completely matt finishes are typically slightly rougher and do not have quite the same wear quality if sticky fingers continually touch the same point, as they more easily absorb traces of material. Super matt finishes are the luxury solution using high tech surface treatments which reduce glare and protect. End papers have to accept glue, a cartridge paper works best.
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