iphoto Book Themes A concise but exhaustive guide to every iphoto layout possible Liz Castro s Guide to Modern Lines

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1 Liz Castro s Guide to iphoto Book Themes A concise but exhaustive guide to every iphoto layout possible I have created a separate guide for each iphoto book theme. For more information, see by Elizabeth Castro. All Rights Reserved Introduction 2 Description 3 Summary 4 Cover 5 Back 6 Flap 6 Intro 7 Map 7 One 8 Two 8 Three 9 Four 10

2 Introduction I ve never found it very easy to choose which theme to use when constructing a book in iphoto. Part of the problem is that the sample pages that the program shows you when you choose the theme don t give you nearly enough details. Which themes have pages with captions? Which themes will let me put 12 photos on the same page? How do I get that layout that looks so different from the little icons in the menu? If you want more details, you ve come to the right place. Each of my guides to iphoto Book Themes contains a concise but exhaustive description of every layout that is possible within the given theme. Not only can you see every layout menu at a glance on the Summary page, but you will see beautiful, full-color examples of each layout, along with concise descriptions that describe what is going on. Even if you don t want quite so much information, the first page about each theme can give you a summarized idea of the possibilities available within each one: the general feel of the layout, how many photos you can put on a page, what fonts are used, what text options are available, and more. About original orientation Understanding the importance of the original orientation of your photos is essential for finding your way around iphoto book themes. The original orientation refers to whether a photo is horizontally-oriented (wider than it is tall, also known as landscape) or vertically-oriented (taller than it is wide, or portrait). Some iphoto layouts change slightly to maintain the original orientation of your photos. For example, when you first see the page, you may see a vertically-oriented frame, but when you place a horizontally-oriented photo in that frame, it changes into a horizontally-oriented frame to match. That is a minor change. If a frame does not maintain the original orientation of a photo, it s called a rigid frame. In that case, if you place a vertical photo in a horizontal frame (or vice-versa), the photo is automatically cropped and fit into the frame. In this case, you may want to re-center the photo so the part that you re interested in is visible. You can also force a frame to maintain the original orientation by right-clicking the photo and choosing Fit Photo to Frame Size. In most cases, this will result in blank spaces around the photo. The original orientation is even more important with a select number of the layouts that dramatically change depending on which kind of photos you place in it, and indeed where you place them. All of the layouts below were created with the same layout menu option (from Picture Book). The first two have three photos of each orientation, the second two have the same set of mixed orientation photos in different orders. Notice that all the layouts are completely different! Because of this issue, a theme s layout menus are woefully inadequate for describing the richness of possibilities available in every kind of layout. A single menu option may have many different layouts, all depending on the original orientation of the photos you place, and where you place them. That s why you need this guide I recommend printing it out and having it by your side while you re laying out your book. It will help you both know which layouts are possible, and figure out how to recreate them with your own photos. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. You can reach me at Page 2

3 is characterized by straight, borderless photos on a dozen different plain backgrounds with thin black dividing lines. The cover can have 1, 3, or 6 scattered photos, the inside flap can have one photo, text, or both, and there are blank, one-, two-, three-, and fourphoto layouts, plus the standard three introduction pages, and maps page. Helvetica Neue is used for most of the text. Last Updated: January, 2010 The only changes to the layout in iphoto 09 are the addition of three introduction (or text) pages and the ability to create maps. As far as I can tell, everything else has remained the same. Page 3

4 summary cover back one four... background (7-13) background (1-6) flap two intro three (Only the first 12 backgrounds are available for the cover) map Page 4

5 cover The theme has three simple layouts for the cover on your choice of a dozen different pastel backgrounds (which I have only begun to sample with these examples). Helvetica Neue is the font used for the title and subtitle. Photos are displayed without borders, though thin black lines are placed between adjacent photos. The first layout offers a full-bleed photo, automatically cropped to fit. Right-click and choose Fit Photo to Frame Size to force the photo s original orientation (below right). With three photos, you get three rigid frames: one large to the left and two smaller ones to the right, divided by thin dividing lines. The title and subheader are left-aligned below the photos. Note that if you right-click and choose Fit Photo to Frame Size, you get a much different effect (as shown, below right). Layout 2 depends on the original orientation of your photos. With a horizontal photo, the caption is left-aligned below the photo (below left). With one vertical photo, the title and subtitle are left-aligned to the right of the photo (below right). Note that a thin line separates the title from the subtitle. Whether the dividing line and text is black or white depends on the background that you ve chosen. page 5

6 back The theme s layouts for the back cover are pretty standard: blank (not shown), a photo, a photo with caption (divided by a thin line), and a caption alone. All photos maintain their original orientation. flap has very standard inside and back flaps (which can be set independently). Layout 1 is a simple blank flap. Layout 3 gives you a header and subheader (separated by a thin dividing line) at the top and a medium-sized frame at the bottom that maintains the original orientation of your photo. Layout 2 has a single medium-sized frame in the middle which depends on the original orientation of your photo. And Layout 4 has just two blocks of text: a header and a subheader. page 6

7 intro The theme has three standard introduction page layouts. I ve used a different background in each of these examples, just to give you an idea of the possibilities. Whether the color of the text is white or black depends on the chosen background. You can always change the text color by right-clicking, choosing Fonts and then Show Colors. The first introduction page has a header and one large body of text, divided by a thin line. The second introduction page contains just the body of text. The third introduction page has two columns for text. map has a single Map page, with a single, full-bleed map but no photos. uses gray and green land with light blue water. Page 7

8 one There are three one-photo layouts in the theme: one full bleed, one with a large photo, and one with a large photo and caption. Let s begin with the full bleed layout (#1). Generally, photos are cropped to fill the entire page (as shown below left). You can force them to maintain their original orientation by right-clicking and choosing Fit Photo to Frame Size (in which case, the background shines through on the sides, as shown below right). Layouts 2 and 3 have a single large borderless frame, which maintains the original orientation of your photo. Layout 2 adds a caption (right). two has just two 2-photo layouts. Both display straight frames that maintain the original orientation of your photos. With two verticals, the photos are a bit larger than with two horizontals. If you use one photo of each orientation, the vertical photo becomes much smaller and the horizontal one a little larger. This is Layout 2, which adds a caption, but is otherwise identical to Layout 1. page 8

9 three has two 3-photo layouts. The layouts (identical except for the caption) change considerably depending on the original orientation of your photos. If you start with three vertical photos, they ll be placed side by side (below left). Three horizontal photos are placed with one large horizontal above two smaller side-by-side horizontals. If you have two horizontal photos and one vertical, there are two more possibilities. First, you can have a large vertical next to either the left or right of two stacked horizontals. If you use two vertical shots and one horizontal, you can choose between two very different layouts. The first has one of the verticals large to the left and the other two stacked into the remaining space with thin dividing lines. The other displays a large horizontal with the two verticals stacked to the right, again with thin dividing lines. To get the desired layout, drag the photo that you want to be large into the leftmost frame. Or one of the horizontals can be displayed large across the bottom, while the remaining two photos are displayed smaller across the top. In this case, the vertical photo always goes to the right, though you can change the order of the horizontals as shown. As usual, thin dividing lines separate the photos. Note that Layout 2, which has all the same combinations as Layout 1 but with a caption, is shown in the two examples below. Page 9

10 four The 4-photo layouts in the theme display straight frames in either two rows of two photos each, or one photo next to a stack of three smaller ones. If you use four horizontal photos, the page is divided equally among them (left). If you use more than two vertical photos, the lower left frame displays one photo (though not necessarily the vertical one) in vertical orientation. Other vertically-oriented photos are cropped to fit. However, when I switched to Layout 2, which should be identical except for the caption, it first shifted the vertical photo to the vertical frame. If you use a single vertical photo and three horizontal, you ll get a large vertical photo to the left and three stacked horizontals to the right. The curious thing is that you don t necessarily have to have the vertical photo in the vertical frame. Below left, for example, the picture of my dog with the fox is horizontally oriented, and the cow by itself is vertically oriented. Go figure. If I dragged the top-right horizontal picture in, it switched me to the layout shown on the left in the first example on this page. Even more curious is that if I dragged the bottom-right horizontal picture in, it let me use it in the vertical slot. The moral of the story is, if you re not satisfied with the layout, drag the photos around until you make it do what you want! Note that the caption is right-aligned below the photos. Page 10