Supplying yearbook photos to SPC Yearbooks

Posted on May 16, 2012 by SPC Yearbooks

Although there’s quite a bit to organise when creating a yearbook, this article will hopefully offer helpful advice and guidance on supplying photos to include in your yearbook profile, montage and trips pages. If anything is still unclear however, please don’t hesitate to give us a call.

Send the best quality pictures you can and ideally rename digital images with the full name of the student. Place each class’s photos in a separate folder.

Supplying photos from a professional photographer

• If you are using your official school photos in your yearbook, then please ask your photographer to supply images on a CD at a minimum of 300dpi at a size of 50x40mm (dpi means dots per inch – a measure of resolution).

• Note that many photographers only supply the school with low resolution images for use on the school’s admin systems. You may need to contact them in order to get the images at a printable resolution and pay a small fee for them to send you a new CD.

• Please call us on 01480 410435 if you need any help or advice.

Supplying photos from your digital camera

If you are going to take yearbook photos yourself, make sure that you use at least the ‘normal’ or ‘high’ image quality setting, or your camera’s equivalent.

• It is a good idea to stand everyone in front of the same colour background for consistency.

• Make sure that you are the same distance away when taking all the photographs so that the students appear at the same size.

Missing Photos of Students/Staff

If students are absent or do not supply a yearbook photo you can either leave a blank box, use a silhouette or other image of your choice. Alternatively you could have a list at the end of each class.

Reusing an Existing Yearbook Design

Posted on May 9, 2012 by SPC Yearbooks

If your school has produced a yearbook in the past with SPC Yearbooks and you liked the look of the design, you can use these again for your new project – just speak to one of our Yearbook Account Managers by calling 01480 410435 or email yb@spc-yearbooks.co.uk.

If your school previously used our Complete Design or Pre-designed Template service to produce a yearbook then that design was unique to your school. If you wish to reuse the design, we may be able to give you a discount if it saves design hours for us.

Reusing an Existing Yearbook Design – Yearbook Creator
If your school produced a yearbook using the SPC Yearbook Creator software and you would like to use the design again but on a different computer, please follow the
instructions below. You will need access to the computer used to create the previous version.

Open the “SPC Page Creator Projects” folder on the computer holding last year’s project. On a PC, this can be found in “My Documents”, and on a Mac in “Users > Documents”.
The folder contains many files. The one you need is the PRJ file and should bear a name resembling the project name. Copy this file (e.g. to a pen drive or network) in order to move it to the new computer.
Ensure that the Yearbook Creator Software is installed on the computer you intend to use for the new project.
Insert the PRJ File into the “SPC Yearbook Creator Projects” folder on the new computer. Once this has been done you will have the previous yearbook project ready to edit. Its now just a matter of you removing what you don’t want in the project and adding what you do.

Click here to download our How To guide on ‘Reusing an Existing Yearbook Design’.

Get your free copy of our Sample Guide 2012 by clicking here!

How to crop and resize photos in Yearbook Creator and Yearbook Designer Live! software

Posted on April 4, 2012 by SPC Yearbooks

Yearbook Creator

To keep the original proportions of your image, drag and drop your photo from the ‘Pictures’ panel straight onto your yearbook page.
To enlarge or reduce the size of your image hold the Shift key when dragging the corners of your images, this will keep your image in it’s original proportions. Alternatively, check that ‘Constrain Proportions’ is ticked in the Inspector panel (under the menu represented by a small ruler icon).
Double-click the image on your page to open the ‘Crop Picture…’ window, here you can crop your image.

When using pre-designed Page Styles, using the ‘Fit picture to box’ option can save time, but depending on the format of your image i.e. portrait or landscape, can determine how well your image fits inside a pre-placed picture box.

To choose different fitting options, right-click on the image and select ‘Fit’. Remember you can double-click on the image to alter the crop area.

Yearbook Designer Live!

Drag and drop your image either straight onto your yearbook page, or drop it into a ‘Drag & drop’ image box on a pre-designed layout (these can be found in the ‘Layouts’ tab). The online software automatically fits your image to the box.
You can change the size and proportions of the box by dragging either corner (where the yellow square handles are located). The image will automatically refit to this box size and shape.
To move your image around inside the image box, simply click once on the image to load the ‘Edit Options’ window. Use the ‘Move’ arrows to move your image up, down, left or right. To zoom in, use the Zoom slider.

If you would like to see the whole of the image, make your picture proportions as close to the original image as you can, for example, if you drag on a landscape photo – drag the yellow square handles to make the picture box landscape until you see the whole of your image.

Get your free copy of our Sample Guide 2012 by clicking here!

Help! How do I add pages in Yearbook Creator and Yearbook Designer Live?

Posted on March 14, 2012 by SPC Yearbooks

If you are using either of our create-your-own solutions to build your yearbook, do you need to know how to add more pages to your yearbook? Here’s a step by step guide to adding and deleting pages in Yearbook Creator and Yearbook Designer Live:

Yearbook Creator – SPC’s powerful desktop software

Open your project
If you wish to add a page between other pages you’re working on, go to Page > Insert. This will add a spread before the spread you have selected. Pages are added and deleted as spreads in Yearbook Creator, and not as single pages.
If you want to add more pages at the end of your yearbook, go to Page > Add and this will add a spread at the end of your project.

It’s also possible to duplicate a spread in Yearbook Creator – this is handy if you want to use exactly the same artwork and layout over multiple pages.

To duplicate a spread, select the spread you wish to duplicate and go to Page > Duplicate.

If you wish to delete pages in Yearbook Creator…

Select the spread you wish to remove and go to Page > Delete.

Yearbook Designer Live – SPC’s online collaborative yearbook app

Open your project in the editor
In the ‘Pages’ panel (to the right of the editor), click the page icon with a green ‘+’ (beneath the ‘Pages’ panel), this will add a single page to the end of your yearbook. It’s best to add two pages at a time to ensure there’s an even number of pages in your book.

To move your new pages within your yearbook…

Click and hold the page you wish to move until a ghost-like, enlarged version of the page appears. Drag this to where you would like to move it, and drop. To download a more detailed guide on how to rearrange pages, click here. Be careful when moving and deleting pages as these actions cannot be undone.

If you wish to delete pages at the end of your book in Yearbook Designer Live…

Click the page icon with a red ‘x’ (this is located beneath the ‘Pages’ panel on the right of the editor), this will delete a single page from the end of your book. It’s best to delete 2 pages at a time to ensure your yearbook has an even number of pages.

If you would like to delete a page from within your project…

Drag and drop it to the end of the project and delete using the delete button (as above).

Get your free copy of our Sample Guide 2012 by clicking here!

How to design leavers’ prom tickets

Posted on January 4, 2012 by SPC Yearbooks

Looking to wow your guests with professionally printed prom tickets? Using SPC’s Yearbook Designer Live online system, you can use one of our pre-designed prom template designs or create your own unique prom ticket design from scratch. Before you begin making your prom tickets, create a user account on our Yearbook Designer Live site http://online.spc-yearbooks.co.uk/site/startingout. Here are steps on how to achieve your perfect leavers’ prom tickets…

Once signed in, click ‘Create Prom Tickets‘ on the left hand side on the ‘Home’ page.
Once you’ve read through the information, click ‘Start creating prom tickets now!‘ at the top of the page.
Here you’ll see previews of each pre-designed prom ticket (hover over each one to see an enlarged version). There’s also a blank ticket at the end if you would prefer to create your own unique design from scratch. See how to upload your own artwork to Yearbook Designer Live. Once you’ve chosen a design, click the preview to load the editor.
As you move your mouse over the artwork in the editor, you’ll see highlighted boxes for each of the editable text fields. Click once on a text field to add your school name, price, etc. and once you’re happy with your prom ticket, hit ‘Save & Exit’ (the central button in the top right corner) to save your ticket in your ‘Projects’.
When you’re ready to order your prom tickets, go to ‘Projects’ in the top navigation and click on your prom ticket project to open the editor. Click the trolley icon in the top right corner of the editor to begin the order process.
Enter the quantity of prom tickets you require, enter an ‘Authorisation Code‘ if you have one and hit ‘Checkout’.
Add the address details of where you would like your prom tickets to be sent.
Check over the ‘Order Confirmation‘ details, this is your last to chance to enter an ‘Authorisation Code’ if you have one. When you’re happy to proceed, hit ‘Proceed to Payment’.
If you entered an ‘Authorisation Code’ then you’ll be taken to our thank you page. However, if you’re paying online then you’ll be taken to Paypal ready for your payment details to be entered.

What should I do next?
Please let SPC Yearbooks know that you’ve sent through an order by contacting yb@spc-yearbooks.co.uk or call 01480 410435. Also let a member of staff know if you would like your prom tickets to be numbered.

Get your free copy of our Sample Guide 2012 by clicking here!

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