What is a Lay Flat Photo Book?
- What Is a Lay Flat Photo Book?
- How Are Lay Flat Photo Books Made?
- Where to Find a Lay Flat Photo Book Printer
- Options In Lay Flat Photo Books
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Photo books are one of the best methods for showing photography for an event or as an album or portfolio for you as a photographer or for a client to highlight their business. A lay flat photo book is the best way to show off these photos.
What is a lay flat photo book, and how is it different from other photo books or photo albums? How are lay flat photo books made? Where can you get a lay flat photo book made?
Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents:
What Is a Lay Flat Photo Book?
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To start out, let’s look at what a lay flat photo book is. In most books, there is what’s called a gutter. A gutter is the inner margin of the open pages, where the pages meet or come together. With regular binding, the gutter margin needs to be kept blank, or at least have nothing important in those margins.
The reason why is that the gutter creates a bend where the pages meet. This bend makes the pages arc upward so that not only is there a deep gutter, but there is also a flexed page. Put both issues together, and you have a page environment that is not conducive to ease of viewing of any photos that have a border near the gutter.
This book binding gutter phenomenon also means that there is no way to have a photo bleed across two open pages and be easy to view. That gutter and page flex will pretty much obscure the details in the middle of any image spread across two pages.
A lay flat photo book has a different method of binding. The pages are bound inside the book with room for the pages to move in such a way that there is no gutter and thus no flex either. In printing, this is called case binding or edition binding. For use in photography, we call this a lay flat photo book.
The end result is that you open a lay flat photo book and have a clear view of everything on the page, even right down the center of a two-page spread. The gutter is gone. Instead, you have a seamless edge.
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How Are Lay Flat Photo Books Made?
The pages need to be thicker than a regular book for a lay flat photo book. The glue is also different due to the increased area being viewed. Instead of relying on a sewn binding, the glued thicker pages can be laid flat, regardless of where in the book you are, front, back, or center.
The book board for the front and back cover is very rigid, making a stable platform for the lay flat photo book page spreads. The cover material is attached to the book board. With a lay flat photo book, the pages are photographic paper, so the glue used must stick well.
Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) adhesive is used for attaching the pages. It is formulated so that it can stick to the photographic paper used for the lay flat photo book. Regular book glue is great for porous pages, but EVA glue is preferred for a lay flat photo book.
Where to Find a Lay Flat Photo Book Printer
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Making a lay flat photo book is a specialty process, one that requires high-quality materials and well-trained technicians. Photo Book Press is a fantastic source for ordering a lay flat photo book.
Making a lay flat photo book is an intricate process that involves careful consideration of gluing adhesive, hardcover binding, and paper selection. Photo Book Press makes lay flat photo books in several sizes. Every book that is made is carefully adjusted and crafted from the highest quality materials and by superbly trained printers.
Options In Lay Flat Photo Books
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There are multiple options for creating your lay flat photo book from Photo Book Press. There are 18 templates for creating one, including a totally blank one for controlling everything. Sizes are two different square formats, 8 ½” and 12”, plus an 8x10” format in either landscape or portrait orientation.
Upload your photos as JPEG image files and arrange them in whatever order you want. You can place multiple photos on one page or have one photo spread across two open pages. Borders are available or choose no borders. It’s all in your control!
There are styles and themes, clipart that can be added, and text of various sizes and fonts can be placed right inside the photos or anywhere else on the page. Finally, choose what you want your cover to be, plain text, a photo, or one of several textured finishes.
Whether you’re making one for yourself or as a product to sell to a client, a lay flat photo book from Photo Book Press is a fantastic method of showing off your photography.
