Note:
With Printess’s Magic Photo Book customers can effortlessly create their own personalized photo book with just a few clicks. By integrating powerful features like Layout Snippets and Splitter Grids with AI technology, we offer a completely new user experience that transforms how your customers engage with your product!
You have two different option to set up a target Template.
A: a Template which only includes a single Document with a front page and a back side page.
B: a Template including two Documents. One Document for the Cover and a second one for the Inner Pages including a dynamic spine because the Buyer is allowed to add pages.
We recommend to work with a Cover and an Inner Pages Document to use the Cover Page & Spine option. How this works in detail is explained here:
Learn about Cover Page & Spine
In both cases you have to set up the following Book features at the Buyer Side Tab of your single Document or the Inner Pages Document at the Features Panel:
Book Inside Pages: Enables the option to define the inner pages and the cover page in two different Documents and to add spreads at the Buyer Side
Buyer can add Spreads/ Pages You have to activate the option that the Buyer can add Spreads to the Document. And you have to define the number of Spreads which could be added.
Define a Minimum and Maximum number of Spreads the Buyer can add. The maximum number of Spreads which could be added influences the maximum number of pages of your photo book. In this example the maximum number of pages for the photo book is limited to 26. So if you would like to allow more pages you would have to increase the maximum number of Spreads which could be added.
To make your Template a Magic Photo Book you need to activate this feature at the Buyer View Appearance Settings.
Go to Buyer View Appearance Settings
To support the full magic of the Magic Photo Book you should use Splitter Grids in some of your Layout Snippets. Therefore you can use the “printess-basic-image-layouts” which are assigned at Buyer View Appearance Settings by default. Or you can create your own Layot Snippets of the category basic. Only then Printess can automatically split the image frames of a Layout Snippet to increase the number of images being placed on it. This creates a greater variety of image arrangements. Depending on the format of your photo product Printess generates up to 9 image frames per page.
Learn more about Layout Snippets
Learn more about Splitter Grids
To make the Layout Snippets work in the Magic Photo Book it is extremely important to set them up in the right way!
The options extreme portrait and extreme landscape should be handled with care. Often the layout does not look good.
If you are setting up a Layout Library to be used in the Magic Photo Book you have to use dedicated Keywords for the Layout Snippets.
Use the Keyword basic for Layout Snippets which includes image frames only.
These are the most versatile Layout Snippets. They do not include any graphic elements and so they could be used all across your different design Templates. Because of including image frames only they are tailor made to be set up using Splitter Grids. In general you are fine to just use the “printess-basic-image-layouts” which are assigned by default at the Buyer View Appearance Settings.
Layout Snippets with the Keyword background are automatically applied to all pages of the Photo Book as backgrounds. This ensures that when the Buyer adds pages or uses Layout Snippets with the Keyword basic no blank or non styled backgrounds appear. Background Layout Snippets contain only graphical elements and no editable frames for the Buyer. This combines the versatility of the basic Layout Snippets with the dedicated design of the design Layout Snippets.
Background Layout Snippets do not have any Aspect Ratio defined!
Layout Snippets of the category background will always be placed on any page of your Photo Book. Layout Snippet of any other category will be additionally placed on top of them! Therefore it is important to define a background color for all Layout Snippets of the Keyword category design. You must place a Shape across the entire page in the background and fill it at least with the color “White”! Otherwise the design of the background Layout Snippets will shine through.
Normally a Layout Library consists solely of Single Page Documents. But for the background Layout Snippets you have to create a multi-page Document. Including a first page, a last page and spreads. The more Layout Snippets you create, the more versatile the design of your photo book will be.
Note: Every frame of your “background” Layout has to be placed on a separate Layer. This layer has to be called “REPEAT”.
Use the Keyword design for Layout Snippets which includes design elements in addition to the image frames.
They are specifically designed for individual themes such as birthdays, weddings, or vacations. Consequently, a static number of images may be needed to meet the design requirements - like in our example. They have to include a background shape with a color defined - at least “White”- if you are working with background Layout Snippets as well.
If you are working with Cover and Inner Pages you have to define dedicated Keywords for the Cover and the Cover-Title.
To set up a Layout Snippet for the Cover you have to add a Document with Inner Pages to your Layout Library. It won’t be used later but only then you can also define a Document with Cover and Spine to make it a Cover Layout Snippet.
So add a Document to your Layout Library to call it “inner-pages”. Go to the Buyer Side Settings Tab of that Inner Pages Document. You find it at the Features Panel. Activate the option Book Inside Pages.
Now add a second Document to your Layout Library to call it “cover”. Go to the Document Settings at the Features Panel to click on the Books Icon.
This Icon is only available if your Template includes a Document where Book Inside Pages is activated. As soon as you click on that icon your Cover Document will change its format to show you the Spine.
Use the Keyword cover for the Layout Snippet of the Cover.
The back side of the Cover and the Spine need to have static design. But for the Cover Title you can define additional Layout Snippets which will be automatically placed on top of the Cover Layout Snippet.
The Cover Layout Snippet got some restrictions:
Positioning of the Spine design To let the design of the Spine area move and grow with it you have to use variables instead of fixed values for the positioning. The final bleed could be defined in the target Template like usual in mm, cm or inch.
Make sure that all frames of the Spine design are grouped. Select them all and press “cmd + g” or “ctrl + g”
Define the Position top-left
Define the Docking left, top and bottom
Define Left with “=spine.left” to positioning the left edge of the group frame to the left edge of the Spine
Set Top and Bottom to “-2%” if you are working with a Bleed. It ensures that the group frame will always expand into the Bleed.
Define the Width with “=spine.width” to match the width of the frame group to the width of the Spine.
Positioning of the back side design Also the design of the back side area of the Cover has to move if the Spine is growing. So for the positioning of each frame you have to use variable values too.
Define the Position top-left
Define the Docking left, top and right
Define Left with “x%” to define the distance of the left edge of the frame to the left edge of the Page. “x” is the percentage of the entire page width.
Define Right with “=spine.right + x%” to define the distance of the right edge of the frame to the right edge of the Spine. “x” is the percentage of the entire page width.
Use the Keyword cover-title for the Layout Snippet of the Cover-Title.
It will be automatically placed on top of the Cover Layout Snippet. Therefore you have to make sure that it got a transparent background!
The Cover Layout Snippet will be placed on the Document “Cover” of your target Template. The Cover-Title Layout Snippet above. This is why it has to have a transparent background.
To make sure that the Cover-Title Layout Snippet will be placed in the right space of the target Document “Cover” you have to define a Placement Margin in the target Document “Cover”.
Therefore you have to activate the option Placement Margin at the Snippet Placement Tab of the Features Panel.
In addition you have to define an offset for the left edge of the Cover-Title Layout Snippet when it will be placed. Because of the fact that the Spine dynamically growth with the number of pages you have to use a formula instead of a fixed value. So you have to type in “=spine.right” to place the Cover-Title Layout Snippet at the right edge of the Spine. As soon as you press return this formula will be calculated to show a numeric value again. Don’t worry this is right. That value will now automatically recalculated as soon as the width of the Spine is changing.
For the first and the last page of a single Document Template you have to define dedicated Keywords.
Use the Keyword first-page for Layout Snippets which should be used for the first page when you are working with a single Document Template. .
Use the Keyword last-page for Layout Snippets which should be used for the last page when you are working with a single Document Template.
After you have designed all these different Layout Snippets you have publish them.
Therefore you have to:
Switch the Template Type to Layout Lib
Assign the same Tag to each Layout Snippet
Publish all Layout Snippets
Learn how to publish Layout Snippets
Congratulations! You have created your first Magic Photo Book!
Now you only have to assign the published Layout Library to your target Template. Go to your target Template to open the Buyer View Appearance Setting. You can use the shortcut “a” to open it. Now go to the Images Tab.
You can assign more than one Layout Library to your Magic Photo Book. And if you would like to offer different design where the Buyer can choose from you can use your Layout Libraries as Magic Photo Book Themes.