Viovio Premium 12 x 12 photo books, The process: creating & laying out book

May 7th, 2010 by Heidi

Now that we have our images uploaded and the cover created, lets create the book!

Begin by going to Books & Products | Book Designer

This will start Viovio’s Book Designer program.

• Give your photo album a title.
• Choose Product type.  I am creating the 12 x 12 square book so I choose Square 1:1.
• You can choose number of pages but I left it as default of 20.  You can add or remove pages later.
• Then click Create

Note:  For digital scrapbookers that are uploading full 12 x 12 pages (or other size) you do not need to do anything with templates on the right side.

You will be presented with an empty album:

The next step is to add your images to each page.  I like the Auto-fill pages.  If your pictures are already ordered, they will be placed ordered into the book.   (When I get ready to print a book I will rename all my jpgs with the page number and filename.)  This isn’t necessary though because Viovio Book Designer provides an easy way to order your pages.  Auto-fill will also add the correct number of pages to match the number of images you uploaded.   So for now, click on the Auto-fill and you will have to wait a bit.  I had 46 pages it put into the book and it took a few minutes.

Once the book is auto-filled, you will see images on each page:

If you want to order any pages click on the second icon to Reorder your pages.   Drag & drop the pages around to order them and when done click on Save.

Note:  When you look at individual pages, you might see image1 in the upper left hand corner of the images.   When you look at the previews that image1 text will not print.

Once you have images on their pages and ordered correctly, you can go on to step 2, Design Cover.  Click on it on the upper-right hand corner.

I am doing a full-wrap cover and we already created the cover in a previous post so we are ready to go:

• Since I don’t put text on the cover, the top 5 choices, don’t apply.   If you do want to add text on the spine, this is where you should do – in the Spine Text field.
• I click the Full Wrap Cover box since my cover is one large image.  Then I choose where that is file is located.
• Viovio Logo Alignment.  By default it is in the bottom center.  I changed my setting to bottom right since I have my logo in the bottom center.
• I also deleted the Product URL.  This is a private album and don’t want or expect others to purchase so I don’t want the Product URL on the bottom.

Once done, click on Update Cover

Once the cover updates, you will see a preview of the cover and since I used their template, it is just as I expected:

If everything, looks ok, click on Next.  You will be presented with your photo book previews, pricing, settings.

• The first thing you want to do is set your security on the bottom right and click on Save to save your book so you don’t lose what you have done.
• Next you want to click on Generate Pageflip and Generate PDF views right underneath your cover and it will create what your book will look like.    (Each step takes a little while.)
• You can click on PDF Preview and proof all your pages.  Make sure there are no typos!  If there is correct your page, delete the page that is wrong in your photo album, reupload the image, and go back to Step 1 and make sure that page gets updated with your changes.  You do not need to do whole process again.
• The Page flip allows you to make sure all pages are ordered correctly and you got the left & right paired correctly.  It also allows you to show the crop guides so you make sure nothing is being cut-off.
• 
• If all is correct you can click on Buy Now! select the type of book you want and go through the checkout process.
• 

You’ll notice that I am printing a 2007 book!  I am really not that far behind in my digital scrapbooking. I am working on mid – 2009 right now so a little less than year behind.  I am a chronological scrapper for my family albums.  In addition, I create project albums.  I about to send an album of to my parent about a cabin they built in the early 1970’s.  Just that far behind in my printing.

I did the cheaper slower shipping method, so when I receive the book I will let you know what it looks like.  I found the process of uploading my images, creating the book and buying the book from Viovio fairly easy and straightforward!