How To Guide - Folio Albums

HOW TO GUIDE
Folio Albums
Designer
Contents
Creating a design
Free Matted Album Design Service
Edit Spreads
Storyboard
Versions
Share Album
Cloning a project
Upload
(Click a heading to take you to the appropriate page)
Creating a design
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The Folio Albums Designer can be accessed at the following link:
designer.folioalbums.com
When logged in to the Folio Albums Shop the Designer will automatically create you
an account and log you in.
Upon visiting the Designer you will be presented with the above screen. Select
‘Create new album project’ then choose the appropriate album type and/or size. A
Project name will need to be typed in the provided box.
The next stage of the design process requires images to be uploaded. The available
options are:
Quick upload step 1: (Recommended) Low resolution thumbnails will be uploaded for
the design process
Quick upload step 2: If step 1 is chosen then after the design is completed step 2 will
need to be followed, uploading the high resolution files before exporting the design.
This step will skip any selected photos that were not used within the design.
Slower upload: Both low resolution thumbnails, for the design process, and high
resolution files, for the export, will be uploaded at the same time, allowing the design
to be exported directly after it has been designed.
Once all the images have uploaded the following options will become available:
Edit Spreads
Storyboard
Versions
Request Free Design (Matted Albums only)
Free Matted Album Design Service
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After uploading the images to be used within the design, you may select the ‘Request
free design’ button on the designer home page. This service is currently only available
for Matted Albums.
Please ensure images are renamed in the following way: 001, 002, 003…021, 022,
023…101, 102, 103 to ensure they appear in the designer in the correct order.
We work on a 4 image per spread average so for a 10 spread album we would request
that 40 images are uploaded to the designer.
Once your design is completed an email will be sent to let you know. The design can
easily be viewed by going back to the designer home page.
By clicking on the ‘Share Design’ button you can send it on to your clients, who can
then make any comments on the relevant spreads. If any changes are requested by
either yourself or your client then please send an email to hello@folioalbums.com
with the required changes.
Alternatively, it is easy for you to make any changes yourself to the design by clicking
the ‘Edit Spreads’ button.
Edit Spreads
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In the Edit Spreads screen all the uploaded images will be in the bar along the top
of the designer. Saved spreads will be displayed below the large open spread and an
editing toolbar will be positioned to the right of the open spread.
To add images to the design simply drag and drop them from the top image bar
down on to the spread. Once an image has been used within the design it will be
greyed out in the image bar. If you intend to use the same image within the design
more than once new versions will need to be uploaded with different names. (EG.
001_v1, 001_v2, 001_v3)
When the desired number of images have been dragged on to the spread a wide
range of templates will appear in the bar underneath the open spread, matching the
number of apertures to the number of images placed on the spread.
Templates with apertures that match the orientation of the images selected will
appear in green. Other templates, with the chosen number of apertures, that don’t
quite match the orientation of all the selected images will appear in grey.
Templates can be quickly changed by selecting a new one from the bottom template
bar. This will automatically switch the template in the open spread, re-positioning the
selected images to fit the new template.
The crop of an image can be changed by clicking on the image and dragging it
around the aperture. Zoom in or out of an image by using the mouse scroll-wheel.
Matted Album templates have a faded white border around each image,
representing the area of image that the mount board may cover. It is advised to
keep anything you don’t want to be cropped within this area.
Images can be removed from the open spread by clicking the black arrow button in
the top left corner of the image and dragging it back in to the top image bar. This will
make the image available again to be placed on another spread.
In the editing toolbar, to the right of the open spread, is the option to ‘Flip
Horizontally’ or ‘Flip Vertically’ this will flip the positioning of the apertures in the
template. The images below demonstrate this using the ‘Flip Horizontally’ tool.
Images can be swapped around into different apertures by clicking the black arrow
button in the top left corner of an image and dragging it on top of another image.
When happy with the design of the open spread click the ‘Save Spread’ button in the
editing toolbar. The open spread will then be added to the saved spreads bar along
the bottom of the designer. In this bar you can switch between spreads and make
amendments at any time.
The padlock button in the editing toolbar will lock the number of apertures on the
open spread. For example if you want to keep the number of apertures the same but
swap some images for others, lock the padlock then drag another image from the top
image bar onto an existing image. This will replace the old image with the new one, in
the existing position.
If the padlock is unlocked dragging an image on to the open spread will simply add
another aperture rather than replacing an existing one.
At the bottom of the editing toolbar a counter will state how many images have been
used within the design. To view the file names of the used images click on the blue,
underlined number. This is a handy way of keeping track of which images you have
used within the design and which images may still need to be added.
The ‘Arrange Spreads’ button in the editing toolbar allows the position of spreads
within the design to be rearranged, making it easy to ensure the design runs in order.
When the design has been double checked and is complete click the ‘Save and
Exit’ button in the editing toolbar. This will take you back to the main screen of the
designer.
Storyboard
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The Storyboard mode allows images to be grouped together by dragging them into
piles. Select the ‘Clean up’ button, then the ‘Save’ button after creating the groups,
then your images will appear in the selected groups in the image bar along the top of
the ‘Edit Spreads’ mode.
Versions
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The ‘Versions’ mode allows you to open older versions of the design (if there are any),
allowing you to refer back to an older version when revisiting a design at a later date.
This is particularly helpful if making changes while with clients.
Share Album
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In the ‘Share Album’ mode you can send your client the design for approval before
sending the design to be printed. A password can be added to the design which can
then be passed on to your client for secure access.
Select the version to be sent to your clients then click ‘Apply’. A link will be generated
which can be copied and sent to your clients.
When visiting the link the a pop up will appear with a few pointers, explaining how
the comments function works.
Comments can be added easily by clicking anywhere on the relevant spread then
typing a note. Clicking the green tick button will save the comment. The red cross
button will delete the comment.
When all comments have been added press ‘Finish’. An overview of the added
comments will be shown for you or your clients to review.
Once happy with the requested changes the ‘Submit my comments’ button should be
pressed. This will generate an email with a link to the comments, that will be sent to
your registered email address.
Cloning a project
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The ‘Clone project’ button allows a design to be duplicated. This is especially useful
when more than one copy of an album is needed, but with slightly different designs.
By cloning the project you can make changes to the design without having to start
again from scratch.
Upload
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On the home screen of the designer select ‘Quick Upload Step 2’ if High Resolution
files have not already been uploaded. If there are any missing high resolution files a
red warning will be visible, stopping you from exporting the files.
Once all the high resolution files have been successfully uploaded the option to
export the design will become available.
After selecting the required album size a prompt will appear asking for an order
number to be entered. Enter the order number, starting with ‘FO’, that was assigned
when placing your order on the shop: http://www.folioalbums.com/shop. Once the
order number has been entered you can then select OK.
After selecting OK the spreads will start to generate with a progress bar appearing
above them. Once all the spreads have generated and all the previews are showing,
we ask for you to please give them a quick check over by clicking on each one to
ensure everything looks as it should.
If the message ‘The spreads have been generated successfully’ appears you can close
the window as they will have been uploaded to us!
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Contact Us
+44 (0)1226799004
hello@folioalbums.com