IM curious , I have seen loads of scrappers and designers going the rectangle layout 11 x 8.5 route. Is this because its cheaper to print ? or books being easier to store on book shelves? is there a move away from the standard 12 x 12 ? I have not worked in a 11 x 8.5 size is it more awkard getting the balance right. So many questions, sorry. Thinking about a change but after 15 yrs of 12 x 12 will it look odd if I change to different format for the new books. Perhaps its time for a change . maybe, I dont know, Im torn.
Hi Wendy- I am still in the 12x12 camp re printing, however the 11 x 8.5 is for some, an easier & cheaper print option. Blurb does a magazine style which is not hard cover but is cheaper so it might be something you would be interested in. Here is a screen shot.. you may want to check out there options. A few here use it a lot and love it, and Blurb always gives discounts: Hope this helps! Christa
Thank you Christa. Will check it out . Its hard for us down under as the shipping costs are huge. So generally try to get local printers.
ah yes I understand that.. perhaps @LynnG has some ideas since she is in NZ .. I did not realize where you were located
Hi! I've never created in 11 x 8.5 but I resisted shifting from square to 8.5 x 11 for YEARS. I found my sweet spot was 10 x 10, but there are no local printing options and the postage charged by US-based printing places became prohibitive. Now I print my photobooks at 8.5 x 11 ie portrait. Recently I've been using Snapfish, and they are fine. Wait for a 70% off sale ;-) I was actually surprised how well and how pleasing it is working with portrait. I had a lot of square pages in my 'waiting to be printed' folders and I dragged them onto the 8.5 x 11 canvas and that was a revelation. I often design a page in square now, and the drag over to the new canvas and just play around a little. For travel and pocket pages I have been adding 8.5 x 11 options to my photobook templates recently. Not sure about rectangular 11 x 8.5 though… personally I think I would struggle to design for that for more creative pages. For travel / event photobooks it would be easy to flip an 8.5 x 11 template and I imagine the results would be fun.
When I started paper scrapping in 1997, 8.5x11 was the standard. I was so happy when 12x12 came around and gave me more room. But maybe I should try 8.5x11 since it is so much easier to resize things digitally.
I scrapped 12x12 for over a decade, then early in our current decade I realized how heavy those 12x12 annual albums were becoming. And yes, the cost is a factor. Like Christa said, Blurb has the wonderful magazine format. I like softcover. The quality of the paper is the same as in their photo albums. I've gotten really good at resizing 12x12 templates. I usually edited templates to make them my own anyway.
I scrap 12x12 and print 8x8. I’m a template scrapper and I find most templates are created square but more and more are created rectangle too which is nice so you can have options. I’m not sure if rectangle is cheaper; if it is it’s probably because it’s smaller so that makes sense.
I continue to be on team square. I create at 12 x 12, but I like the size of the 10 x 10 photobooks. I did a mini project book where I used 6 x 8 templates and printed them with a wide white border in a soft portrait style book. I was happy with the results, but I’ve been sticking to square for my main scrapping.
I am also team square, I print 12x12 when Snapfish has a sale and get my books the next time we visit the UK.
When I stumbled upon scrapbooking many years ago, it was only 12x12 at the time. I just went with it. I didn't print at the time. But after a while I first printed a book for friends. They were ok with me to scrap their baby boy pictures and I thought as a thank you I had to give them a book of those pages. I printed a few albums since then for myself but sticked to square somehow. I have what I call digi OCD and I think it would hurt my brain to start scrapping in a different size lol I know that my digi friend and CT member Gaelle @Ga_L scraps exclusively in A4 (French equivalent for US Letter Size if I am not mistaken) because she prints her pages at home...
I scrap portrait format since many years. I started with A4 format to print at home because the album are very expensive and they don't have the number of pages I want. And today I scrap 9" x 12" because it's easier for project life. And to print on A4 page that's fine.
I started out 12x12 traditional and loved that I could get more photos on the pages. When I went digital, I stayed with 12x12. I had used magazines with sketches in traditional and continued using those in digital until I found templates. The sketches were also 12x12. I still scrap 12x12 and have them individually printed by Persnickety Prints. I still love my CM albums. I have a bookshelf full of them... with both traditional and digital layouts. I do also print some books for family and those are 10x10. I just use the 12x12 layouts to print them. I once printed some copies of layouts on my home printer as 8x8 on 8.5x11 paper to give to friends.
I'm still on team square too! For me, it's just easier to stick with the 12x12 size since that's what all the templates and papers come as and I'd rather just play and not have to resize things first. Plus, all my other printed albums are 12x12, so I just like that they all match. It sure would be nice to have them smaller for book shelves and I have seen the Blurb magazines printed and they look amazing... but I still haven't been able to make myself change my ways.
12x12 fan hear also! Nice big printed layouts! I use Blurb too and they are great. I wait for the 50% off during Black Friday to print, as it is pricey - my books are big!
