Making a catalog

Are you talking about a tri-fold brochure?

My guess would be to use the right tool for the right job – in this case Adobe InDesign.

Sure you can layout paragraph sections, overlaid or otherwise combined with graphics in PS but you may find even Illustrator superior in some regards to certain aspects of the graphics work.

My advice would be to start with the correct layout program. Even MS Publisher would work.

Adam.

Reza,

First of all I have to say that Photoshop is absolutely the WRONG program to be doing this sort of project. It’s not that you can’t do it in Photoshop, but it will take some doing. What you really want is a page layout program like InDesign or Quark Xpress. Photoshop doesn’t have support for multiple pages, so you’ll be stuck creating 2 separate documents, an inside and an outside.

But… if you are hell-bent on doing it in Photoshop, here’s how you would do it:

First, figure out how large the final piece will be once it has been printed and trimmed. From your sample, it looks as if you’re shooting for a size of 21½" x 13". This may not be true, but I’ll use these dimensions as a guide.

Create a new document and make it 21.75" x 13.25". The increased size will allow you a 1/8-inch bleed around all sides. This will be necessary if you want your images to print all the way to the edge without a white (or paper-colored) border.

Next, drag a guide 1/8" from the top, left, bottom and right sides. This will serve as your guide for the actual trimmed size of your piece.

Then, as a precaution, drag a new set of guides 1/4" – 1/2" inside of the first set of guides. This will serve as a maximum image area for all text and images that can’t be trimmed off in the final product. Keep all your copy inside these guides or risk having it trimmed off in the final product.

From there, you need to determine the places your piece will fold. Again, using your example for my numbers, place a guide at 8.375" and one at 16.625". This will mark where the folds (or individual sections will be. Next, drag a new guide 1/4 – 1/2" to both the left and right of each of the "fold" guides. As in the preceding step, this will help mark off image area and ensure that you have a solid, uniform gutter between the three sections.

Do all this, and you’ll have a basic template to serve as a starting point for your layout.

It’s important to note a couple of things. When you do the second page, you’ll have to flip the guide positioning or else one side will look proper when folded, the other will have a fold in the middle of the content.

Secondly, when sending the file to the printer, remember to do these things:

1. Convert the file to CMYK. Don’t flatten unless you want your text to be rasterized. You can expect to see some color shifts in the reds and blues; also some of your layer effects/blending styles may change a bit depending on the settings.

2. Save your file as either a native PSD, EPS or PDF file to retain all your vector/font information.

3. Give your printer all the font files you used when creating the document. This will help to eliminate any font substitution problems that may cause your final output to shift, default or otherwise appear differently than you intended.

Hope this helps. By the sounds of it, I think you need a bit more training before you tackle such a big project. Just make sure that you consult regularly with your printer/service bureau during all phases. This will help reduce the chances of something going wrong upon output.

Good luck.

Even MS Publisher would work.

Shame on you, Adam.

Even MS Publisher would work.

Shame on you, Adam.

Yes Adam. Go to your room this instant and think about what you’ve done!

It was my keyboard.

Accccccccccccccccckkk! Micro$haft!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

* Regaining composure*

I’ve just found a decent layout program by Serif, called Page Plus I have an older version offered for free:
<http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/serif/pp/pp5/index.asp>

But the newest version looks awesome:
<http://www.serif.com/pageplus/pageplus9/>

Frames, tables etc. etc…lots of the features found in InDesign….of course this one won’t be as powerful or as feture rich as Adobe produts, but it seems to be a decent layout program for cheap. 🙂

Tins, it can’t be any worse than Quark. I’d rather use MS Publisher than go back to Quark.

What is… what it is…
(I cannot say it)

…. well,.. Reza, use your head and guides on an image that’s as wide as your 3 pages put together and just as tall : )
Sure you can do it in Photoshop.
(but make it bleed, and put trim and fold marks in it the bleed).

Much better than… than… well,.. you know!?!…

Paging Mr. Decker,.. Paging Mr. Decker!
How are you Mr. Decker?