Album & Book Sizing Templates

Custom photo covers for Albums and Books wrap around the edges and the spine, so the file you design is larger than the cover you see. Our free sizing templates show exactly where your image will wrap, where the spine falls, and what's safe from the edges. This guide walks through choosing the right cover template, reading its guides, and using clipping masks in Photoshop to place your images.

Download the Templates

Head to Sizing Templates & Downloads, found under Ordering in the main menu, and download the Albums & Books templates. Unzip the folder and save it somewhere easy to find, like your desktop.

Find the Right Cover Template

Inside the Albums folder you'll find a folder of templates for each album size, along with a PDF named Album Sizing Templates README. Open this PDF before anything else. Books have their own README, too.

Each size has several cover templates, and the README tells you which one to use based on:

• Album or book size
• Number of spreads
• Paper type
• Inserts

Why this matters: spreads, paper, and inserts all change how thick the finished album is, and that changes the width of the spine and the overall size of the cover. Design on the wrong template and your spine and front cover artwork won't land where you expect.

Example: a 10×10 Album on Lustre photo paper with 10 spreads and thick white inserts uses Cover C. Open the 10×10 folder, go to Photo Covers, and open the Cover C file in Photoshop.

Read the Guides

Each cover template is a PSD with instruction layers that mark the key areas of your cover:

• Bleed: the outer edge of the file. Full-bleed images should extend all the way out to here.
• Wrap area: the part of the cover that wraps around the edges, shown as a gray layer. Part of this will show on the inside edge of the cover.
• Safe line: anything outside this line may wrap around the edge or be lost. Keep faces, text, and logos inside it.
• Border: where to keep your image if you'd like an even border around it, or anything else you'd like to appear centered.
• Spine: where the spine falls between the back and front covers.

Turn on rulers and guides so you can see these areas while you work:

• Rulers: View > Rulers (Cmd+R on Mac, Ctrl+R on Windows)
• Guides: View > Show > Guides (Cmd+; on Mac, Ctrl+; on Windows)

Fill the Wrap Area or Stay Inside the Safe Line

Cover edges are rounded rather than a sharp 90° angle, so there's no exact line where the front ends and the wrap begins. Don't stop your image right at the edge of the wrap area, or white may show along the edge or front of your finished cover. Instead, do one of the following:

• Extend your image all the way to the outer edge of the file for a full bleed.
• Keep your image inside the safe line, or inside the border guideline when adding a border.

We include a layer called "Do not order with this layer visible" to help you see how your cover will wrap. Hide or turn off this layer before you export.

Using Clipping Masks

When you size an image to fill the cover, it will often run across the spine and onto the back. A clipping mask confines the image to a shape you draw, so you can keep a photo on just the front cover, or on the front cover and spine.

1. Drag your image into the template.
2. Select the Rectangle Tool and draw a box over the area where you want the image to appear, using the guides to line it up. The color of the box doesn't matter.
3. In the Layers panel, make sure your image layer sits directly above the rectangle layer.
4. Right-click the image layer and choose Create Clipping Mask. Your image is now clipped to the box.
5. To resize or reposition, select the image layer and use Free Transform (Cmd+T on Mac, Ctrl+T on Windows). The image stays inside the box as you adjust it. Just make sure it still fills the whole box.

Hide the Instruction Layers and Save

1. In the Layers panel, turn off every instruction layer, including any marked "hide this layer." Anything left visible will print on your cover.
2. Save your file as a JPEG. Your cover is ready to order.

Mini Book Templates

Accordion Mini Book templates work a little differently. They're flattened JPEGs instead of layered PSDs, so there are no instruction layers to turn off. The guides are still there. They're just hidden until you turn on rulers and guides in Photoshop (see the shortcuts above). Once you do, you'll see teal guidelines around the outer edges and at each crease between panels.

• Avoid placing faces or important details across a crease.
• Use a clipping mask to fit an image neatly inside a single panel, or let one image span two panels if the crease falls in a good spot.
• Once you add a layer, Photoshop will save the file as a PSD. When you're ready to order, flatten it (Layer > Flatten Image) and save a final JPEG.

Need a Hand?

If you're not sure which template to use or how to set up your file, get in touch with our team. We're happy to help.