Create Your Own iPhoto Page Layouts

Fri, Nov 14, 2008

Learn, Tip

When making a book in Apple’s iPhoto, you’re not limited to the page designs provided by iPhoto. You can use any program to create a page, including QuarkXPress. Here’s how:

  • Create a page in QuarkXPress the same size as the other pages in the iPhoto book you’re making. Fill it with photos, backgrounds, and other art.
  • Export the page from QuarkXPress in PDF format, making sure to keep the full resolution of imported images.
  • Open the PDF in Photoshop, Graphic Converter, or any other suitable image conversion utility, and save it as a 300 ppi full-quality JPEG. (Quality level 10, 11 or 12 should do it.)
  • Then add the file to your iPhoto book: select the page you’d like to replace, set the Page Type menu to One, and then drag your page image file onto the page. It will print at exactly the same quality as all other pages.

This technique can spruce up the opening page, or any page that needs a little special “something”.

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Jeff Gamet is a contributing editor for Design Tools Monthly, the executive summary of graphic design news. He is also the morning editor and reviews editor for The Mac Observer and iPodObserver.com, and contributing writer for Layers Magazine and Photoshop User. He writes the InBrief column for InDesign Magazine, and is the author of "The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X," from Peachpit Press When Jeff isn't writing about the graphic design world, he's talking about it on the Design Tools Weekly podcast with co-host Jay Nelson. He also talks about Apple and the Mac world every week on The Mac Observer's Apple Weekly Report. Jeff studies, tests and reviews new software and technologies for the Macintosh community as well as the design and print industries. He is a former Pre-press specialist, and has nearly 25 years experience with computer technology. Jeff trains, lectures and consults on techniques for more efficiently using Mac OS X in creative environments throughout the country. In the rare moments when he can get away from his MacBook Pro, Jeff spends his time climbing and biking in the Colorado mountains.

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