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A photographic album or photo album, is a series of photographic prints collected by an individual person or family in the form of a book. [1] [2] [3] Some book-form photo albums have compartments which the photos may be slipped into; other albums have heavy paper with an abrasive surface covered with clear plastic sheets, on which surface photos can be put. [4] Older style albums often were simply books of heavy paper on which photos could be glued to or attached to with adhesive corners or pages. [4]
The oldest photograph albums in the collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. are from the 1850s. [5] Early family photo albums were often displayed in the home. [5] "Families who could only afford a couple of pictures would put them into an album, to which other family members would add theirs." [3]
Coffee table books get their name from the intended purpose of being placed on a coffee table for the entertainment of guests. Coffee table books are photo-books, and come in various sizes from very small to very large. They are printed books with soft and thin pages like normal books. A coffee table book is typically larger and is bound in a hard cover, whereas a smaller photo book is normally bound in a soft cover. The print quality of photo books varies from photographic paper prints to inkjet prints on normal paper.
Digital photo books have digitally printed pages as opposed to albums that consist of traditional photos. Both flush-mount albums as well as coffee table books are printed digitally. The photos of flush mount albums are printed on photographic paper, which is comparable to the quality of traditionally developed photos. Coffee table books, on the other hand, are printed with inkjet on ordinary paper and are therefore of a lower quality. Digital printing gives the album designer a vast number of design possibilities, for example magazine-style or montage albums are only possible with digital printing.
Digital photo books are increasingly popular because they allow anyone with a digital camera to create coffee table books of their photos. Also, it is often considered easier to print photos onto pages directly, rather than position and secure individual prints onto the pages of a traditional album. Aesthetically, digital photo books seem neater and more professional than albums. This has led to their growing popularity among both professional and amateur photographers. Digital photo book printing companies have used the internet to make designing and producing photo books very easy for the general consumer.
Flush mount albums have hard covers with thick, unbending pages. They consist of photographic prints that were dry-mounted on cardboard. The covers are mostly made of leather, leatherette or glass. The photos lie completely flat and extend across the whole page. Flush mount albums are usually designed in magazine-style. They are most often used for special occasions such as weddings and anniversaries due to the fact that they are produced at a higher quality and are more expensive to produce than coffee table books.
The term magazine-style refers to the design style inspired by fashion magazines, but the style can differ greatly between albums dependent on the designer. The layout is usually referred to as digital montage, hence the alternative name montage albums. The layout is designed on the computer, utilizing custom- or template- generated images.
Storybook albums narrate a story, like the story of a wedding day or a vacation from beginning to end. If they are digitally printed the designer can use images as well as text, graphics and color for the narration of the story.
Scrapbooking albums are blank photo albums where people can stick photo prints, clippings, tickets, and even small mementos. Scrapbooking is then an activity documenting a period of time like a baby's first year, holiday, or time at university. People decorate their scrapbooking albums with drawings, text and calligraphy, stickers, or stamps.
Homemade decorative albums can easily be made at home. The items needed to make this type of album may already be a part of the home office supplies. Items consist of: binder folders, clear sheet protectors or picture sleeves, fabric of choice, and a hot glue gun. Some may choose to use stuffing to give a fluff to the album. This type of album is simple to make; and allows the crafter to explore their creative side, while adding a personal touch.
Matted albums are albums with recessed frames, in which each photo is hand-mounted. The photos are digitally or traditionally printed and can also be changed also after completion of the album.
Self-mount albums are the most common form of a traditional album. They contain manually mounted digital or traditional photos that can be rearranged. Self-mount albums are easy to produce and can be used for any occasion.
There are many software programs available to organize images in folders or albums. These programs generally allow for sorting and ordering of different images, tagging the images, and viewing them in slideshows or printing them. These programs commonly allow the user to perform basic edits such as cropping, red-eye removal, and some basic "one touch" enhancements for color and lighting. Some online albums have introduced techniques of separating special effects from the original picture so that the picture is not edited - effects are applied when displayed without destroying the original picture.
There are also many other, lay-up software programs available for making photo-books. These are generally offered free as a design tool but require the user to pay for the production of their printed photobook. These programs are generally not specifically designed for photo editing, more for the express purpose of creating a book that will eventually be printed and bound into a photo-book. These programs are generally provided by the company that print and bind the photobooks. Therefore, the home printing function is generally not available.
In computing, a printer is a peripheral machine which makes a durable representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Different types of printers include 3D printers, inkjet printers, laser printers, and thermal printers.
Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image may appear as a seamless physical print. A similar method, although one that does not use film, is realized today through image-editing software. This latter technique is referred to by professionals as "compositing", and in casual usage is often called "photoshopping". A composite of related photographs to extend a view of a single scene or subject would not be labeled as a montage, but instead a stitched image or a digital image mosaic.
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique, rather than a photographic reproduction of a visual artwork which would be printed using an electronic machine ; however, there is some cross-over between traditional and digital printmaking, including risograph.
Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensive consumer models to expensive professional machines. By 2019, laser printers outsold inkjet printers by nearly a 2:1 ratio, 9.6% vs 5.1% of all computer peripherals.
Dye-sublimation printing is a term that covers several distinct digital computer printing techniques that involve using heat to transfer dye onto a substrate.
A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often has an overarching theme that is present throughout the entire book.
Giclée describes digital prints intended as fine art and produced by inkjet printers. The term is a neologism, ultimately derived from the French word gicleur, coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on a modified Iris printer in a process invented in the late 1980s. It has since been used widely to mean any fine-art printing, usually archival, printed by inkjet. It is often used by artists, galleries, and print shops for their high quality printing, but is also used generically for art printing of any quality.
Digital printing is a method of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-format and/or high-volume laser or inkjet printers.
An enlarger is a specialized transparency projector used to produce photographic prints from film or glass negatives, or from transparencies.
Photographic printing is the process of producing a final image on paper for viewing, using chemically sensitized paper. The paper is exposed to a photographic negative, a positive transparency , or a digital image file projected using an enlarger or digital exposure unit such as a LightJet or Minilab printer. Alternatively, the negative or transparency may be placed atop the paper and directly exposed, creating a contact print. Digital photographs are commonly printed on plain paper, for example by a color printer, but this is not considered "photographic printing".
Color printing or colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color.
Scrapbooking is a method of preserving, presenting, and arranging personal and family history in the form of a book, box, or card. Typical memorabilia include photographs, printed media, and artwork. Scrapbook albums are often decorated and frequently contain extensive journal entries or written descriptions. Scrapbooking started in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century.
A minilab is a small photographic developing and printing system or machine, as opposed to large centralized photo developing labs. Many retail stores use film or digital minilabs to provide on-site photo finishing services.
In graphic design, page layout is the arrangement of visual elements on a page. It generally involves organizational principles of composition to achieve specific communication objectives.
Kodak EasyShare was a sub-brand of Eastman Kodak Company products identifying a consumer photography system of digital cameras, snapshot thermal printers, snapshot thermal printer docks, all-in-one inkjet printers, accessories, camera docks, software, and online print services. The brand was introduced in 2001, and discontinued in 2012, when Kodak stopped manufacturing and selling all digital cameras and photo frames.
Digital scrapbooking is the term for the creation of a new 2D artwork by re-combining various graphic elements. It is a form of scrapbooking that is done using a personal computer, digital or scanned photos and computer graphics software. It is a relatively new form of the traditional print scrapbooking.
A photo book or photobook is a book in which photographs make a significant contribution to the overall content. A photo book is related to and also often used as a coffee table book.
Inkjet paper is a special fine paper designed for inkjet printers, typically classified by its weight, brightness and smoothness, and sometimes by its opacity.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to books:
Art photography print types refers to the process and paper of how the photograph is printed and developed.
Media related to Photograph albums at Wikimedia Commons