I've been doing our Memory Book digitally for 3 years. I started off using Adobe Illustrator, but this year, I decided to try Publisher, and it turned out great!
We get ours printed at Kinko's because they have GREAT turn-around time. Mine's going in on Monday (May 15) and will be ready the first week in June (about 3 weeks!) Kinko's has a file prep tool you can use to convert Publisher into a format they can print. I have Adobe Acrobat, so I just convert them to PDF files, set up 2-up so all the printer has to do is run them off!
We have a Create the Cover contest and choose student's artwork for the front and back cover.
Help!! I need to create a 30 page yearbook for a small coop group in 3 days! I am so encouraged by your post, however, I would love to chat with you to ask a few questions.
THanks so much!!
We also used Microsoft Publisher and I cannot say enough good things about it! You are able to save your files in many formats. We saved each page as a print-resolution (300dpi) jpeg, burned the jpeg files to a cd and gave the entire cd to the printer. EASY!
One thing I love about Publisher is that you do not have to be a "graphic artist" to use it. If you are familiar with Microsoft Office programs (especially Word) you can easily pick up this program. It's also relatively inexpensive ($200) unlike some of the "true" desktop publishing software packages.
Regardless of which package you choose, I would highly encourage you to go digital. These days most everyone has a digital camera. Our volunteer photographers submitted digital prints via email or burned to a cd~ MUCH cheaper than getting all those pictures developed. Publisher now comes with Digital Image Pro, a photo-enhancing software, which allowed us to fix and use many low-quality photos. Also, we scanned student artwork and used it as "clip-art" throughout our yearbook. The layout process went by so quickly (I literally designed the entire 86-page yearbook in a weekend). If you're creatively challenged, you can even use the templates provided in the software to create a professional-looking design throughout your book.
GO FOR IT! I would NEVER go back to cutting and pasting!
I'm a very involved volunteer parent at my children's grade school (K-6). I use Microsoft Publisher 2003 -- this version has the Catalog Merge feature which is so handy for merging text and graphics. Our photos come on a CD in .jpg format, I layout the whole booklet in Publisher and save as a PDF file and take that to the print show. Very easy for them to print and bind the yearbooks -- we charge $5 for the booklets and the PTO covers any expense over the $5 per book charge by the printer.
Originally posted by jstone: We're an elementary school and I would like to do the yearbook next year (this is one committee I haven't done yet). But, I'm big on desktop publishing - does anyone do their yearbook on desktop? Who do you use that you recommend? Our yearbooks always look great but the committee works so hard right up til the last minute cutting and pasting. Any ideas? Thanks.
I'm thinking about going local - asking a local company if I layout the pages in Microsoft publisher - layout everything except kids pics - and paste them in order on a sheet - see what happens... I think the yearbook company's may make it more complicated than it is. I haven't done it yet - so I don't want to speak out of turn, but I've done enough desktop publishing with magazine using Pagemaker that I'm sure I can at least try to handle this! Thanks for ALL the comments and would appreciate more!
