TOP TIPS

1. Sharpen all Images. Walgreens prints their same-day photobooks on photo paper. When images are printed on photo paper they need to be sharpened in post more than it would if it were on any other paper. 
2. Test Print. Photobook pages are printed on the same paper and using the same printer as all other photo projects at Walgreens. Before you spend on a photobook, we recommend that you test print a few of your images as 5x7s.  
3. Murphy’s Law Applies. Even though Walgreens offers same-day books, plan to print your book a few days in advance incase you or Walgreens have any technical difficulties.
4. Make images lighter. Your images will always print darker, so make sure that you 
5. Use small type. Text looks bigger when it is printed in the book than it does on the screen. 
6. 20-22 Pages. Walgreens same-day pickup defaults to 22 pages. There isn’t a difference in price from 20-22 pages and so you may do either. 

Design Pages In InDesign

Setup your book in one Adobe InDesign document, using master pages

1. SETUP: Open a new 20-page document in InDesign. Create page sized that are the same as where you are printing, Walgreens is 8.5 x 11 and setup your document with Facing Pages checked, so you can see the two-page spread setup. This will help you design the pages as they will be seen: side-by-side with facing pages. You should also use 3/4 inch margins to remind you to keep text and images away from the edges! You need to keep elements 1.5 inches from the center to allow for book binding and page bend. Keep in mind that page 1 is your Contents Page, then you will have 18 pages and the last page is your Professional Page. You will design your book COVER as a separate document. You may want to use Photoshop to design your cover images (one for front and one for back) for image blending, etc. Add a book title and your name on the front cover. Save the images as jpegs at 300 ppi. See the options for Cover image sizes below.

DOCUMENT SETUP checklist:
• 20 pages
• Facing pages
• Size: 11.08 in x 8.58 in
• Margin:Top/Bottom/Outside: 0.75 in; Inside: 1.5 in

2. CREATING A COVER – Be sure your cover image is creative and sets the theme for your book!
Create a separate page for the front and back. You will add the Spine text once you have uploaded your pages in Walgreens. 

3. QUALITY CONTROL:  Make all your edits and changes to your InDesign document (.indd), which we call the native file format. When you want to export each page as a jpeg to upload to Walgreens, you will need to choose 200 ppi to maintain good quality. When you are creating a PDF just for proofing, you will want a lower quality (such as 150ppi) to keep the file size small.

4. MASTER PAGES: Go to the Pages palette in InDesign and double-click the Master A pages. Create your background design. All 20 pages will immediately be populated with this background. Anytime in the design process, you can make a change to all your pages, by changing the master pages. If you want more than one background design, add additional master pages to use, then assign the Master B to the individual pages you want to look different. Select the page to change, and click on the dropdown menu in the Pages palette. Then choose Assign Master Pages to choose a different master. Then follow the Master Pages Video Tutorial to set up your document.

INDESIGN VIDEO TUTORIALS:
How to use Master Pages   Note: This video is for a Comm 130 portfolio, so you will need to change the page size for a photobook.
How to use Paragraph Styles
How to Wrap Text
Other InDesign Video Tutorials (newest ones are on the right)

5. CREATE THE PDF PROOF + MERGE WITH COVER PAGES (smaller file size for the draft and proofing) A PDF proof is a perfect way for your clients or anyone to preview your book before it is printed. It is also nice to email as a sample of your work. Simply go to File-Export and save your document as a PDF. The file should be under 5 mb, so you may need adjust the Compression to get the file size down to 150 ppi, as you add more pages and images. Also remember to merge your cover pages with your content pages in the same PDF since they’re in two different InDesign file. Below is a detailed instruction on how you do this. 

EXPORTING YOUR BOOK

1. Export your cover indesign file as 2 separate PDFs, one of your front cover and the other of your back cover (Choose Smallest File Size option when you export). Name them descriptively Example: Cover-front.pdf and Cover-back.pdf
2. Export your content pages (including TOC+Professional Page) as another PDF (also in Smallest File Size). Name the file descriptively. Example: photobook-content.pdf
3. Go to pdfmerge.com and put in your file in the correct order (your front cover on top, your content pages, then your back cover)
4. Click on “Merge“. The website will automatically merge your PDF and download it to your computer.
5. Rename the filename with your name. Example: YourName-photobook.pdf

6. SAVE HIGH-QUALITY PAGES AS JPEGS (200 PPI) FOR UPLOADING:  Create a new project folder and save your document as an .indd document. If you will be opening the file in an older version of InDesign, save it as a .idml file so it will be backward compatible (Go to File Export…idml).  Then save your pages as individual jpegs. Go to File – Export and save all pages at 200 ppi RGB (300ppi if you have a super good internet connection). Choose the project folder and all your images will show up there with separate page numbers in order.

7. UPLOAD & BUILD BOOK: Set up an account with Walgreens. Upload your individual jpegs and insert them in the book builder.

STEPS TO PRINTING YOUR BOOK

  1. After you create an account with Walgreens, click on the tab titled, photo. 
  2. Click on, Same Day Pickup
  3. Scroll down until you see photobooks, click on 8.5x11 custom cover 
  4. Click on, Make this Book
  5. Upload your jpegs of your designed photobook and place a check mark on them to load them into your developer. 
  6. Click on, Add Selected Photos
  7. Click on, I’ll Place My Photos Manually 
  8. On the top right click on, All Pages, a yellow icon at the top right, so that you can view the design of all of your pages.
  9. On your left menu, click on Layouts< One Photo, and drag the image of the full page single image so all of your pages in your document. 
  10. Click the icon at the top right that says, page to go back to your individual pages. 
  11. Clicking through your images, drag each of your jpegs of your designed photobook to the appropriate page. You may need to re-adjust or re-size images if they are not fitting properly. 
  12. If you chose to print 20 instead of 22 pages, click on the yellow icon at the top right named All Pages again. Click on the page that you wish to delete, click on Page option (another yellow icon at the top right) and click delete page. 
  13. When you are done, click on Review Order to verify that you are satisfied with your book. 
  14. If you are satisfied with your book, click on Add to Cart and continue to checkout. Often, you can find promo codes depending on holiday’s or events by doing a google search such as; “Walgreens Promo Code”.