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Creating Book Designer Templates

Looking for a fast way to create quick pages?
(and maybe even make some money?)

Creating your own templates for the Online Book Designer is a great way to expand your creativity, as well as make money from your designs. Templates can easily be created on your desktop computer, however there are several requirements.

Template Sizes

Like all of PrestoPhoto's books, each template has one of 5 ratios. The ratio is length to height, just like 16:9 is a common wide screen television ratio. Your template PDF must be one of the following sizes:

Ratio Size (in) Size (pixels) Size (points) Available Books
Landscape 4:3 (US Letter) 11.35"x8.75" 4275px x 3375px 817pts x 630pts 14x11 Portfolio Photo Book, 13x10 Photo Book, 9x7 Photo Book, ((11x8.5 Photo Books, Calendar and Loose Pages))
Landscape 3:2 (Wide Photo) 12.25"x8.25" 3675px x 2475px 882pts x 594pts 3.75x2.5 Mini-Book, 5.25x3.5 Mini-Book, 7x5 Mini-Book
Square 1:1 12.25"x12.25" 3675px x 3675px 882pts x 882pts All Square Photo Books
Portrait 3:4 (US Letter) 8.75"x11.25" 2625px x 3375px 630pts x 810pts 8.5x11 Portrait Photo Book, Comic Portrait Photo Book
Portrait 2:3 8.25"x12.25" 2475px x 3675px 594pts x 882pts 6x9 Photo Book, A4 Portrait Photo Book
Landscape 7x5 Greeting Card 7.25"x5.25" 2175px x 1575px 522pts x 378pts Photo Greeting Cards
Full Spread Wide Landscape 24.25"x8.25" 7275px x 2475px 1746pts x 594pts
Full Spread US Letter Landscape 22.48"x8.75" 6745px x 2625px 1620pts x 630pts
Full Spread Double Square 24.25"x12.25" 7275px x 3675px 1746pts x 882pts

Short Instructions:

Create a PNG Quick Page image according the chart above, then upload it in Template Designer. If one of your pages is meant to be the cover, check the "cover" checkbox. Draw in your dropzones in descending order of size. This allows customers to swap templates easily, and maintain a similar picture quality.

Note: When creating templates, do not use gradients, as this can cause "ghosting" around an image. It will not print well.

Step by Step Instructions

Here are step-by-step instructions to create a template courtesy of Creative Eyes

  1. Go to the "Create Template" page under it are fields for adding your title, detailed description, price ect.
  2. Click on the "Upload New Quick Page" text. A pop-up window will open to let you select your pages for uploading. Do NOT use the upload function farther down into the text. This is for the preview to display in the marketplace. If you get an error uploading a png here, it is because your file does not meet the size specifications. Please double check your file size.
  3. Your png files should now be at the top of the page. Click on them to add the dropzones. They should open in a new pop-up window. Now you draw the dropzones yourself with the mouse. As I said, only limit at the current version: you can only do square/rectangular shapes and you cannot rotate them. Add the dropzones to all your pages.
  4. Screenshots that demonstrate the incorrect and correct way to apply drop-zones / layer order

  5. To change the page sequence you click on the little button at the top, right corner. It shows grey squares and yellow + green arrow. It will allow you to drag and drop them into the desired sequence.
  6. Add all your descriptions, title, pricing. Change setting from “private” to something like “request general availability”.
  7. Scroll down to the end and click on “save”.
  8. The template should now appear in your template list. When you open it, you will normally see the detailed view customers will see in the marketplace as well. To edit them again, click on the small pencil at the right upper corner and it takes you to the edit-mode again.

If you need rotated drop zones, or have other advanced graphical needs, see Advanced Template Creation.

Here are some tips for selling your templates on PrestoPhoto.

Comments

Cannot create template

by Khalel, 17 Sep 2017 (21:10 UTC)
Hi. Is it normal that I can't access https://www.prestophoto.com/designer/edit_template.php? I get a message : "Permission denied. You do not have the required permissions to create and display a personalized homepage" Thank you.

Re: Cannot create template

by MJ, 18 Sep 2017 (17:41 UTC)
Hi Khalel,

Our site is currently undergoing some changes and we have temporarily disable the ability for our customers to create templates.

Once we have re-enabled that feature, we will be sending out a notice to our customers (:

I hope this information helps!
MJ

Book

by Tracy Batties, 11 May 2012 (15:29 UTC)
I chose my front and back cover of my book. Is this the cover that will be on the outside of my book. Also i'm ready to order my book how can i see the final copy before i order this is my first time working on a photobook.I also wanted to change the order of some of the pages and i try to drag the pages but they would not move.

Re: Book

by PrestoPhoto Support, 14 May 2012 (18:47 UTC)
Hi, Tracy!

Yes, the cover you choose will be the cover that prints. You should be able to review the cover in Step 2 in the Book Designer. Before you order, you should click on the link to the layout preview to see what the book will like. To re-arrange the pages, click on the "Arrange Pages" button in the Book Designer. This screencast should help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cfVIG_FY9wg

PrestoPhoto Support

Switching photos

by Melissa, 30 May 2011 (01:27 UTC)
It I complete a page, but then decide I want to switch a photo, the original photo always is coming back even after I delete it. So I am not able to add a different photo. Can this be fixed? Thanks so much!

Re: Switching photos

by Melissa, 04 Jun 2011 (01:01 UTC)
Thank you but yes I have, and it still wants to continue to keep the original photo on the page, even after I delete it. It actually deletes it, but then when I put the new photo, it puts the deleted photo back on.

Re: Switching photos

by PrestoPhoto Support, 21 Jun 2011 (04:25 UTC)
Melissa,

Our engineers have tested with your book and cannot duplicate the problem. Can you tell us exactly which page is giving you trouble?

Thanks!

Re: Switching photos

by PrestoPhoto Support, 31 May 2011 (17:56 UTC)
Hi, Melissa!

Your browser may be cacheing the page. Have you tried refreshing the page or closing out the page and reopening it?

PrestoPhoto Support
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