Nothing is worse than realizing you spent all that time on the yearbook, only to realize you made a mistake somewhere after submitting  your book to us, so in this guide, we're going to go over the 5 biggest issues to look out for before approving for production.

5) Page numbering - did you add them in?

Page numbering can be enabled by going to the “Manage” Tab, then selecting “Manage Ladder”.  You should then see “Page Numbering”  button as an option to enable in your book, especially if you have a Table of Contents in your book.  We will not ask you about page numbering while approving, so be sure to enable this if you want to have this present in your final yearbook!

To learn more about Page Numbering, Click here!

4) Faces and text in the gutter.

The gutter is in reference to where all the pages meet inward to the spine.  

This is the center of a 2-page spread, marked by a black line, and 2 purple lines. 

 In the example here, the student in the background is placed in a way that puts them in the gutter, and they will likely not be seen.  

To accommodate for this, especially for big group photos that will be on both pages, it's best to have a small gap in the middle of all of your students so there is room for the gutter!

3) Border boxes.

When building in the designer, every frame is outlined by a blue box.

Be on the look out If you copied and pasted a frame that has a thin border that possibly has a border color added to it. (either from a template or from just playing with the settings), the blue box will most likely hide these since they're about the same size.

If you click on the “Preview Mode” button in the designer, or check our pdf in “Preview book”, these lines will be visible!

It's a good idea to look through Preview Book while on the yearbook ladder to catch these boxes. You can remove the border color if you see any by clicking on the border color button and removing the color by changing it to none. 

To learn more about proofing your book, Click here!

2) Spelling and Grammar.  Did you check your spine, names, and headers?

One of the most common issues we hear about is that someone's name is spelled wrong, a header is spelled wrong, or worst of all, the name of the school is wrong on the cover.  This can be proofread by utilizing the Preview Book feature under manage ladder or by using the Spell Check tool in the designer:

1) Checking your pages for bleeds!

The most common issue we see when checking your books is the lack of bleed on your pages and cover.  

In the example, the background of this page has not been properly spaced to meet the red bleed line.

If left this way, this can cause white lines to appear on the edges of your pages, as well as the cover if the page is not cut exact.

An instance where this frequently happens is when students are asked to draw their own design on paper, then scanned.

If you realize you made the mistake of not having bleeds on your cover design, we have 2 suggestions:

Move all designs to the purple line instead, giving the book a nice even white trim, and looks intentional:

Otherwise, you should fix the design to have enough bleed going around each side to meet the red lines.  Make sure nothing important is crossing the purple line as well, this includes text, photos, or faces you do not want cut off in print!