Designing step by step > First steps (quick guide)

How to create a photo book using a template available in the program.

Start the program. You are in the "Project" menu area. You can save your creation progress at any time via the "Menu - Save project" item.
Your book project will be saved with the *.YDBOOK file extension.

Select format

Change book format

Use the small black triangle to change the format for your photo book. Scroll through the selection to choose the appropriate DIN A portrait, landscape or square format. Depending on the selected preset, new precalculated values for the Cover, the Contents and the Spine will appear.

If necessary, adjust the precalculated values to the specifications of your print provider. To change the individual values for the Cover or the Contents, press the "Change" button. In the window that opens, enter the dimensions from your print provider and confirm with OK.

You can change the page number at the Contents item using the "Change" button.

Select template

In the lower part of the Toolbox, at Templates, click the "Change" button to choose from the available designs.

Select template

Click the desired design. Use the "Apply" button to confirm the selection.

You will now see the template in the Page editor and can start filling the book pages.

Adding images

The image is dragged from the Toolbox file browser to a placeholder in the Page editor

Click on "Images" in the Menu bar. In the Toolbox, you will see the File browser. Navigate to your images folder.

Drag an image from the File browser to the Page editor to the area of a placeholder. Release the image when the placeholder turns white. The image is adjusted according to the template.

To edit the image crop, right-click on the image and select Edit crop.

At the bottom of the Page editor, the Page overview, you can switch pages with a mouse click.

Adding captions

Marked in red: Text fields in the template

Depending on the selected template, text fields are already available for labeling. These usually include title, year and author lines on the cover.

Edit text field

Double-click on an existing text object to open the Text editor. You can also access it by right-clicking on the text object and selecting Properties. Paste your text into the text field and adjust the text properties if necessary.

To insert your own text object, switch to Text styles in the Menu bar. Drag a text object to the desired position in the Page editor. To edit the text object, double-click on it or right-click and select Properties.

Close the text input window via its cross in the upper right corner.

Output

Output as PDF

Click on the Output menu item. Use the folder icon to the right of the input field to select or change the storage location.
Check Output with bleed to get a PDF document with bleed marks. Click Start Output to start the PDF output.

You can now print the generated PDF yourself or pass it on to a print shop.

More information on the topic can be found in the "Output" chapter.