How to print your album
Your album downloads as a standard print-ready PDF. Any photo printer can make it — and so can you. Here is exactly what to ask for.
The two files
A finished album gives you two PDFs. They are the same book in different colour spaces, and picking the wrong one is the most common way a good file prints badly.
Print shop → the CMYK file
Ends in -cmyk.pdf. Presses print in CMYK ink, and this file has already been converted with fonts turned into outlines, so nothing shifts on their machine.
Home printer → the other one
Inkjets and office printers expect RGB and do their own colour conversion. Feed one the CMYK file and the result usually comes out dull and muddy — use the plain PDF instead.
Taking it to a print shop
Download the specification sheet from the Proof stage and hand it over with the file. It states everything below in writing, so nothing depends on remembering it at the counter.
- 1
Print at 100% — never “fit to page”
Scaling is the single biggest risk. “Fit to page” or “shrink to printable area” changes the trim size and crops the edge of every photo, and it is often a printer’s default.
- 2
Ask for 170–250 gsm silk or matte
Heavy enough to feel like an album, light enough to bind flat. Glossy shows fingerprints; matte and silk suit photographs better.
- 3
Layflat binding, if they offer it
Photobook or layflat binding opens flat across the gutter, so a photo spanning two pages isn’t swallowed by the spine. Perfect binding is cheaper and perfectly good for a thinner book.
- 4
Laminate the cover
Gloss or matte lamination on the first and last pages. It costs very little and is the difference between a book that survives being handled and one that doesn’t.
- 5
Ask for one test spread first
Before the whole run. Check skin tones and dark areas — screens are backlit and paper isn’t, so prints look slightly darker. That’s normal; a wholesale colour cast is not.
Printing it at home
Entirely doable on a decent inkjet, and genuinely satisfying. The settings matter more than the printer does.
- 1
Use the plain (non-CMYK) PDF
And print from a real PDF reader, not a browser preview — browsers re-render pages and quietly rescale them.
- 2
Turn scaling OFF
Set “Page Sizing” or “Scale” to 100% or “Actual size”. If your paper is smaller than the album’s trim size, the book will be cropped — print on larger paper and trim, rather than scaling.
- 3
Double-sided, flipped on the long edge
If your printer can’t duplex, print the odd pages, flip the stack, then print the even ones — and test with four pages before committing sixty.
- 4
Photo paper, 200 gsm or so
Matte photo paper is the most forgiving. Check your printer’s maximum paper weight before buying something thick: most home printers jam above ~250 gsm.
- 5
Let each sheet dry before stacking
Inkjet prints stay tacky for a minute or two and will offset onto the back of the next page. Lay them out rather than stacking them warm.
- 6
Binding at home
Simplest that looks good: score and fold each sheet, then bind with a long-arm stapler or Japanese stab binding. Screw-post or ring binders let you swap pages later. Glue-only spines crack — avoid them for a book people will open often.
What the file already does for you
- • 300 dpi throughout — the resolution presses ask for.
- • Fonts converted to outlines, so no substitution on someone else’s machine.
- • The first and last pages are your front and back covers.
- • Page geometry matches the trim size you chose, with the page margin built in.
- • Low-resolution photos were flagged in the Proof stage before you got here.
Printing by Kathaleaf
We're setting up premium hardcover printing with a window-cut cover, delivered across India. It isn't open yet — you can ask to be told when it is from the Proof stage of any album.