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SPINE PERSONALIZATION
TIPS
OVERVIEW
  Upper Spine titles
or designs can be either stock or custom. While the Upper
Spine is used most often to identify the theme (or "set") of the album,
the Lower Spine personalization presents more details about a specific album's contents.
Consider
how a set of encyclopedias or professional journals are labeled using consistent
formatting and abbreviation. Goldstamp's system has been optimized to help you achieve
such a look, even if you are building your collection over time. Our proprietary
imprinting system is designed to handle the details of consistent positioning and
formatting to help you achieve a professionally-designed look for your album set.
Consider
both appearance and functionality for best results. Below are some tips for labeling
your album spines consistently to keep them organized and professional looking. Please
let
us know
if you have questions or suggestions.
Notes:
Photo and scrapbook albums are designed to stand on end for display and storage;
this helps prevent damage to photos or other album contents. Photo and scrapbook
albums should not be stacked one upon another for storage.
Goldstamp
does not offer "down-the-spine" imprinting which requires turning your
head to read titles. Instead, we use a classic "album set" design where
all albums are easily identified without neck twisting. (see photo above) The decorative
bars above and below the Upper Title serve to "frame" the title and to
visually tie the albums together when displayed side by side on a shelf. These decorative
"bars" are automatically included at no extra charge on all albums with
removable spine covers, e.g., deluxe
postbound,
strap-hinge models (decorative
bars not available for ring binders or albums without removable spine cover).
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JUMP TO
 Alignment
Tips and Suggestions
Upper
Case Use and Exceptions
Sans
Serif Journal "Library" Font
Abreviation
and Punctuation Tips
Using
Years, Dates and Date Ranges
LOWER
SPINE ALIGNMENT TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS
Lower
spines are imprinted in standardized positions to assure that imprints on all covers
of the same size will align properly when displayed side by side on a shelf.
   
LOWER
SPINES USE ALL UPPER CASE TITLES (WITH A FEW EXCEPTIONS)
The
Lower Spine position is imprinted in ALL UPPER CASE using our JOURNAL or "Library"
font. We do allow exceptions for names such as McHENRY or DeVOS, when a combination
of upper and lower case characters can be used to impove readability if you wish.
Some prefer the look of MCDONALD while others like McDONALD. Please note that some
of our Lower Spine order form fields will automatically convert your lower case characters
to UPPER to approximate the printed appearance, if you prefer to mix case for a name,
indicate your preference in the order form "Comments" field.
JOURNAL/LIBRARY
FONT IS "SANS SERIF"
The
Journal/Library font used in the Lower Spine position is a Sans Serif font ("sans"
means "without"), meaning the characters do not have serifs (the little
cross strokes or "tails" at the end of the characters' main strokes). With
smaller characters as used in the Lower Spine position, sans serif fonts are more
legible. See the comparison between a Serif font and a Sans Serif font below.
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SERIF
AND SANS SERIF FONT COMPARISON
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Sans
Serif font as used for
Lower Spine position imprints
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Serif
font
(not available for lower spine)
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ABBREVIATION
TIPS
While
there is often no right or wrong way to abbreviate, staying consistent with abbreviations
produces the best results across a set of albums. For example, if you spell out "VOLUME
1" or abbreviate it "VOL 1" or "VOL. 1" on one cover, it
will look best to do the same on other covers that will be displayed together as
a set. Do likewise if using Roman numerals as in "VOLUME I", "VOLUME
II", or "VOLUME III", etc.
While some abbreviations call for the use of a period, consider eliminating the periods
for a cleaner look. That is, "VOL 1" or "DEC 2007" generally
looks more natural in the context of a Lower Spine personalization than does "VOL.
1" or "DEC. 2007".
Especially when considering the use of Roman numerals (VOLUME I, VOL I, etc.) please
remember than the font is sans serif. See the "VOL VII" example above.
USE
OF YEARS, DATES AND DATE RANGES
Consider
the various ways you might best personalize with dates or date ranges. Again, staying
consistent from one album to the next produces the best results. See samples below
for ideas. Consider using "THRU" rather than "THROUGH". We recommend
NOT using a dash by itself on a line - consider using "TO" or "THRU"
instead.
   
   
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