Global configurations will be applied to all of your Photo Album products. Navigate to the Stores ➤ Configurations ➤ Product Designer Settings, and open the Photo Album section. [1]

Cover Pages PDF Generation: Select the PDF generation of the cover page from the available options. 

– Combine Cover Pages With Inner Pages: If you select this option then all the pages will be in a single PDF.   

– Different Cover Pages: If you select this option then two PDFs will be generated. In one PDF there will be Cover Pages and in another PDF there will be Inner Pages. 

Spine Color: Select the Spine Color of the PhotoBook. [2]

After configurations, Save the details. 

The backend configuration for the Photo Album or Photobook is provided on the product detail page. This guide will help you select the Photoalbum/Photobook orientation as per your required design. You can select the album page count, set the default Photo Album Layout and Design Ideas Templates on the frontend view, and page limitations.

Before starting, it is important to configure Photo Album Layouts, Design Templates, Album’s width, and the Blank Product from the “Product Designer” option.

Navigate to the PRODUCT DESIGNER → Manage Layout, you will get the list of layouts. Now navigate to the layout you have created for the Wide Product. 

Once the layout is opened, enable the Create My Book option and required features you want to display. 

Once you save the layout, you can cater the products like banners and wide posters. 

You can display the different Photobook Layouts for your customers, for that navigate to Product Designer -> Manage Photobook Layouts.

By clicking on it, if layouts is created, you can view the list of layouts along with details like name, orientation, and status.

To add new Photo Album Layout, click on Add Layout button and you will be redirected to the “Add Layout” page with the following information for configurations:

Layout Name: Insert a relevant name such as Marriage Album, Office Group Album, etc.

Orientation: Select the display type of the Photo Album either Landscape (horizontal display) or Portrait (Vertical display).

Main Image: Upload the image to display on Photo Album. (Accepted files are mentioned.)

Masking Image: Upload the image to cover up parts in the image so that only certain parts of an image will be displayed. (Accepted files are mentioned.)

Status: Keep the layout either Enable/Disable as per your requirement.

Products In Layouts

You can select the products for the layout from the Products In Layouts tab. By clicking on it, you will see the list of Photobook products.

After configuring the layout information, click on the Save button. Thereafter new Layout will be added to the list of Photobook Layouts.

Later, you can edit any Layout by clicking the ‘Edit’ option under Action. To delete any layout, select the layout first and then select the Delete from the ‘Actions’ dropdown and click on the “Submit” button.

You can add multiple Design Ideas for the photobook, for that navigate to Product Designer -> Manage Design Ideas.

By clicking on it, all the Design Ideas will be listed along with their details like name, orientation, and status.

To add design idea, click on Add Design Idea button and you will be redirected to the “Add Design Idea” page.

Page Name: Insert a relevant name for Layout such as Marriage Album, Office Group Album, etc.

Orientation: Select the display type of the Photo Album either Landscape (horizontal display) or Portrait (Vertical display).

Main Image: Upload the image to display on Photo Album. (Accepted files are mentioned)

Masking Image: Upload the image to cover up parts in the image so that only certain parts of an image will be displayed.(Accepted files are mentioned)

Background Image: Upload the background image of the main image. (Accepted files are mentioned)

Status: Keep the design ideas either Enable/Disable as per your requirement.

Product in Design Ideas

You can select the Product for the design ideas from the Product in Design Ideas tab. By clicking on it, you will see the list of Photobook Products.

After configuring the design idea information click on the Save button. Thereafter new Design Idea will be added to the list.

Later, you can edit any design ideas by clicking the ‘Edit’ option under Action. To delete any design idea, select the design idea first and then select the Delete from the ‘Actions’ dropdown and click on the ‘Submit’ button.

When the number of pages are increased, it is important to calculate the spine width as well. You can add Spine Width for the Photobook, navigate to Product Designer -> Manage Spine Width. 

Click on Add Spine Width button and then you will be directed to Spine Width page.

From Page: Insert the page number from where the album pages are added.

To Page: Till the page.

Width (px): Insert the width (in pixel) as per the pages.

Product in Spine Width

You can select the product for the spine width for Product in Spine Width tab. By clicking on it, you will see the list of Photobook products.

After configuring the Spine Width information click on Save button. Thereafter Spine Width will be added.

Later, you can edit Spine Width by clicking the ‘Edit’ option under Action and you can delete Spine width by selecting it and then select the ‘Delete’ from the ‘Actions’ dropdown and click on the ‘Submit’ button.

With Swap Image feature your customers can instantly swap the images on the photobook. You can enable Swap Image feature by following these steps. 

Navigate to the Product Designer ➤ Manage Layouts, you will get the list of layouts. Now open wide layout in Edit mode and enable the Swap feature under the Object Operations section. Once you enable the feature, Save the configurations. 

Note: After swapping, the cropped image will not change its form.

There are multiple Product Orientations and Output types of the photobook and those are:

Product Orientation: Landscape and Portrait

– Landscape: It is meant to use for the wide layout display which is bigger in width. 

– Portrait: It refers to the book that has a lower width dimension than its height dimension. 

Product Output Type: Layflat and Coffee

– Layflat: It refers to one continuous sheet of paper. It is ideal to showcase the image that runs across two pages.

– Coffee: It is ideal to showcase the different images with content on both sides of the photo book.

In order to serve the photobook to your customers, you need to configure the combinations of the orientation and output type. For example, you need to offer the photo book that is bigger in width and has continuous image on both the sides. The combination you need to configure is “Landscape” and “Layflat”. 

Here is how you can configure the blank photobooks. 

Navigate to the PRODUCT DESIGNER → Manage Blank Products, you will get the list of created blank products if already created. 

Now click on the Create Book button and configure the following settings: 

– Product Orientation: Select the product orientation. 

– Product Output Type: Select the product output type.

– Product: Select the product you want to assign to this combination of blank products.

After configuring the combination, click on the Save button to save the settings and it will appear in the list. 

Product level configuration

After configuring the Layouts, Design Ideas, and Spin Width, you need to configure the Photobook at the product level as well.

From the product detail page, navigate to the Product Designer section where you will see the Type option. To enable the product for the photobook purpose, select the Photoalbum in the type dropdown. 

When you select the Photoalbum, the Photoalbum section will appear to configure the photobook details for the product.

– Product Orientation: Select an orientation for the Product either “Landscape” or “Portrait” as per product design.

– Book Page count: Total pages to create a Photobook. You need a page count that displays the number of pages for the photoalbum in the designing area.

– Add New Slide: Allow customers to add more slides in Photobook. Select “Yes” to add or “No” to restrict for adding a new slide.

– Output Type: Select the type either “Coffee” or “Layflat”.

– Allow add page limit: Insert the limit to add maximum number of pages.

– Price Per Page: Insert the price for adding a new page to the album.

– Preserve Background: If you have enabled this option, the customer is not allowed to change any background of the template (page) else they can change the background of the photoalbum pages.

In order to enable the blank product, You need to select Pre Loaded Template and set the Type as Photoalbum of the product. 

Once you configure the product details, click on the Save button to save the product to enable the photo album for the product in your store view.

NOTE :

–  If you have selected Photobook as the type of product then you can’t change its type once it is saved.

–  Any product like t-shirt, jeans, mug, etc can’t be changed into Custom Size or Photobook once they are saved.

After all the configurations are done, you will get the Photobook view with the wide Layout option by default on the Product designer page.

In the designer explorer (left panel), the Layouts & Design Ideas options will appear as your customer access the Photoalbum product.

Your customer will get the  Slider of Photobook pages by clicking on the Pages + on the right side of the designer area. If there are multiple slides, they can stroll down from the slider and check the slides.

In the end, they will see the ‘+’ (Add new slider) and ‘view’ icon to preview the Photobook.

From the designer explorer the customers can add the images, snaps to design the Album by inserting clip art, images, and text caption by applying font effects.

Note: Left side of the first page and the right side of the last page will be blank in the photobook product.

> Upload Images

Your customer can design the Photobook by dragging the uploaded images, adding the Clip art and the Text captions with Font effects on the pages.

Note:

– Only JPEG, JPG, PNG, and AI file formats are allowed for photobooks.

– For photobooks, 20 MB is the maximum limit for each image while uploading.

> Layouts

Under the “Layouts”, customers will get the grid view of the Layouts which are selected under the Product Designer Photobook option on the product details page from the backend.

> Design Ideas

Under the “Design Ideas”, you will get the predesigned ideas for Photobook. Design Ideas are similar to Layouts but the Background image selection is additionally added.

Once the customers upload the images, all the images will be listed under the Upload images tab. Your customers will get multiple images there and select the images to add to the photobook.

If your customers want to upload multiple images to create a photo album with ease, they can upload images and apply to the design area as per requirement. There are below options are provided:

 – Apply: If the customers want to add multiple images at a time, by selecting the image click on the Apply button. The selected images will be added to the Photobook.

 – Apply All: By clicking on the Apply All button, all the images will be added to the Photobook. Similarly, customers can add the images from a specific folder.

Note: Your customers will get the above functionality under the Upload images tab if they have logged in.

> Add New Slide

From the right side, scrolling down, by clicking on the “+” icon (Add New Slide), the customers can add the new page to the Photobook.

– Your customers can add a maximum of pages that are configured at the product level under Product designer Photobook.

– Select the option where the new page needs to be added: After Page Front or Before Page Front

– To the end of the project: Your customers can add the new sliders by selecting the layout:

Add Page with Blank Layout, Add Page with Current Layout, or Choose Other Layout.

If the customers select the Other Layout option, they will get the selected layouts for the selected product.

> All Pages View

By clicking on the “All Pages View” option, the customers will get a preview of all the pages.

> Preview

Your customers can also have the overall preview of the product, by clicking on the Preview icon from the header.

They can change the slide from the next or previous button and also by clicking at the bottom of the respective page.

> Create My Book

After all the backend configurations, your customers will get the Create My Book button. Once they click the button, they need to select Orientation and Output and click on the Create Book button. 

After clicking the Create button, the blank photobook will be created.

If Blank Product is Not Configured

In our Product Designer Tool Backend, we have not configured the Portrait Orientation and Coffee Output. If your customer tries to create the photobook with this combination then an alert message will appear which will show non-availability.

Swap Image

After enabling the Swap feature from the backend, here is how it will work on the frontend. 

Once the photobook opens up, your customer has to click on the image they want exchange and click on the Swap icon. 

After clicking the icon, select the image you want to swap with the first selected image. Now the Images are successfully swapped. 

After designing the album and inserting the snaps, customers can order the photobook product.

From the designer tool backend side, you will get the Photobook orders in the Sales -> Orders option. By clicking on the “Orders”, you will get the list of orders in grid view.

Click on the View option of any order of Photobook. By scrolling down on the order detail page, you will get the View Design option. Here output images and PDFs are automatically generated by cron in the background.

Note: Once you click View Design, generating the image will take around 10 minutes.

-> If Photobook “Output Type” is Coffee:

You will get Cover Page PDF, Inner Pages PDF, and Separate Images (in PNG/JPG) based on the selected configuration from the backend.

“Cover Page Pdf” contains Front and Back Pages while “Inner Page pdf” contains all the Pages in sequence wise except Front and Back Page.

Separate Image names are given based on the product name and page sequence.

Ex.
“Print-Modern White Photobook-8 x 12-White-Page 1 Left.png”
“Print-Modern White Photobook-8 x 12-White-Page 1 Right.png” and so on.

You will get the additional PDFs for the Front & Back Cover pages individually as customers designed.

-> If Photobook “Output Type” is Layflat:

You will get Cover Page PDF, Inner Pages PDF, and Separate Images (in PNG/JPG) based on the selected configuration from the backend.

“Cover Page Pdf” contains Front and Back pages while “Inner Page pdf” contains all the Pages as per the layout of Cover Page Pdf.

Note: In the Global Configurations, if you have selected Different Cover Pages in PDF Generation then the Cover pages and Inner pages will be generated differently. In the case of Combine Cover Pages With Inner Pages all pages will be in the single PDF.

Our Photobook Add-on is also mobile responsive. Here is a detailed explanation of how your customers can design the photobook product through their mobile phones. 

By clicking on the “+” icon, your customers will get the design explorer feature from the bottom. The Layout and Design Ideas feature will appear in case of photobook product. 

Your customers will get the list of pages by clicking on the Page icon. It will also show the count of pages in the photobook. If there are multiple pages then your customers can also scroll down to check the pages. 

From the design explorer feature, your customers can add the images and snaps to design the Album by inserting clip art, images, and text caption by applying font effects.

Note: Left side of the first page and the right side of the last page will be blank in the photobook product. 

Your customer can also view all the pages in a single window by clicking on the “Preview All” button. 

Upload Image

Your customers can add the image by uploading it to the product designer tool. Once the image is uploaded they just have to apply it to the canvas. 

Layout

In the Layout section, your customer can search for the required layout for the photobook or just drag & drop the layout to the photobook product. 

Design Ideas

In the Design Ideas section, there will be pre-designed ideas for the photobook customization. Design Ideas are quite similar to layouts but the background image section is additionally added. 

Once the customer has uploaded the images, all the images will be listed under the upload image tab. Your customers will get multiple images there and can select the images to add to the photobook. 

They can also apply the image by the following options: 

– Apply: If the customers want to add multiple images at a time, by selecting the image click on the Apply button. The selected images will be added to the Photobook.

– Apply All:  By clicking on the Apply All button, all the images will be added to the Photobook. Similarly, customers can add the images from a specific folder.

Note:

– Your customers will get the above functionality under the Upload images tab if they have logged in.

– Your customers will only get the Apply/Apply All button if they have added a new Design idea/Layout or if there are no images on the page.

> Remove Background 

Your customers can remove the white background of the image from the Remove Background feature. 

> Add New Slide

Your customers can add a new page by clicking on the “+” icon or “Add Page”. 

Your customers can add a maximum of pages that are configured at the product level under Product designer Photobook.

Select the option where the new page needs to be added: After Page Front or Before Page Front

– To the end of the project: Your customers can add the new sliders by selecting the layout:

Add Page with Blank Layout, Add Page with Current Layout, or Choose Other Layout.

If the customers select the Other Layout option, they will get the selected layouts for the selected product.

Preview

Your customers can have the overall preview of the product, by clicking on the Preview icon from the three-dot icon. 

They can change the slide from the next or previous button and also by clicking at the bottom of the respective page.

> Create My Book

After all the backend configurations, your customers will get the Create My Book button beside the Operation panel. Once they click the button, they need to select Orientation and Output and click on the Create Book button. 

After clicking the Create Book button, the blank photobook will be created.

> If Blank Product is Not Configured

In our Product Designer Tool Backend, we have not configured the Landscape Orientation and Layflat Output. If your customer tries to create the photobook with this combination then an alert message will appear which will show non-availability.