How album ratios influence design

Mon, Apr 4, 2011 I’m sometimes asked for design advice and the first question I ask is what kind of album the person is designing. The aspect ratio of the album will have a big influence on the design. To illustrate how this works, I’ve designed 3 album spreads all with the same images. First of all, I’d like to thank Frank Salas for the use of his images. What we have here are five vertical images and the resulting designs.

Vertical Sample

With this vertical sample, I’ve placed one vertical on the left side and four verticals on the right side, all the same size. This was very simple in Album Builder. I did a Super Ninja Layout, main image left and four vertical accent images.

Square Sample

In the Square Sample, I wanted the accent images to match, more closely, the aspect of the album. In order to get the four verticals on the right side to match the square page, I wanted three small verticals alongside one larger vertical. In order to accomplish this, I used Column Maker in Ninja Layout and chose 3 verticals in the first column and one vertical in the second column.

Horizontal Sample

For the horizontal sample, a vertical image will not sit that well on a single page. There will be a lot of negative space. Sometimes this works, but sometimes it doesn’t. In this case, I’ve chosen to put two verticals on the left side and two verticals on the right side. For both sides, I’ve used Row Maker within Ninja Layout.

About Fundy

Andrew Funderburg has written 271 articles on this blog.

Father, husband, photographer and creator of Fundy Software residing in the Portland, Oregon metro area.

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