Ever wondered about those blank pages at the start and end of a professional wedding album? At Zookbinders, they’re known as ‘end sheets,’ and their appearance varies based on your chosen album type. Creating a custom wedding album involves more than just choosing images; it’s understanding the unique industry jargon and terminology that defines the album’s structure and materials. If the language surrounding professional wedding albums has ever left you puzzled, our guide to Decoding Professional Wedding Album Terminology.
The Power of the Right Words
When discussing the beautiful wedding albums in their collections, photographers often sprinkle in phrases like ‘handcrafted,’ ‘bespoke,’ ‘archival,’ and ‘keepsake.’ However, when it comes to ordering these albums, industry terms might not evoke the same excitement or emotion as descriptive phrases used when talking with clients. To ensure a seamless experience and clear expectations, mastering the vocabulary of album ordering is key.
Navigating the Details
It can be a little stressful ordering something if you are not familiar with the order details. When placing an order for a senior portrait album, an album for a bar/bat mitzvah, or a wedding album you will come across terminology that describes all the different components of a photo album. There are choices that have to be made, like how many spreads are in the albums and what color gilding would you like on your Zook Book. Therefore, it’s important to know exactly what those professional wedding album terms mean.
Here’s a handy list of terms frequently encountered when placing an order with Zookbinders. Of course, if you have any questions during the process, don’t hesitate to reach out for a helpful walkthrough. Schedule an appointment and get personalized guidance here: MAKE AN APPOINTMENT.
Key Professional Wedding Album Terms:
Book Block:
Think of the book block as the guts of the album. The book block is all the spreads folded and attached to each other, just waiting for a cover to be added. It’s a “block” of pages. Sometimes, when doing an album repair we can save the book block, remove the cover and add a new cover, or vice versa.
End Sheets:
These blank pages bookend the album, connecting the book block to the cover. In a Luster Book, or in an EZ Book, the endsheets are black photographic paper with a light pattern. For a Zook Book the end sheets are covered with a black silk fabric.
Gilding:
For an opulent touch, ‘gilding’ involves adding metallic foil to the page edges. This embellishment comes in shades of black, gold, silver, rose gold, and copper. Typically gilding and any cover imprinting are all the same color.
Glove Leather:
An upgrade from standard leather, glove leather comes in a wider variety of colors than standard leather. Glove leather also has a much smoother texture than standard leather. Glove leather is always used when making splash covers because the material can be glued side-by-side seamlessly.
Slip Case:
It is not just a box, it’s a leather-covered caddy for your album. Slipcases are custom-built to fix your album or set of albums and are part of the packaging presentation. Albums aren’t stored in slipcases, they are displayed. They are especially suited for multi-volume album sets.
Spine Stamping:
Elevate your album with imprinting text or numbers on the spine. This is ideal for multiple-volume albums or an enhanced look to a single album. Spine stamping runs parallel to the length of the album.
Spread:
The spread of an album is the right and left sides together. A spread for a 10 x 10 Luster Book would be 10” x 20“. We consider the right or the left-hand side just one page. At Zookbinders we price our albums per spread, and the minimum number of spreads for any album is 10 spreads, or 20 sides.
Studio Imprinting:
Studio imprinting is an option we offer to have your studio name displayed at the beginning of the album. The studio name is on the end sheet on the left-hand side. There are a few ways to do this. There’s an option in the ordering system to type in your studio name which we would imprint in the color of your choice and italic font. You can also share a digital logo and have a custom dye made that matches your logo.
Substrate:
This material adheres the spreads together and is critical for the album’s stability. Zookbinders uses an art board that creates a thick page with a white core that can be gilded. However, the EZ Book omits substrates between its printed pages for enhanced flexibility and a much thinner page.
Navigate Your Album Order with Confidence
Whether you’re a first-time user or a long-time client it helps to understand what you are ordering. These are just a few phrases that come up often when purchasing albums from Zookbinders. If you ever have any questions about ordering albums or starting a wedding album design, you can reach us via chat on our website, at customerservice@zookbinders.com, or call us at (847) 272-5745 during our regular business hours.
