Test Print Before Making A Book?

[its_me]

I'm wondering what others do to confirm their work prior to investing in creating a book with their creations. Or are you at the point where you are so confident a test print isn't necessary (*sigh* wonder if i'll ever get to that point?). My home printer is useless for a test print so I'm thinking I need to go get them professionally printed first, but that gets kinda' costly and redundant if it's only for test print......

I'm excited about the recent lo's I've done but really, I have no idea what they REALLY look like! lol!

[frank abramonte]

Your blue colors will probably give you the most problems. If not correctly created they could look blue on your screen but turn purple when printed.
My suggestion is to make a page with small samples of each color and photos. Include as much as you will need for a guide.
Also bracket your colors (some lighter and some darker) so that you can have a variation of the colors.
You can also include your photos, also some lighter and darker variations on these.
Have this page printed which will give you a guide as to how close you are to what your looking for.
The color swatches and photos could be about 3-4 inch squares.
Just make sure they are the same resolution as the final page.
Keep a full size copy of each of the photos so you can substitute the correct one in you layout. The color swatches can be recreated by using your color picker and getting the color breakdown.
Before creating this page check with the printer as to color management. I can't advise you on this but, someone may come along with some advice, or the printer can guide you.
If you need any additional help post back.


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1SBTd3SlHDzHGpRvADzbeWhB0kd_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1SBTd3SlHDzHGpRvADzbeWhB0kd)

[Wags374]

Are you planning on printing a 12x12 book or an 8.5x8.5 book? If you are doing a smaller book you can print out at home to check the layout design. In general digital scrappers tend to "go large" when creating since we are working in a smaller space than the actual size. I find that my 12x12 layouts look fine in an 8.5x8.5 book.