Questions

Answers

How do I begin choosing a cover?

Basically, there are two types of covers: school-designed and Taylor-designed. Depending on your staff's creative resources, theme and budget, you and your sales representative will choose which cover option is right for you. Each year, Taylor produces a new line of standard covers from which to choose. They include a range of cover processes, inks, foils and colors. Some are specifically designed to display your school's mascot. Others carry a theme phrase you can develop in the book. Your representative has full-size samples of all these designs for your staff to explore. One problem many advisers face is getting the staff to narrow their choices. Countless hours can be spent considering all the possibilities with no decision in sight. To speed this process, you may want to meet with your representative first to limit the choices for staff review. If you decide to design your own cover, go over your ideas with your representative early. Art needs to be prepared in specific ways depending on the process you choose. back to top

What information should appear on the cover?

The cover should include the name of the book, the year and theme phrase and/or theme graphic. The spine should include the school name, the year and the volume number. Note that spine copy is an additional charge for some yearbook programs. back to top

How do I personalize my yearbook cover?

Choose up to four icons to represent your interests and personality right on the cover of your yearbook. Your school will choose from a variety of Taylor foil colors and you will choose from a variety of icons to create a yearbook cover unique to you. back to top

What cover materials do I have to choose from?

There are three basic types of cover materials: Korigan™, Lexotone™ and Lithocote™. Korigan covers are paper-based and generally the most economical of all materials. They can be silkscreened or foil stamped but cannot undergo more pressure-intensive processes such as embossing. Lexotone is a high-quality material specifically designed to give a rich, traditional look. It offers the widest range of cover processes of all materials. It can be silkscreened, foil stamped, embossed, metaliqued, grained, die cut and more. There are also many colors available that your representative can sample for you. Lithocote covers are actually printed on a printing press just like your yearbook pages. They can include one, two, three or four colors, and even have other cover processes, such as foil stamping, applied. After printing, the material is laminated with a glossy or matte protective finish. Since Lithocotes are printed, your design can include color or black-and-white photos or artwork, making the design possibilities endless. back to top

What cover processes are available?

Silkscreen: With silkscreen, a design stencil is embedded into a fine synthetic screen and ink is forced through the screen, transferring the design to the cover. Thermoscreen: Thermoscreening adds an extra feature to the process of silkscreening. With this process, a powdered compound is added to a silkscreened image. Once complete, the result is raised lettering or a raised design. Foil Stamp: Foil Stamp imprints type or design in metallic foil by stamping with a die. To avoid scratching, foil stamping should be limited to small, thin areas of design. Emboss/Deboss: Emboss/Deboss is when a raised or lowered design is created on the yearbook cover by applying pressure to the front or reverse side of the cover board with an engraved die. An embossing die is a metal stencil that is applied with intense pressure onto the cover material to create the embossed effect. Top-screen/Top-foil: By applying silkscreen or foil on a raised, embossed area, you can create bold designs that give a three-dimensional effect. Metalique™: A thin sheet of metal is embossed onto the cover through the use of a die. Metaliques give an elegant, rich tone to the book's cover. Lithocote™: Covers can also be printed on a printing press to achieve the same black-and-white, spot-color or four-color effects achievable for your book's contents. Lithocote covers are printed on a heavy paper stock that's then laminated for protection and durability. They're available in a matte or glossy finish Grain: This is a process where texture is applied to the cover material with a grain die (NOTE: SHOULDN’T THIS BE DYE) plate. Graining stimulates the texture of leather, fabric, brick, gravel, wood or other materials. It's frequently applied in addition to other cover processes. Overtone: A colored ink is rubbed by hand into a grained cover, an embossed/debossed area or a Metalique design. Overtoning brings out the highlights and deepens the richness of the design. Quarterbound: Quarterbound involves the use of two different cover materials applied to the front lid of the cover. Standard quarterbounds are separated vertically with one material over a portion of the front lid and the entire back of the cover. The second material runs along the outside edge of the front lid. Die cut: Die-cutting involves cutting a simple geometric opening through the binder's board. Die cuts work best as a circle or oval. Tip-on: Tip-ons are laminated photos or printed designs laid by hand into a debossed area on the cover. Don't confuse a tip-on with a tip-in, which is a printed section (usually four color) in the book. Padding: A quarter-inch foam layer is glued to the binder's board to make the cover thicker and pillowy. back to top

Can we submit a rough cover idea and have Taylor do the finished art?

Yes. Taylor's cover art department will be happy to take your rough concept and execute a professional design. Submit your design by sketching it out on paper. Note colors or processes you want to use and be as precise in your instructions as possible. Upon request, a cover proof of the finished art will be sent to you for approval. back to top

What dimensions do we use for designing our yearbook cover?

If you're designing original cover art that will wrap around the front and back lids, it's critical to factor in the book's cover dimensions. Realize that a yearbook's cover is different than the book's pages. There's also a need to bleed the art on all sides since the cover art will wrap around (and behind) the front and back endsheets. Finally, you must also allow space for the book's spine. There are complex formulas to determine precise width of the spine area, which depends entirely on the number of pages and the paper stock. Taylor will adjust your art if necessary, but as a starting point, allow 1 1/4 inches width for your spine. If your book has a lot of pages (300 or more) contact your AE for advice. Here are the dimensions of covers for each size yearbook. Measurements refer to front and back lids. Add 1 1/4 inches for spine width and 3/4 inch bleed all around. Book Size Actual Cover Dimension 7 3/4 X 10 1/2 7 5/8 X 10 3/4* 8 1/2 X 11 8 3/8 X 11 1/4* 9 X 12 8 7/8 X 12 1/4* * Important: Add 3/4 inch all around for cover bleed. back to top

How do we submit our cover design to Taylor?

You may have come up with a really creative cover design, but if it’s not submitted on time and in a format that Taylor can produce it, you may run into problems. Here are some tips for each submission method for cover designs: Mounted Cover Artwork If you do not know your spine size, call your in-plant Account Executive for assistance in getting the exact cover dimensions for your book size. You will need the total page count and paper weight for us to properly calculate the spine width. If your artwork is to-size, use Taylor’s Cover Art Boards to mount and submit your design. They are sized to match the front, spine and back lid dimensions for our three standard yearbook trim sizes: 7 3/4” x 10 1/2”, 8 1/2” x 11” and 9” x 12”. Click here to go to our Supply Order section for more information. Be sure to account for the book's spine. Unless your book is very large (over 300 pages), allow 1 1/4 inches in your design for the spine. Allow for exterior bleed. Leave 5/8 inch bleed on all sides so that your design will wrap around the binder's board and behind the endsheet. Use separate art boards for each color and decoration. For example, if your cover design will feature multiple silkscreens or foil colors, the art for each color should be on its own board or layer. (Note: Because it is digitally separated, artwork to be printed using the four-color printing process can be mounted on a single board.) Complete a Yearbook Packing List with your school information and enclose it with your materials. Click here to go to our Supply Order section for more information. Pack your cover artwork in a protective mailer before sending to Taylor. Use a bubble envelope or comparable mailer. Always send your cover design in its own, clearly labeled package – do not insert your cover artwork into the same envelope as your content pages for one of your deadlines. Keep a copy of your design for your records! EliteVision Cover designs cannot be created on Taylor’s Vision Series software. While excellent for page creation, EliteVision’s file format and layering of elements do not work well when producing covers with multiple decorations. Adobe PageMaker & YB!Pro Use the “Cover” document created by Taylor’s YB!Pro plug-in to design and submit your cover design. YB!Pro automatically calculates the correct spine width per your number of pages, so the template is completely accurate for your cover and spine. After placing images into your document, DO NOT enlarge or reduce them! This affects the effective DPI (dots per image) of the image (enlarging an image reduces DPI, reducing increases it). Always scan images to 100% of their reproduction size in Photoshop, then place into your page layout program at that size. Do not copy and paste images into PageMaker from other applications. Always use YB!Pro’s Image Palette to place images into your documents. If your cover design uses a graduated background from Illustrator or Freehand, it is most likely going to band. As an alternative, we recommend that you create the background in Photoshop and apply a noise filter (7-10 pixels) to it. Send a printout of your final design. It should be the final version of the file and match identically to the file you have on disk. If the art on the disk is different from the print out, please clearly explain the differences. Make sure your school name and Taylor customer number appear both on the shipment disk label and in your file name. Use YB!Pro’s Submission Manager to gather all of the graphic and font files into your shipment. It’s best to ship your cover by itself in its own YB!Pro shipment archive file, separate from any content pages. Complete a Yearbook Packing List with your school information and enclose it with your materials. Click here to go to our Supply Order section for more information. Pack your disk in a protective mailer before sending to Taylor. Use a bubble envelope or comparable protective disk mailer. Always send your cover design in its own, clearly labeled package – do not include the cover design on a disk with content pages for one of your deadlines. Keep a copy of your cover design disk or CD for your records! Photoshop/QuarkXPress If you do not know your spine size and are not using YB!Pro’s cover template, call your in-plant Account Executive for assistance in getting the exact cover dimensions for your book size. You will need the total page count and paper weight for us to properly calculate the spine width. Keep the spine copy centered within the spine area. Save all images at the following resolutions: Grayscale (black-and-white photographs) – 200 DPI; Color Photographs – 266-300 DPI; Line art (bitmaps in Photoshop) – 600 DPI. Resolutions less than these will result in unclear, pixilated images when your file is output. Do not copy & paste images into PageMaker or QuarkXPress from other applications. This will cause problems with your cover. It will look fine on your monitor and may print fine to your laser printer, but the image will not output at high-resolution. Always use the “Get Picture” (QuarkXPress) command to place images into your documents, and use only EPS (preferred) or TIFF images. After placing images into your document, DO NOT enlarge or reduce them! This affects the effective DPI of the image (enlarging an image reduces DPI, reducing increases it). Always scan images to 100% of their reproduction size in Photoshop, then place into your page layout program at that size. If your cover design uses a graduated background from Illustrator or Freehand, it is most likely going to band. As an alternative, we recommend that you create the background in Photoshop and apply a noise filter (7-10 pixels) to it. If the design is to be printed in four-color (a.k.a., “process color”), save all images in RGB mode – preferably in Photoshop EPS format. Include all support graphic and font files on your shipment disk. This includes all EPS & TIFF images and all fonts (screen and printer if using PostScript fonts). When sending fonts, include all variations of the font (roman/regular, bold, italic, bold italic, etc.) on your shipment disk. If using PostScript Type-1 fonts, be sure to include both the screen and printer font files – both are required to image your files. If sending a Photoshop file, include a copy of the layered document (unflattened) along with your final (flattened) file. This will avoid us having to ask you to resubmit another copy if there is a problem imaging from your flattened copy. Send a printout of your final design. It should be the final version of the file and match identically to the file you have on disk. If the art on the disk is different from the print out, please clearly explain the differences. Make sure your school name and Taylor customer number appear both on the shipment disk label and in your file name. If using Adobe InDesign, use the Save for Service Provider plug-in to gather the entire graphic and font files into your shipment. Use QuarkXPress’ Collect for Output option to do the same. Be sure to select the options to Include Fonts (All) and Update Links before packaging or collecting. Complete a Yearbook Packing List with your school information and enclose it with your materials. Click here to go to our Supply Order section for more information. Pack your disk in a protective mailer before sending to Taylor. Use a bubble envelope or comparable protective disk mailer. Always send your cover design in its own, clearly labeled package – do not include the cover design on a disk with content pages for one of your deadlines. Keep a copy of your cover design disk or CD for your records! back to top

What are endsheets and what do I need to know about them?

Endsheets are heavy-stock paper that hold the contents in the book cover. One endsheet is glued to the front page of the first signature and another is glued to the back page of the last signature along the binding edge. Endsheets can be decorated as part of yearbook theme development. Many staffs use the front and back endsheets for displaying the theme phrase and graphics and for listing the table of contents, staff names and colophon. Many cover processes can also be applied to endsheets, such as silkscreen, thermoscreen, die cuts, foil stamping and embossing. • Coordinate the endsheets with the cover design. Use the same art or a variation of the cover art. If the art is the same as on the cover, submit a second original. • A wide variety of endsheet colors, paper types and textures are available. • Dark colored endsheets are difficult to autograph. • If your budget allows, you can use the front endsheet for printing the table of contents and the back endsheet for your staff listing and colophon. back to top

We want to use our cover art on our division pages and endsheets. Can we submit one copy of the art for all locations in the book?

Because covers are created as a separate manufacturing process from the book's contents, it’s best if you submit separate copies of the cover art if it's to be used in the book's contents or on an endsheet. Ideally, a copy of the artwork will be submitted for each page it will be located on. back to top