Chapter 1. getting ready

You've been shooting like mad with your new digital camera, or spending every spare minute scanning old family snapshots. Now you'd like to show off your work and preserve it in a special photo album. You're about to embark on an album-creation project using Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 for Windows.

You'll import photos into Elements Organizer; retouch them in Elements Editor; then, using Organizer's Album Creation wizard, arrange them in neat layouts with text. You'll create album pages that can be printed as individual 8.5-by-11-inch pages, using high-quality photo paper, on your own printer. You are free to bind these into an album however you like. For a simple album, punch three holes in each page and put the pages into a three-ring binder from your local Five and Dime. For something a bit fancier, punch just two holes and thread the pages with ribbon or cord. Check local art-supply, crafts, or office-products stores and you'll find many styles of binders, portfolios, and cover materials.

The most luxurious album option is to create layouts for 10.25-by-9-inch pages. Using Adobe Photoshop Services, provided by Ofoto you can order a photobook. Ofoto, a Kodak subsidiary, professionally prints your album pages and binds them into a hardcover book.