Choosing Fonts & Prints to Use in Your Scrapbook

Once you have decided which photographs and images to use, you can pick a colour scheme which will tie in with them. Keep things as harmonious as possible by choosing just three shades. Having decided on your colours, select the card and patterned papers you would like to use.

Papers and Prints

Don't be tempted to go for lots of fussy, clashing patterns as it is often skilful use of plain card that results in the best layout. However if you are simply dying to use some of those gorgeous designs you've seen, restrict them to one per layout to make the most of them. Patterned paper is a great way to decorate your background. One way is to include a strip either at the bottom or down one of the sides. Work on the principle that a strip should take up a third of a page, as a thin, narrow band will not give much of an impact. Tearing the paper often gives a more interesting texture than cutting although do this carefully so that it still looks reasonably neat and straight. Glue the paper down first then mount your photographs on top. Never place patterned paper over your pictures and never put strips along both the bottom and the top as this will make your page look squashed. You may feel you would like to introduce other patterned elements at this stage but for beginners it is best to keep it simple, using card stocks that complement each other and bringing interest with attractive colour combinations rather than lots of pattern. However it is fine to do this once you have become more comfortable with basic scrapbook page design.

Fonts and Prints

Many scrappers use their computer to create journalling text and titles (toppers) that they print out, trim and then paste in to a page. The big advantage of printing your own is that you can determine the style, size and colour which you won’t find in the shops. In addition the supply is unlimited and you can print off as much or as little as you want.

Fonts

'Font' refers to the styles and types of characters displayed by computers – in its most basic form it is electronic handwriting. There are many thousands of fonts to choose from and every computer will have a selection already installed. Each font has a name which is recognised worldwide and the most commonly used are called Times New Roman, Arial and Georgia. The height of each letter or character is measured in 'points', each point being 1/72 of an inch. Therefore an instruction may refer to using 'Arial 14 points'. In addition to this you can also use the Bold, Italic and Underline features to highlight important information such as dates. Many fonts we use today have their origins in the printers of the past. They used wooden blocks to be inked and printed on paper. Artists such as Eric Gill designed the font which is still used for the London Underground signs today and is called 'Gill Sans'.

How to Choose a Font

It is important when scrapbooking not to get carried away with technology. Choose a font that you like but it should also be easily readable. There are fonts which look like handwriting which are very pretty but when in small size, i.e. a small point size they are hardly readable.

A formal font is Times New Roman and could be used for a page recording a more serious event.

A fun font is Comic Sans and this is great for children's pages.

If you want a wider selection of fonts than is available on your computer then search the web. There is a massive wealth of fonts ready to download from the web. Some of these are free and some you need to pay for. N.B. always take care when downloading from the internet and have the necessary virus protection.

Software programs such as Adobe Photoshop Elements®, Photoshop®, InDesign®, Corel Paint Shop Pro® and Microsoft Digital Image Pro® give you greater control over fonts and this is an important part of digital scrapbooking.

Printing

What you can print onto is dictated by your printer’s capabilities. Most households have colour printer and this can be utilised for scrapbooking. Check the manual to see what thickness of cardstock it will take but otherwise most modern top loading printers will print on to card, vellum and coloured paper (note always remember to check it is acid free see scrapbooking terms).