How to make an accordion photo album at home

Most home-printing headaches come from double-sided printing: the flip setting, the back-side offset, and photo paper that is coated on one side only. The accordion album avoids all of them. Each strip is printed on one side, cut out, scored and folded alternately mountain and valley. The blank back is never seen once the album is folded, and it can be covered with card if you want it to.

That means you can use the paper photos look best on: 160 to 250 gsm matte or glossy inkjet photo paper. A finished A4 accordion has panels of roughly 74 by 210 mm, tall and narrow, which suits portrait photos and vertical phone pictures particularly well. Print two strips and join them for 8 panels, three for 12.

The steps below are generated by Foldpic's fold engine for an 8-panel A4 album, which is two strips joined end to end. On Letter paper the panels are 2.75 by 8.5 inches; on A3 or Tabloid each panel is twice the area. The dash-dot lines are mountain folds and the dashed lines are valley folds; the folds must alternate for the strip to zig-zag.

Card above about 200 gsm cracks along the fold if you simply bend it, and even 160 gsm looks better scored. Lay a ruler along the printed fold mark and run an empty ballpoint pen, the tip of a bone folder or the back of a butter knife along it with firm pressure. Then fold along the score line, away from the scored side for a mountain fold and toward it for a valley fold. Foldpic prints the fold marks as small grey ticks at the top and bottom edge so they never cross a photo.

Scoring also fixes the other accordion complaint, panels that lean when the album stands up. A sharp score gives a sharp crease, and sharp alternating creases are what keep the zig-zag rigid.

When the album has more than four panels, lay the second strip to the right of the first so the panel edges line up and the fold pattern continues (the join itself should be a fold). Tape the seam on the back with a strip of clear tape, or cut a 10 mm tab on one strip and glue it behind the first panel of the next. Foldpic's PDF can print a hatched glue tab on the end of each strip if you switch on full guide marks.

For covers, cut two pieces of card slightly larger than one panel, about 3 mm extra all round, and glue the first and last panels to them. The album then closes like a book and can be tied with a ribbon or stood open on a shelf as a panorama. Press it under a heavy book overnight so the glue dries flat.

The accordion is the natural home for a sequence: a wedding day in order, a baby's first year with one month per panel, a road trip city by city, or an Instax collection mounted in printed pockets. Because the front and back of the zig-zag can both be seen when it stands, some people print two short strips and glue them back to back for a double-sided display.