Around the Table

Around the Table is a family booklet with the pacing of a magazine: a full-bleed cover, a title page, spreads that alternate big single images with grids, and a page of writing near the middle. It suits a reunion, a big anniversary, a year of one household, or the album a family makes together at Christmas from everyone's phones. The editorial style is white paper, Playfair Display for the titles and thin frames around the photos, with Inter for captions. The cover is a full-bleed photo with the family name over it. Page two is a title page. Then the pages run: a full-bleed photo, two side by side with a caption, a photo with a caption and date, a four-photo grid, another full page, a photo with a journaling block, a three-frame strip, a framed portrait, a five-photo collage, a caption page, two photos stacked, a final full-bleed and a quote page before the back cover with its small photo and sign-off.

Family books need a lot of faces per page; the grids and the collage hold twelve between them, so everyone appears without anyone needing their own page. Give the full-bleed pages to the group shots and the table photos, and the framed page to the oldest person in the room. The editorial look relies on crisp white margins and thin rules, so print on a bright white 120 gsm paper, and if you have a laser printer, this is the template that shows it off. The full-bleed pages will show a hairline of white on one edge if your printer's back side is offset; run the test page, enter the nudge, and the pages line up. Twenty-five photos fill it; fewer is fine.

Printing this booklet means two pages per side on both sides of the sheet: 16 pages is 4 sheets of A4 or Letter, nested and folded to A5 or half-letter. If your printer duplexes, use the flip-edge setting shown on the download card; if not, print Side A, reload the stack and print Side B, and run the free one-sheet test page first so you learn your printer's flip before spending photo paper. 100 to 120 gsm matte paper for the inside, 160 to 200 gsm for the cover if your printer's bypass tray takes it, and score the fold on anything heavier than 160 gsm. Two staples on the spine with a long-arm stapler, or open a normal stapler flat over a folded towel. The template uses 25 photos across 16 pages.