Family Line

Family Line is a family accordion in a magazine style: eight tall panels with hairline frames, captions and Playfair Display for the name, that stand on a sideboard or unfold along a table at a reunion. It is for a big family gathering, a grandparents' anniversary or a portrait session, where each household in the family would like one. The editorial style is white panels and thin frames, with Inter for the captions. The cover panel is a photo with the family name and the year. The panels then run: a photo with a caption and date, two photos stacked, a full-bleed portrait, three photos stacked, another caption panel, two stacked again, and the back panel with a small photo and a sign-off. Tall panels want tall photos, and family portraits taken standing are exactly that.

Give the full-bleed panel the whole-family shot taken in portrait, the two-stack panels to couples and siblings, and the three-stack to the children. The caption panels are for the two people the album is really about, with their dates. The thin frames need clean printing, so a bright white matte photo paper at 180 gsm is ideal, and since the format is single-sided you can use the good paper with no alignment worry. Score the folds with a ruler and a bone folder; the coating on photo paper cracks if you fold it cold. Two A4 sheets, taped at the back, make eight panels. Twelve photos fill it, and because every household gets the same file, you can print a copy per family in one afternoon.

Printing this accordion is forgiving because it prints on one side only, so the glossy or satin photo paper home inkjets do best on is exactly right; nothing has to line up on the back. Each A4 or Letter sheet gives four tall panels (A3 gives four bigger ones), and an 8-panel album is 2 strips joined with a strip of tape on the reverse. Use 160 to 200 gsm so it stands on a shelf, and score before folding on anything heavier or the ink cracks at the crease. Fold zig-zag, mountain then valley, using a ruler for the first crease. Print at 100%, not Fit to page, with borderless mode on if the printer offers it. The template uses 12 photos across 8 panels.