Good Dog

Good Dog is a sixteen-page booklet for the animal that appears in most of your photos. It is for the dog who has been part of the family for years, the cat who tolerates you, and the person who wants a small book of them for the coffee table or a birthday present for the household. The film style sets off-white pages, Space Mono date stamps and polaroid borders with a warm tint that makes phone and camera photos match. The cover holds a photo with the name and the year. The inside pages alternate polaroids with captions, full-bleed action shots, three-frame film strips for the walk and the fetch and the flop, photos with captions and dates, two photos stacked, a four-photo grid, a page of two tilted polaroids, a framed portrait, and two side by side with a caption, before a quote page for the nickname or the thing the vet said.

The back cover has a small photo and a sign-off. Animals blur; the small polaroid and strip slots hide it, so give those pages the burst-mode sequences, and give the full-bleed pages the two or three sharp ones. Use the date stamps: a dog book with dates becomes a record of a whole life. The warm filter and off-white paper mean this prints well on inexpensive paper; a 120 gsm cream stock on an inkjet looks like a real photo album, and a laser printer's flatter colour actually helps the film look. Four sheets, duplex, two staples. Print a second copy for whoever walks the dog when you are away.

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.