1. What’s the process? - Upload a photo ( 10 photos in total)
- Adjust an uploaded photo by dragging to fit within frame
- Choose border colour for photo
- Personalise the text
- Front cover automatically generated from first 4 photos
- Photo discussion page automatically generated from last 9 pages
- Preview the book
- Accept
- Pay
- Proof of book sent to our printers
- Printed and despatched within 10 days
2. Which photos look best? - Landscape photos work best in the books, however you are able to upload portrait photos.
- Photos with one person/object in the centre of the frame work best.
- If the photo resolution is less than the minimum of 640 x 480 a message will appear in the frame. The resolution of the photos will dictate the quality of the images printed in your book.
- The higher the resolution of the photo the longer it will take to upload.
- The resolution of the photos on screen are small versions of the photos you upload. Your original images are used when printing your book.
3. What resolution do you recommend? - We recommend a resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher. The minimum resolution allowed for uploaded photos is 640 x 480. You should upload the original high-resolution image from your digital camera or scanner to ensure the best possible printing results.
4. Which photos will be on the front cover? - The personalised front cover is automatically generated from the photos you have uploaded in the first four pages of the book.
- Landscape photos work best because the image can be larger.
- For optimum results place a single person or object in the centre of the photo
- You can make adjustments to the positioning of uploaded photos by clicking and dragging on the photo.
5. Which photos will be on the photo discussion page? - The last nine uploaded photos are automatically generated on the photo discussion page which is the last page of the book. You can make adjustments to the positioning of these photos by clicking and dragging on the photo.
- This page of photos is designed to stimulate discussion with the child, increasing vocabulary and developing language.
6. Which words are right for my child? - Keep your books simple and if possible make sure each page in the book has the same number of words per page. Reading readiness varies enormously from child to child so below is a rough guide on how many words to use for different aged children and some suggestions of words you could use.
6-18 months | | Use one word on each page. Photos can be of anything or anywhere that is familiar to your child; people, members of your family, animals, pets, objects or places such as Mum, Fred, house, playground, teddy | 2-5yrs | | Use three or four words on each page (including the key phrase, for example “I see” or “I like”). Keep it very simple, for example: I see Mum, I like chocolate, My friend James, This is Alex, I see Uncle Jim. If your child is starting to point to the words and recognising them try adding words like my/the/a to give phrases such as “This is my house”, “I see a cat”, “I like the swings”. | 5yrs+ | | You can use three or more words on each page. Reading readiness varies enormously from child to child so some children at 5 years of age will still be unable to recognise any words so if your child is at this stage don’t make your books too complicated, keep them simple and just have 3 words on each page. If your child is starting to recognise some of the key words and is keen to read simple books again and again, you can start to add more words, such as I see my favourite teddy, I like swinging in the trees, My friend Sam is funny, This is my new bike. The words will automatically resize so the text on each page of your book is the same. We suggest the maximum number of words per page is eight. | 7. How long will it take to upload photos and create a book? - This will depend on your connection and the resolution of your photos, but we have made the process as simple and quick as possible.
- Simply click in the empty photo frames in the pages of the book and select the photo from the files stored on your computer.
- You can upload more than one photo at a time and navigate backwards and forwards while photos are uploading.
- To make the process even quicker, select your 10 photos and copy them into a single temporary folder.
- The front cover and discussion page photos will be automatically generated from photos uploaded in the book.
- To select your border colour simply click on the border icon under the photo frame and select from the colour palette.
- Simply add words to the text box and they will automatically resize.
8. Can I upload from a camera card? - Yes, but this will make the process very slow. We recommend that you select your 10 photos from your hard disc and copy them into a single temporary folder.
9. Can I adjust the photos? - Yes. Once you have uploaded a photo you can make adjustments to its position in the frame by just clicking and dragging the photo. You can also adjust the photos on the front cover and photo discussion page in the same way.
10. Can I save my book? - Yes. You can save your book at any time and choose to come back later to continue it. When you save your book you will be asked to register or login if you have already registered. You also get to give your book a title. Make the book title meaningful (e.g. "family" or "familiar objects" rather than just a number or the book type. The book title will be printed along with your order ID on the back of the book.
11. How can I help my child learn to read? 12. How big are the books? - Books are 17cm x 17cm, printed on 250gsm card, folded and stapled. In order to protect the book the front cover is laminated.
13. What if I have an idea for a new book title? - Email us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
and we will print yours free if we add it to our range (judged strictly on the time emails are received by us).
14. Why are the photos I’ve uploaded not very clear on the screen? - The preview photos are thumbnails, the quality of the photos in your printed book will reflect the quality of your original images.
15. How can I make the process as fast as possible? - Select 10 photos and copy them into a single temporary folder which means you won’t be looking in different directories when creating your book. We recommend you use Picasa ( a free download) to help you organise your photos. See below for more information.
16. Using Picasa - We have found that using Picasa makes it easier and faster to select the 10 photos if you have a lot of photos stored on your hard disc.
- Picasa is a free download from Google http://picasa.google.co.uk
- To use Picasa to streamline the creation of books, start Picasa, select the desired photograph for a book and “hold” it in the tray at the bottom left of the screen. Repeat until you have all ten.
- Export the ten held images to a convenient temporary file on your hard disc. We suggest that you have a master directory such as “my documents/love2read” then Picasa will create subdirectories here with the name you give it, such as “I see family” so you can easily see which pictures relate to which book. This way, if you are creating more than one book you can quickly and easily locate the pictures when uploading them to the love2read site.
- As part of the export process, Picasa gives you the option of resizing the image. If you have very large photo files this will be very helpful in speeding the upload of the pictures to the love2read website. Select the “automatic” quality option and make sure you use the original size option.
17. What if I live outside the UK or want books sent outside the UK? - Contact us by email before ordering your books at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
giving us the delivery address and we will email instructions back to you
18. How do I contact you?
|
