I'm looking for a 5x7 portfolio "bound type" book

I am currently printing a bunch of fiber 5x7 prints from my family vacation last summer. I make them small so its easier to pass around (and I'm broke).
This year, I want to put it in a "book" form. Not a standard portfolio "book" but something that can be sort of bound. I thought I saw something like that before on LightImpressions but I couldn't figure it out what it was. Or it could have been an ad in B&W magazine or Camera Arts or something. Not sure.

I've seen the photo on the gallery section with cyanotypes as a book but not sure if that can be done with photo paper.

Maybe it was a 'post bound' album you're remembering? There's a hollow, threaded post (they come in different lengths) and a matching threaded bolt that gets screwed into the post. These are inserted through the album covers and holes in the pages of the album. If your prints had a wide enough border, I guess you could even get a hole punch (with the same distance between the punches as the posts in the album) and just use the photographs themselves, without mounting them to album pages.

I made a 'book' of my photographs for my mom a few years back, mounting them to album pages, and the post bound system worked really well.

Murray

Another tip. If you do use the photographic paper by itself, you should pick up some of those adhesive O's that you stick around punched holes. They will stop the paper from ripping or getting weak at the hole.

Murray

hi eric

not sure what your budget might be ...
but there are a couple little binderies local (in ri )
that sells / makes books --- Dead Link Removed
makes an accordian book that looks interesting, but it costs about 30bucks ... it has corner mounts to get the photos on each page,
and might be an alternative to a hard bound book where each
photo is the acutal page, or a post binding and polyvinyl pages from light impressions or a craft store
... there is another place nearby called portfolio box
that makes books - presentation books ... they are kind of pricey, but really nice. i have part of my portfolio in one

.... if you want to try your luck at making a book yourself, you just need book board, cloth/paper
some wheatpaste, and string or posts for the covers
( all easily found at a art supply store for a few dollars )
and a drill to make the holes.

it isn't too hard, and a load of fun

good luck!
john

MurrayMinchin said:

Another tip. If you do use the photographic paper by itself, you should pick up some of those adhesive O's that you stick around punched holes. They will stop the paper from ripping or getting weak at the hole.

Murray

Click to expand...

If one dry mounts two photos back to back to make one page, then not only is the page thicker, but the natural curl of the paper will be neutralized and will stay nice and flat.

Vaughn

Kolo makes a number of products for this purpose. I posted about a small one that I made, with scans of the book pages in this thread--

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

The also make larger albums with post binding and such.

Eric,

I've made a few small booklets of 5x7 prints, and chose to put them in a 9x9 inch booklet I found in the scrapbooking section of one of the art stores in town. It was your typical black faux leather book, but you could extend the posts of the binder to add more refill pages if necessary.

I chose 9x9, so I could place the photos either horizontally or vertically, and still have a bit of space around the image.

The book I chose had clear poly sleeves. Depending on the type of book I was making, or the quality of the print, I would use those clear mounting corners, or two sides glue 'spots' found in scrapbooking stores. Sometimes I'd dry mount images and slide them in, another time I cut little window mats for each image. It looked great; albeit a bit bulky!

I don't reckon I spent more than 25$ on the book, which I felt was fair enough I suppose. Friends and family seem to love them.

Good luck,