Our Nations Photo Lab Album99 is a professionally printed, flush-mounted, lay-flat photo album designed to beautifully preserve your memories. This tutorial will walk you through creating your Album99 using our online design interface.
🎥 Video Tutorial
Click HERE for a video on how to order an Album99.
⚠️ Before You Begin
Once you begin designing your Album99, the following selections cannot be changed without starting over:
- Album size
- Cover type
- Page thickness (Thick or Thin)
Please review these selections carefully before clicking Customize Now.
📘 Choose Your Album Specifications
On the Album99 product page, select your preferred:
- Album size
- Cover type
- Page thickness (Thick or Thin)
- Spread Count
📏 Available Sizes
Album99 Photo Albums are available in 7 sizes:
- 8×8"
- 8×10"
- 8×12"
- 10×8"
- 10×10"
- 12×8"
- 12×12"
🎨 Cover Options
Choose from:
- Genuine Leather
- Linen
- Vegan Leather
- Photo Wrap (Lustre or Canvas)
📄 Page Thickness
Thin Pages: Approximately the width of a dime
Thick Pages: Approximately the width of a penny
📚 Spread Count
All Album99s begin with a minimum of 10 spreads (20 sides).
Spread limits:
- Thick Page Albums: Up to 25 spreads (50 sides)
- Thin Page Albums: Up to 40 spreads (80 sides)
You can add or remove spreads throughout the album design process. Album99 spreads must be added in increments of 5 spreads (10 sides).
As you add spreads, the editor will automatically track your progress. If your Album has an uneven number of spreads, the system will prompt you to make adjustments before adding the product to your cart.
⚠️ Important: If you don't plan to use the remaining spreads in the current increment, they will be included as blank pages at the end of your printed album.
💡 Helpful Tip:
10 spreads = 20 sides
Looking for full cover material and color options?
👉 View our Album99 product guide HERE
🎨 Choose Your Theme
Click Customize Now to begin designing and select your preferred layout theme.
Theme Options:
Blank Theme – Panoramic
A completely blank panoramic spread layout for full manual design control (left + right sides conjoined).
Blank Theme – Two-Sided
A completely blank two-page layout for full manual design control (left + right sides separated).
Full Page Photos – Two-Sided
Automatically places one photo per page side.
Full Page Photos – Panoramic
Automatically places one photo across full panoramic spreads.
✨ Autofill (Theme Dependent)
Autofill is available for:
✅ Full Page Photos – Two-Sided
✅ Full Page Photos – Panoramic
Autofill is not available for:
🚫Blank Theme – Two-Sided
🚫Blank Theme – Panoramic
Blank themes are intentionally designed to provide full creative control for manual placement.
If using a Full Page Photos theme, you can:
- Autofill when starting your Album
- Autofill later at any time from the Photos panel
📤 Upload & Manage Your Photos
The Photos panel gives you access to your image galleries and upload options.
You can upload additional images at any time during the design phase.
Select the gallery you'd like to upload into. Then, click Manage to upload photos from:
- Your computer
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
- Google Photos
Photos are uploaded directly into your selected gallery.
The Filter icon allows you to change the view of your gallery. You can view all images within your gallery, the images you haven't used, or the images you have used.
⚠️Your image may appear blurry or pixelated, even if it meets our recommended print dimensions. This is because the image is scaled down to deliver the fastest experience possible to you, but we use your high-resolution file when it's time to print. Please don't worry; there's no reason for concern unless you're receiving a resolution warning.
🔍 Preview Images Before Selecting
When viewing your image gallery, hover over an image thumbnail.
A magnifying glass icon will appear in the top-right corner.
Clicking this icon will:
- Open a larger preview of the image
- Display the full file name at the bottom of the preview window
This helps confirm you’ve selected the correct image before placing it in your design.
📖 Begin Designing Your Album
Your Album opens in the design workspace, where you can begin customizing spreads.
Album99 spreads include a ⅛” bleed/trim area.
⚠️ Important:
Anything placed in the orange trim zone may be cut during production.
Helpful resources:
👉 Bleed & trim information: Click HERE
👉 Photoshop templates: Click HERE
👉 Low-resolution image guide: Click HERE
🛠 Design Tools
When designing your Album99, you will have a range of design tools at your disposal.
📐 Layouts
Choose from a variety of layout options for each spread.
Layouts depend on:
- The number of photos you want to use
- Your preferred design arrangement
All image boxes remain adjustable after placement.
Keep important image details inside the safe zone.
🎨 Styles & Backgrounds
Apply preset background styles or customize the background color of your spread.
You can:
- Choose from preset colors and designs
- Use the Pick a Colour tool to select a custom color visually
🔤 Add Text
Add custom text anywhere within your Album99 spreads.
Customize:
- Font style
- Text color
- Text size
- Text alignment
- Text adjustments: bold, italicize, or underline
Text color options include:
- Preset colors
- Pick a Colour custom color selection
🎭 Clipart
Add decorative design elements using the Clipart tool.
Clipart includes a variety of categorized graphics you can use to personalize your Album design.
To use Clipart:
- Open the Clipart panel
- Browse available categories
- Select your desired graphic
- Drag it into your page layout
🖼 Image Editing Tools
When selecting an image, additional editing tools become available.
✋ Pan / Zoom
Move the image within its frame or zoom in/out for better positioning.
↔ Transform
Resize or reposition image boxes.
You can:
- Adjust image box dimensions
- Move image boxes around the spread
- Fine-tune layout positioning
⟳ Rotate
Rotate your selected image.
🖼 Set as Background
Apply an image as the full page background.
You may also revert the background if needed by clicking Minimize.
Or you can click Spread to apply the image as a full spread.
⬛ Add Borders
Add a colored or designer border to image boxes for added styling.
🗑 Remove Images
Remove an image by:
-
Selecting the image and clicking the Trash icon
OR - Dragging the image off the spread until it turns red
🔀 Reorganize Spreads
Click Reorganize to open the full-screen page management view.
From here, you can:
Move Full Spreads
Use the black 4-way arrow icon to drag an entire spread to a new location.
Move Individual Spread Sides
Hover over one side of a spread.
A blue 4-way arrow icon will appear, allowing you to move a single side independently.
⚠️ Spread Layouts and Individual Page Movement
If a Spread Layout has been applied, the two sides are treated as one combined spread.
When using a Spread Layout:
- The individual sides cannot be moved separately.
- The blue four-way arrow for moving a single side will not appear.
- The full spread can still be moved using the four-way arrow that appears.
To move a side of a spread independently, you will first need to change the spread to a page-based layout, which allows each side to be managed separately.
This is expected behavior and does not indicate an issue with the project.
📍 Use the Blue Placement Guide
As you drag a page or spread, a blue vertical line will appear between the pages.
This line shows exactly where the page or spread will be placed when you release it.
Before releasing your mouse:
- Move the page or spread slowly toward the desired location.
- Watch for the blue line to appear before or after the page where you want it placed.
- Release the page or spread only when the blue line is in the correct position.
If the item drops in the wrong location, return to Reorganize mode and move it again while following the blue placement guide.
The blue line is especially helpful when placing a page between two existing pages or deciding whether it should appear before or after a specific page.
⚠️ First and Last Pages
The first and last pages of your Album99 project are fixed and cannot be moved within the Reorganize view.
Because these pages are connected to the inside front and inside back cover areas of the album:
- The four-way arrow icon will not appear when you hover over them.
- They cannot be dragged to another position.
- Their content and layout can still be changed by editing each page directly in the main editor.
This is expected behavior and does not indicate an issue with your project.
When designing your album, keep in mind that the first and last pages will remain in their assigned positions.
When finished, click Spread View at the bottom of the screen to return to the main editor.
Helpful Tip: If the page keeps dropping to an unexpected location, focus on the position of the blue line rather than the page thumbnail itself. The blue line determines where the page will be inserted.
➕ Add / Remove Spreads
You can add or remove spreads throughout the album design process.
Rules:
- Minimum: 10 spreads
- Thick pages: Maximum 25 spreads/50 sides
- Thin pages: Maximum 40 spreads/ 80 sides
- Must be added in increments of 5 spreads (10 sides)
Pricing updates automatically as spreads are added.
As you add spreads, the editor will automatically track your progress. If you've added a partial increment, you'll see a pop-up message that tells you:
- How many spreads you've added
- How many additional spreads are needed to complete the current increment
- That any remaining spreads not added will print as blank pages at the end of your album
If you choose to continue without adding the remaining spreads, the editor will display the same reminder again when you click Add to Cart. The system automatically calculates how many spreads are still needed and will guide you through the process before checkout.
⚠️ Important: If you don't plan to use the remaining spreads in the current increment, they will be included as blank pages at the end of your printed album.
👀 Preview Your Album
📖 Full-Screen Preview
Use Preview to check:
Cropping
Alignment
Spelling
Duplicate images
Empty photo boxes
💾 Save for Later
Need to come back later?
Click the Save icon in the upper-right corner of the design workspace to save your project and return later.
✨ Review Your Selections: Add-Ons & Personalization
Once your Album99 design is complete, click Add to Cart.
When adding your Album99 to your cart, you’ll be prompted to review available add-on options, including color corrections and embossing.
Available options include:
✅ Color Correction
Apply expert color correction adjustments to your images.
✅ Embossing (Leather and Linen covers only)
Embossing allows you to personalize your Album cover with custom text.
Available embossing options include:
- Bottom-right embossing
- Center embossing
If embossing is selected, additional customization options will expand, allowing you to choose:
- Embossing text
- Font style
- Embossing color
Helpful info icons are available throughout the process so you can preview:
- Available embossing colors
- Font styles
- Sample finished embossing
Important notes:
- A live physical preview of embossing will not appear during design
- Up to 3 lines of text supported
- Text can be centered or placed bottom-right
- Each line may contain up to 20 characters, including spaces
Unsupported characters:
| , / , { }, ( )
Embossing is $6.95 per line.
🛒 Add to Cart
Once you’ve reviewed your Album design and add-on options, your Album will be added to your shopping cart.
❓ Need Help?
If you have questions or need guidance while designing your Album99, our Customer Support Team is happy to help.
👉 Please submit a request through our Contact Form.
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