Are you the resident genealogist in your family? You’ve spent hours researching your ancestry. Consider preserving this history by creating a custom book that will stand the test the time for future generations. To do that, you need a family history printing services company such as Publishing Xpress. One of our specialties is genealogy book publishing.
How Use the Family History Printing Services of Publishing Xpress
No matter how large or small your family history printing project, you have plenty of size and paper options to showcase your family tree. And Publishing Xpress offers a range of other services—including full-color printing, lamination of covers, and a range of binding choices. Besides affordable pricing, we also offer a minimum print quantity of only 25 copies and really fast turnaround times. Not to mention the fact that we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so there’s no risk in trying our printing services. Our online calculators can give you an instant quote on your printing project:
Inspiration for Your Family History Printing Project
Looking for inspiration as you start this journey into your family history? We’ve printed oodles of these types of projects. Check out a couple that have been highlighted in our Spotlights on our clients:
As you work on your family history, you’ll want to keep these tips in mind:
Decide how you will bind your book. We offer four binding options — perfect bound, plastic coil, saddle stitch, and wire-o. While we have printed these types of projects using all four binding options, the most common option is perfect bound. Using this binding option makes your family history book look like a professional novel. We can perfect bind books from just a few pages to over 500 pages. We can also bind books from 5.5 x 8.5 inches to 9 x 12 inches.
Most family history printing projects have lots of family pictures in them. You’ll want to start collecting and organizing them early in your project. You may also want to collect photos from other family members. To make sure your finished book looks professional, the photos should be high resolution (at least 300 dpi) using a CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) color profile. You may not have digital copies of older photos, so you will need to have a photo conversion company convert them to digital photos. You probably don’t want to convert the photos yourself, since they might not look that good. Make sure to tell the conversion company that you need high resolution and a CMYK color profile.
Once you’ve finished writing the book, consider having friends or family edit it for you before you submit it for printing. If you’ve been working on the book for a while, it can be hard to notice typographical errors. Family may also remember more details for certain stories or even remember it differently. Better to get the facts right before you go to print. This can lead to a great collaboration among family members in telling the family history.
Before you start laying out the book, look through other books whose design you really like. What is it about those books that attracts you? How is each chapter set up? Is the text justified? Is each paragraph indented? What fonts are used? How large are the fonts? How are photos handled in the books? You don’t have to copy a book exactly, but you can incorporate features you really like in your book.
Your family history printing project is a labor of love, which has probably taken a lot more of your time than you anticipated. But once it’s finished, don’t just slap a cover with your family name and a picture on it. You’ll want a professional cover for your book. If you aren’t happy with the cover you’ve designed, consider using Publishing Xpress to design your book cover. For just $100, our designers will design a professional cover, based on information you give them. You also receive two free rounds of revisions. If you still aren’t happy with the cover, additional rounds of changes are only $25 each. It’s a great bargain to get a professionally designed cover.
Take some time to decide what paper stocks you want on your cover and inside pages. We offer a wide range of paper weights, so it can get a little confusing. You might want to order our free sample packet. The packet contains examples of all four of our binding options. The plastic coil book has samples of all of our paper stocks, so you ca see and feel them before ordering.
Consider laminating the covers of your family history printing project. Lamination is an option for all binding types except saddle stitch. Gloss lamination will make the colors on your cover really pop, while soft-touch lamination has a very velvety feel to it. Both will add protection to the cover. Our free sample packet has an example of both gloss lamination and soft-touch lamination on the plastic coil sample.
Still a little concerned how your family history printing project will look? If you have the time, consider getting a hard copy press proof. We will print and bind your book using the specifications in your order, so you can see exactly how your finished book will look. A hard copy press proof costs $60 if it is sent via UPS ground service and $100 if sent via UPS overnight service. Be aware that this will add about a week or so to the delivery time of your books.
Interested in Family History Printing Services?
You can turn to Publishing Xpress for your family history printing. That’s because our company is an experienced family history publisher. Have questions? Call our service representatives today at 1-877-977-3779—they’re here to help! You can also request a free sample of our ancestry publishing options. You may also want to review our other book printing ideas.
