Designing your Yearbook Cover

When it comes to yearbooks, people WILL judge your book by its cover. We’ve compiled some important tips to help you design the best cover possible for your project.

1. Be aware of the wrap zone and crop zone. If you will be designing your own cover and importing it into our software, make sure you stretch the image so it extends beyond the dotted line (examples shown below). If any important content is lost in the crop/wrap zone, you may want to consider redesigning the cover so you have room to extend the image beyond the dotted line without losing important content. If you do not extend your cover design beyond the dotted line, you run the risk of white borders around your cover.

*ATTENTION: Reprints for user related design errors will not be offered. It is up to the school/organization to purchase replacements. If you have ANY doubt about your cover, please contact a customer support specialist immediately. 

2. Keep important elements such as text and faces at least 1/8” away from the crop/wrap zones

3. If you have placed artwork on your cover and want it to be centered or in an exact spot, be aware that adding or deleting pages can cause cover elements to shift. Go back into your cover template and make sure all of your cover elements are positioned the way you intended. To center an object, drag it until you see the center guides appear.

Important note: Text boxes will be centered to the text box the type is contained in and not the actual type itself. To ensure accuracy, size your box as close to the size of the type as possible and select the centered type option in the type character menu.

4. Don’t forget the back! The backside of your cover is valuable design real estate. Use it to display photos, your mascot, a school seal — get creative!

5. Creator Studio offers a number of pre-designed cover options available for your use. To access these elements, check the CreatorStudio[Pro] filter in the Backgrounds tab.

These covers and backgrounds can be used alone or in conjunction with text, photos and stickers.

Designing your cover in an outside program like InDesign or Photoshop? Click here for specs and template downloads.