Printable Album Pages?

I agree wit WT1, use a Laser printer I believe there was some discussion on ink-jets, however off the top of my head I can bet the ink will transfer over time from one page to the next as they are pressed together over the lifetime of your collection..

I put my album pages on a memory thumb drive (memory stick) and had it printed by Staples with their fancy laser printer, it had no problem with the cover stock. I've printed a few arts and crafts with the leftovers on my home HP photo smart C3100 and it also had no problem not that I use it for stamp Albums being its a ink printer.

My suggestion: save money on the stamps spend money on the album, as it will hold your entire collection for life if you do it right. do it right the first time, and piece of mind that your album is a ark for your stamps not a casket.

BTW, I did a little research this morning and found an example of a book printed on paper that was not Lignin Free. this could be your album in 14 years or less, I imaging the stamps will suffer the same fate from the particles given off as the paper breaks down

Its interesting to note this book is only 14 years old

To Kirk S - re Lightouse vario:
To answer your QQ:

1. Will the Vario sheets also fit in a standard 3-ring binder?
Ans: I think so - there is a hole in the centre, with other holes about 8 cm, 10.8 cm and 12 cm from the centre.

2. I understand the appeal of D-rings. Why do you prefer 4 rings?
Ans: I think 4 will hold the sheets more firmly - also they are easier to find in the UK. And DEFINITELY use D rings, otherwise the insides of the leaves tend to get bent.

3. Do you prefer Vario or Vario Plus?
Ans: I use Vario, as they are cheaper and a bit thinner, so I get more in a 4 cm (1.5 in) file. I have some leaves that I bought twenty years ago that are still OK. I find that after a number of re-uses the leaves get a bit worn but I have only had to replace a few over the past 5 years.

I've been using just Vario for 6 years now, while the number of ring binder files has gone up from about 6 to nearly 30. It is an expensive way to store stamps - the files cost about £7, and the 50 or so leaves about £22, so it's about £30 per album. But to me the ease of the process of updating my collection, and the great end result, make it well worth while.

For labelling stamps in the albums, I like using black backgrounds, so I use 2 systems - the quick & cheap way is using some thickish black art paper that I cut up and write on with white or silver gel pens; alternatively I print out notes with white writing on a black background. Looks good but a full page of notes will probably cost £1 worth of ink.

Thanks for the good feedback, David.

I notice in the Lighthouse description of Vario and Vario plus, it seems to imply the extra thickness is because they increase the thickness of the clear plastic strips that protect the stamps; i.e. the pages themselves are not thicker, the protective mounts are. I was a little confused, but I guess either way, the end result is bulkier pages.

Here in the U.S., three-ring binders are everywhere; but four-ring are almost impossible to find.

Kirk

I have both weights of the Vario, and I would say, without checking, that the backing itself is heavier. I'll double check tonight, but if it is all in the clear strips, I'll be shocked. The pages definitely have less "flop" to them. They fit 3- and 4-ring binders equally well. The Vario Plus pages have enough stiffness that 3-ring binders are just fine. I agree that 4-ring binders would be ideal with the lighter-weight pages, but they are hard to find in the US, and even harder to find discounted.

I went on a short-term kick of Vario Plus and black interleavings a while back...talk about filling up a binder fast! The interleavings really make you slow down and pay attention to one side at a time, which is kind of nice.

My bricks and mortar sources never have Vario Plus pages on the shelves, so I have to order them, and since I rarely plan ahead I end up with the "regular" pages most of the time.

You went straight to the heart of my question, CJD.

Without being able to properly verbalize it, I was wondering if the support of the 4-ring binder could be compensated by using the stiffer PLUS pages in a 3-ring binder. Of course the PLUS pages are twice the price and one would purchase more of them than binders ...

So, I'm still not sure about the total cost of ownership

Kirk

[edit to fix typo]

I think that a 3 ring binder should be fine for the vario, as long as it's a D ring and not more than 4 cm (1.5 inches) thick. And make sure the albums don't get overfull, as otherwise the end leaves will probably start to go at the holes. It might help to have some thicker sheets at start and end, to help hold the leaves in place.

Hello

OK. On the beginning days I used albums for all my collections. I used Publisher program for my own page when the "original" album went out. And then I used Albumeasy program for my Machin´s album.

But now, I´m wondering, the best album is not have a album, use a stock book or stock pages. Then when do you get all the stamps look for a Album.

Fernando Moscoso
Ecuador

Agree with you, Fernando.

By the way, have you seen the forum on machin rugs (new today)?

re: Edwin's post on paper. I use the same brand, but a lighter weight... 28lb and 32lb paper. for me is sufficient.

I've been using 20 pound paper in "D" three ring binders for at least 30 years with absolutely no discolouration of the paper. I have just under 100 binders of mounted mint stamps at this time. I use a CanoScan FB620P scanner (8 years old) to add blow-ups of specific areas of stamps to be highlighted and Corel WordPerfect software to create the pages with borders, wording and appropriately sized boxes for the mounted stamps. I couldn't use MicroSoft Word as easily.

Here's a sample page.

Blackjag - I think it's great that you create something unique with whatever software you are comfortable with. The results speak for themselves and your example page is much more interesting than a plain stocksheet of stamps. I might oneday find the time to do something similar.

Blackjag - really nice page!
I hope to do something similar wth my engravers/designers topical. A high-resolution scan blown up to show the detail, with some info, and then the actual stamp mounted on the page too.
One day...

Regarding the paper/cardstock weight, keep in mind that the weight of paper stock and card stock are measured differently. Don't assume there is any sort of continuity or matching values in the measurement scale.

Also, as long as you use the manual feed (i.e., straight path) in your laserwriter, you should not have any jamming problems. I use 110 lb cardstock pretty regularly (not for stamps) with several different laserwriters and I've never had any problems as long as the paper path is straight.

Regarding Vario-type pages, these are some of my favorite. I current use a couple thousand of them and love them, except that they are bulky. Wen I buy them, I usually buy several hundred at a time to get a good discount and save on shipping costs. The Centurion pages sold by Subway are a pretty decent alternative to the Lighthouse Vario. My last couple of batches were all Centurion, but they've jacked up the price now.

I use 3-ring binders because that is what is available in the US. I have had no problems with durability. I prefer round ring, instead of D-ring. The D-ring will hold more pages for a given binder size, but getting to the back few pages is a big pain -- and then it's a pain to close the binder again. I like the round ring because I can close in 1-2 seconds by simply holding it up at a slightly upside-down angle and allow the pages to flop together, then close the binder.


On Vario-type pages, always make sure the stamp is completely covered by the strip. And definitely never never allow any stamp to extend past the bottom of the strip above it. I've seen more than a few stamps store that way, resulting in "bends" in the stamp where it crossed the strip attached edge.

This past decade, I've gone back to worldwide collecting and have also shifted back to album pages instead of the stocksheets and stockbooks, simply because the stocksheets/books are way too bulky for a worldwide collection (I have a finite amount of shelf space.)

Can never seem to decide what to use, so I use them all!

Can never seem to decide what to collect, so I collect them all!

k

This is a really useful discussion and I for one really appreciate the various pros/cons pointed out.
One note on laser printers:
They are generally not suitable for straight paper path printing but there will be some that are more suitable than others.
Most lasers have some form of cylindrical drum that transfers the image to the paper.