USPS Images

Hey all, I'm prepping to come back here as the summer weather heats up and forces me inside the inside hobbies will takeover aka stamps...

so I'm looking at making pages for current releases aka 2010-2011 and on and was wondering if anyone has cut and pasted the USPS images as a reference block onto pages in something like Microsoft Word?

Questions:
1. how accurate are the image sizes on USPS page (not the closer image one)?
2. if not what do you use to determine size and then how do you create a box that exact size? do you use MS word?


I'll look and see if anyone has built new pages next week wwhen I have time no need to reinvent the wheel.

Edwin

Here's a source where you can download "free" album pages for any year through 2011. Supplements are added, as needed. However, they don't have an image of the stamp:

http://www.philosateleia.com/album/pages/

If you want to create your own album pages, MS Word will work, however, I find it easier to use Excel. Sizing of a border around a stamp can be a problem, as many different stamp sizes are out there. Further, if you collect unused stamps, there are some modern self-adhesive stamps (i.e. certain coil stamps) that come with an oversized backing paper, so you must adjust for not only the size of the stamp but for the overall stamp with backing paper. Then you have to consider if you are mounting the stamps with hinges or stamp mounts, the latter of which could require you to increase the size of your borders to accommodate the mount you prefer to use.

Back to your original question about the size of stamps, most announcements of new issues by the US Postal Service give details as to the exact dimensions of the stamp if you want to be exact as to the size, but then you probably want to leave an appropriate margin around the exact size of the stamp to create a visually acceptable album page.

Here's an example of the published details for the recent Gregory Peck stamp. (Note the red arrows that shows the overall stamp size.):

I use MS Word for my album pages. The word processing features are nice. It is very easy to create and size your boxes using the drawing tools. Many of my pages have more text than stamp boxes and it works great for covers.