Your Self Designed Album Pages

Hi spain_1850, I only just noticed your post.

You can insert graphics by means of the STAMP_ADD_IMG command. For some nice examples or what others have done please take a look at the Albums section of theStampWeb web site (unfortunately I can't post links). Bill Weston's US-VirginIslands.pdf is a nice example.

For a bit more flexibility in inserting images, the latest version of AlbumEasy can optionally draw images without the stamp box border.
Clive

It is amazing that this topic has been going on now for 7 years. Thank you for all the contributors.

I have a comment regarding borders. I entered a one frame competitive exhibition a few weeks ago and one of the comments I got from the judges is that I had borders on my pages and that is would get more points if there were none.

I love the borders on my pages but in the competitive environment it is disappointing that they are frowned on.

Here is one of the pages

Bruce - I've never exhibited and have wondered about that. Half of me thinks it shouldn't be a problem but thinking about it, no borders does make for a cleaner frame. I'm thinking that to do that, pages just for exhibition need to be prepared... if the items are in mounts and can easily be moved from page to page and back again that works. I don't usually like moving stamps once they are in place but I guess that would work.

Lovely Page Bruce, well done you.
I agree, I like the border.

I imagine the encouragement to eliminate borders on pages that are to be exhibited stems from the fairly odd look when many pages are mounted in exhibition frames, each page with yet another border around it. That would seem to clutter up the display with unnecessary lines and boxes every place you looked when you want to be looking at stamp material. At least that's my guess. On your pages, my personal opinion (if I could make a suggestion) is that your borders may be a little heavy and tend to cramp the material you are displaying. A borderless page has the effect of unflattering the page and letting the stamp material "breathe" more. They are good looking pages otherwise, for sure, and are nicely designed indeed.

The larger the page, the fancier the border can be, but most borders used on standard published album pages, including borders around each stamp, tend to be single thin lines. On some collector-made pages that I've seen, collectors that surrounded each stamp with a heavy or thick line make the whole presentation look much too cluttered and heavy. It's the stamp material we want to see, not the decorations -- especially on smaller pages which can get cluttered with extra design elements very quickly. More and more, as I look at collections, I think borderless pages look cleaner and less cluttered.

One "compromise" that might save trouble if you keep exhibiting might be to make your borders much thinner, perhaps a single thin line around the page. This might seem more acceptable to judges, and you wouldn't have to transfer material from one type of album page to another. Or just use pages without any borders.

Too bad no one has invented an album page where you can simply remove the border whenever you want to exhibit!

I had created this side by side to visually compare border effects. I agree a minimal border is best to show off the stamps. Of course, exhibiting rules are something else (they could mandate it or not).

Link Album Pages:https://www.dropbox.com/s/ry690o56m...-78.pdf?dl=0

Those are beautiful pages, dvaldemoro !

A couple of mine from my Turkey collection.

Wow! Chris....beautiful stuff.
You are very skillful.

If you get stuck on any missing issues, let us know, I have 1000's of duplicates. I may be able to help out.

Many album pages qualify as "Literature" as reference works for others.

I love all the ideas from the pages in this topic. I have made a lot of Canadian revenue pages for my collection. My question is: What opinions do you have about adding scans of each stamp to the album page to make it an illustrated album vs empty blocks awaiting stamps? I make the pages with excel and am trying to learn how to screen the pictures so that they don't overpower the actual stamps I have on the page. I'll try to add a picture of one of them tomorrow.

Thanks Rod, I appreciate the offer!





I started out doing that, but its a lot of work and it uses a lot more ink from your printer. This is especially true if you are using a inkjet printer.

And, I realized that I was going to all this trouble when the illustration was going to be covered up by the stamp anyway.

I may occasionally do that for a very high priced or rare stamp that I'm not likely to acquire, but for all the other "normal" stamps, it seemed to be a waste of time and ink for me.

I actually prefer NOT to have images of stamps I don't have on album pages. I find that it steals the attention away from the stamps that I DO have. To each his/her own.

@Chris: Beautiful pages!

I use PowerPoint to make my pages with Steiner as the starting point. I find PP to be much for flexible for adding/moving things around than either Word or Excel.

I try to use added pictures/illustrations and text sparingly so as not to "take away" from the stamps. For the same reason, I try to mostly use illustrations or pictures in black & white.