How to create Layout for Photo Album

Please excuse me for saying this, but you've got a whole lot of numbers in your question that we've got to guess at. So I'm going with my guesses here, which may or may not be right.

You're saying you want to create vertical photo album that's 30x20. First guess: I'm assuming that's in centimeters.

Then you're saying you are setting up pages at 600mm for the width and 200(Second guess: mm) for the height. Third guess: I assume you are trying to produce two-page spreads. I would strongly recommend against doing this for a number of reasons. But if you're determined to do this, those dimensions would be incorrect. If your vertical book would be 30cm tall, your document setup should be too. It should be set at 300mm. You would double the width of your 20cm width, for a page width of 400mm. If you set the height at 300mm and the width at 400mm, InDesign should set the page to "landscape", or horizontal layout. If it doesn't, you should do that manually.

Now about the whole layout as spreads thing: Fourth guess: you want to set up the page spreads yourself. Don't do that. Lay out your picture book as single pages, and let whoever is reproducing your book set up the page spreads. Fifth guess: based on your questions, I suspect this is the first time you've tried this, and are looking to set up spreads for reproducing the book. Seeing page spreads side-by-side as a book reader (reader's spreads) is radically different than setting up page spreads to produce what appears to be page spread side-by-side to the reader (printer's spreads).

For example, to set up the outside cover of an 8-page book, you'd create a printer's spread with page 8 to the left and page 1 to the right. The only place where the printer's spread of the book would be the same as the reader's spread would be the centerfold, where page 4 would be on the left and page 5 would be on the right. All the rest would not. For an 8-page document, printer's spreads would lay out like the example below:

To create an 8-page booklet like this:

The more pages you do, the more complex this gets. That's why it's better to let whoever's reproducing the book do this, and have them show you how to do it right. If you're determined to do this yourself, there are three rules to go by:

Rule One: Page count for the booklet need to be in multiples of 4 — e.g. if your booklet design has 17 pages, you either have to add three pages to make it 20 or delete one page to make it 16, because the page count needs to be in a multiple of 4.

Rule Two: The odd-numbered page always goes to the right — e.g. for a 16-page booklet your outside cover would place page 16 to the left and page 1 to the right so when you fold the cover similar to the example above, the cover will be on the front of the book. Because the odd-numbered page always goes to the right.

Rule Three: If there's only one signature, like you'd have in the simple booklet example above, adding up the value for the left-side page number in a printer's spread and the right side page should add up to one more than the total number of pages in the booklet. This rule is both a shortcut for assembling the booklet as well as a quality check after you've assembled it. So, for our 16-page booklet with a printer's spread with page 7, page 7 would go to the right because the odd-numbered page always goes to the right and page 10 would go on the left. If you add the two page numbers together it would equal 17 because adding the page numbers for the spread equals one more than the total number of pages. If it doesn't, you're doing/have done it wrong.

If this is the first time you're attempting this, you really need the assistance of a print professional to help you assemble this project. Or better still, let whoever's producing this project take responsibility for creating the printer's spreads. Set your document with single 30cm tall x 20cm wide pages and let the pros put the pages together for you.

I don't mean to sound negative about this, but I do want to emphasize that if you're doing this for the first time, it's best to seek professional help ... and learn from them.

I hope this helps,

Randy

> .. 30x20. So, I put the 600mm for width and 200 for height. Is that correct?

Well, obviously not. If your targeted page size is 30x20 (cm?) then why use "600 mm for width"?

> About the orientation, it slhoud be horizontal or vertical?

30 cm wide and 20 cm high is called "landscape" (generally in the industry, and in InDesign's (English) user interface as well).

If you call a standing-up page "horizontal" (because it is the 'regular' orientation) then it's vertical. If you call lying-down page "horizontal" (because its largest dimension is wider than it is high) then it's horizontal.

However, you call this "a photo vertical album". That does not rhyme with your stated size at all, as this would be (again, as usual in the industry) given in "wide x high".

If you are not going to print this yourself but plan on sending it out for professional printing: contact the printer and ask for proper dimensions.