The first page is read once, carefully, before anybody looks at a single photograph. Everything after it is read through whatever it establishes.
It is also written last, in a hurry, after all the difficult decisions are done — which is why so many photo books open with a sentence somebody clearly typed while tired.
Four things it should do
1. Say who it is for and who it is from. Names, plainly. This sounds unnecessary and it is the thing that makes the object legible in thirty years, when the book has outlived the conversation around it.
2. Say what the book is. “The four years in Bandra.” “Your first year.” “Everything I could find from before we met.” One line, and it tells the reader how to read the rest.
3. Say why now. The occasion, or the absence of one. “For your fortieth” works; so does “for no reason, in March”.
4. Date it. The single most-skipped and most-valuable line on the page.
How long
A hundred to a hundred and fifty words. Long enough to say something, short enough that somebody opening a gift in a room full of people can read it before the moment passes.
⚠️ Anything past about three hundred words is a letter, and a letter at the front of a book delays the thing the reader came for. If you have a letter, it belongs at the end. What to write on the last page →
What not to open with
| Avoid | Why |
|---|---|
| A quotation from somebody famous | Opens the book in another person’s voice |
| “Words cannot describe…” | Then the page has agreed not to try |
| A summary of the relationship | The book is about to do that, better |
| An apology for the book | Common, and it makes the reader manage your feelings |
| Instructions on how to feel | The photographs do that or they do not |
The version that works when you are stuck
Four sentences, filled in:
For [name], from [name]. This is [what it is] — [when it covers]. I made it because [reason], and [one specific thing]. [Place], [month, year].
Plain, and it does all four jobs. Nobody has ever been disappointed by a first page that was clear.
Where it physically goes
Usually the inside of the front cover or the first right-hand page, before the photographs start.
Send us the words and it is set as part of the design. If you want it handwritten instead, say so and the page can be left for you — which is worth considering, because handwriting on the first page of a gift is the one thing printing cannot reproduce. Do you write the captions for me? →
If it is a surprise, and they will open it in front of people
Worth planning for, because it changes what the first page can say.
A gift opened at a table is read aloud, or read silently while eight people wait. Neither is a good setting for something private, and the recipient has to manage a reaction in public.
Two ways round it:
Keep the first page public and put the private writing at the end, where it is read later and alone.
Or give the book privately, before or after the event, and let the first page be as personal as you like.
What does not work is a very private first page on a book handed over at a party. It is the most common regret people describe about a gift like this.
Frequently asked
What should the first page of a photo book say? Who it is for, who it is from, what the book is, why now, and the date.
How long should it be? A hundred to a hundred and fifty words. Longer than three hundred and it is a letter, which belongs at the end.
Should I use a quotation? No. It opens your book in somebody else’s voice on the one page that should be yours.
Can I handwrite it? Yes — ask for the page to be left blank. Handwriting is the one thing printing cannot reproduce.
What if I do not know what to write? Four sentences: who and from whom, what it is, why now, and the date.
Part of our guide to captions and messages. See also: what to write on the last page and writing a dedication.
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