A spread is the two pages you see at once when the book is open. It is the real unit of a photo book — not the page — and once you start thinking in spreads, most layout questions answer themselves.
The rhythm that makes a book readable
Six photographs on every page is a contact sheet. One photograph on every page is a slide deck. Neither reads well for long.
What works is variation, because the eye needs somewhere to speed up and somewhere to stop.
| Spread type | Photos | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Hero | 1, full bleed | The moment the chapter is about |
| Pair | 2, facing | Before and after, two people, cause and effect |
| Grid | 4–6 | Passing time quickly, a day, a set of small moments |
| Quiet | 1 small, lots of white | A breath after a busy run |
| Text | Words only | A chapter break, or the one that says why |
A useful ratio over a 16-page book: about two heroes, one text page, and the rest a mix of pairs and grids.
Three photographs to a page is an average, not a rule
The “three per page” figure everyone quotes is how you convert a photo count into a page count. It is not an instruction to put three on each page.
In a finished 16-page magazine some spreads hold one image and some hold eight. The average lands near three. That is why sending extra photographs matters: the grids absorb them and the heroes need alternatives.
What sits opposite what
A spread is read as one picture before it is read as two. So the pairing matters more than either image on its own.
Match the horizon, not the subject. Two photographs with the eye-line at the same height sit together calmly even if the content is unrelated.
Put movement facing inward. If someone is walking or looking left, place them on the right-hand page so the movement travels into the book rather than off the edge.
Do not face two crowds. Two busy images across a spread give the eye nowhere to land. Busy with quiet is almost always better.
Across the fold
One photograph running across both pages is the strongest thing a magazine layout can do, and the fold runs straight through the middle of it. So a double-page image is chosen for what sits on its centre line.
| Crosses the fold well | Keep off the fold |
|---|---|
| A horizon, a stretch of sea, a road | Faces, and above all eyes |
| A long dining table, a row of lamps | A name on a signboard, any text |
| A wide room with the people at either end | The cake, the ring, the thing the photograph is about |
In a saddle-stitched magazine the centre spread is printed on a single sheet, so a picture there is continuous — though the staples sit on its centre line. Everywhere else, the two halves of a spread are printed on different sheets and meet at the fold, so the picture wants a middle that forgives a millimetre either way.
Designing for the full spread →
What a grid does to your photographs
A grid is a set of fixed boxes, and a photograph placed in one is cropped to its shape. Mostly that is invisible. Occasionally it takes off the cousin at the edge of a group, the date on a railway ticket, or the top of a head.
Two ways to protect a photograph that must stay whole: say so when you send it — “do not crop, everyone in this one matters” — or mark it as a hero so it gets room of its own. On the proof, look at the edges of every photograph in a grid, not just the middle.
Where the words go
Captions belong close to the image and small. A caption set large enough to compete with the photograph turns into a headline, and a headline about a family photograph reads oddly.
One page of text somewhere in the middle does more than captions everywhere. It is the thing that makes a book feel written rather than assembled. What a text page can hold →
The first and last spreads
Both are worth deciding deliberately, because they are the two people remember.
The opening spread should be quiet — one image, ideally the earliest. It tells the reader this has an order. The closing spread should be the most recent, and it should have some space around it rather than being crammed with the leftovers.
Briefing the layout without designing it
You do not need to draw anything. Four notes sent with the photographs shape the layout more than any sketch would.
- The heroes. The two or three photographs that deserve a page or a spread. Send them first, or name them by file.
- The pairs. Photographs you want facing each other — then and now, the two grandmothers, the same doorway twenty years apart.
- The order, or the chapters, if it is not simply chronological.
- Anything that must not be cropped or split across the fold.
Everything else can be left to the person laying it out. Choosing which photograph sits beside which is the part of the work that is done for you.
What to send before design starts →
Checking the layout on the proof
The proof arrives as a PDF, and a phone usually shows a PDF one page at a time — which hides exactly what this page is about. Open it on a laptop in two-page view if you can, or at least look at facing pages one after the other, and check spreads rather than pages.
- Is anything important sitting on the fold?
- Does the same person appear on both halves of a spread in the same outfit, reading as a repeat?
- Do two busy pages face each other?
- Is each hero where you expected it?
Asking for a change at this point is what the proof is for; nothing prints until you approve it.
What it costs
₹499 for 8 pages up to ₹1,099 for 40, flat ₹70 delivery to every serviceable pin code in India. Layout, sequencing and revisions are included at every size.
Size, pages, paper and price →
Frequently asked
How many photos should go on one page? It varies by spread. Three per page is the average used to convert a photo count into a page count, not a layout rule — good books mix one-image spreads with grids of six.
What is a spread? The two facing pages you see when the book is open. It is the unit a photo book is designed in, because the eye reads both pages at once.
Do I decide the layout? You decide the order and the content. We build the spreads and show you the whole thing as a proof before it prints, and revisions are included.
Should every photo have a caption? No. Captions everywhere flatten the book. A handful of specific ones plus a single page of writing does far more.
Can a photo run across both pages? Yes, and it is the strongest thing in the format used sparingly. One or two per book, saved for images that genuinely carry it.
Part of our complete photo magazine guide. See also: what to write on the last page, sorting by story rather than by date, cover ideas and landscape or portrait.
See the format: Photo magazines from ₹499 · Custom Magazine