Most photo magazines carry words in three places: a caption under a photograph, a note on the first page, and sometimes a letter on the last. Those have their own guides. The first page → · The last page →
This one is about the fourth place, which most people never ask for: a whole page given to words, somewhere in the middle. It is the difference between a book that feels assembled and one that feels written, and one well-placed text page does more than a caption on every photograph. How spreads work →
What a text page costs you
A text page is a page without photographs. In a magazine that averages about three photographs a page, each one is roughly three photographs you are not using.
That is usually a good trade, because the fourth, fifth and sixth frames of a moment add less than one sentence about it. But it has an arithmetic consequence worth knowing before you ask. Page counts go up in fours, so if a planned 8-page magazine is full of photographs and you want two text pages, the honest options are to cut six photographs or to move to 12 pages — ₹499 becomes ₹549.
Seven kinds of text page that work
1. The chapter opener. A title and two lines: where, when, who. Pune, 2019–2022. The flat on the fourth floor, before the lift worked. It turns a run of photographs into a section and gives the reader a place to breathe, and it suits almost any book.
2. The timeline. Dates down the page, one line each — met, moved, married, the first child, the house. It suits a book about a long stretch of time, where the photographs cannot carry every fact and should not have to.
3. The list. Every house we lived in. Things you said in the first year. What was in the fridge that summer. Lists read quickly, reward re-reading, and are where private jokes live most comfortably. Inside jokes in print →
4. A conversation, retyped. The message thread that mattered, set as text rather than screenshotted. A screenshot prints at screen resolution and looks like a phone; retyped, the same words look like part of the book. Printing screenshots and chats →
5. A document, reproduced. A recipe in a grandmother’s hand, a school report, a ticket, a letter. Here the page is really a photograph of a piece of paper, and the handwriting is the point — photograph it flat, in daylight, and send that. Printing tickets and letters →
6. Other people’s words. One line each from ten friends, or a paragraph from each of the children. It needs collecting well in advance and editing by one person. How to collect messages for a group gift →
7. The interview. Five questions asked of the person the book is about, answered in their own words. It suits a book of a parent’s or grandparent’s life better than anything else in it, because it is the one page where they speak. A photo book of their life →
How much fits on one page
Somewhere around three hundred words sits comfortably on an A4 page with a heading and room around the text. Past about five hundred, either the type gets smaller than is pleasant to read or the page fills edge to edge, and it stops looking like part of a photo magazine and starts looking like a form.
If the piece is longer than that, it is two pages or it needs cutting. In the middle of a book, cutting is usually right: a text page there is read by someone who picked up a book of photographs. The exception is the closing letter, which can comfortably run to six hundred words because it is allowed two pages at the end. Printing text small →
Where they go
In a long book, one per section is plenty. A text page opening each part is a rhythm; four in a row is an essay with illustrations. In an 8- or 12-page magazine, one is usually enough.
Face it with a photograph. A text page opposite a single strong image is the classic spread: the words set up the picture, the picture answers the words. Two text pages facing each other only work when that is the deliberate point — a letter that runs over.
Keep the first spread for the book’s opening. If there is a note on the first page, do not put another text page straight after it — the second belongs at the start of a later section.
When a text page is the wrong idea
When the book will be opened in front of people. A page of words stops a room. Guests lean over a photograph together; they wait politely while one person reads three hundred words. For a book handed over at a party, keep the words to captions and a short first page, and let the reading happen later.
When the reader is a young child. A four-year-old tends to turn past any page without a face on it. In a book for a small child the words belong to whoever reads it aloud, which means captions, not pages.
When the words are really a message to one person. A text page is part of the book and anyone who picks it up reads it. What you would not say in front of the family belongs in a card you give with it yourself, not printed on page seven.
Frequently asked
Does a text page cost more than a photo page? No. Price follows the page count, so a text page costs the same as any other page — the cost is the photographs it replaces.
Can I send handwriting instead of typing it? Send it photographed flat when the handwriting is the point, such as a recipe or a letter. Otherwise type it so it can be set cleanly — or ask for the page to be left blank and write on the printed book yourself.
Will you write the text pages for me? Partly. Chapter openers, timelines and lists we can write from your notes; words that must be yours — a letter, an interview’s answers — are set as you wrote them. Either way you read every word on the proof before anything prints. Do you write the captions? → · The design proof →
Can a text page carry a photograph as well? Yes. A short piece sits well beside one small image; a long one needs the page to itself.
How to send the words
Type them, in one message or one document, and say plainly that you want them as a text page. A long caption and a text page are different layout decisions, and a designer will not assume the second. Short captions and long ones →
Mark where each one goes — “before the Pune section”, “after the wedding photographs”.
Spell every name the way its owner spells it. A text page is among the most-read pages in the book and the worst place for a misspelled grandmother.
Which words become what
| What you have | What it should be |
|---|---|
| A sentence about one photograph | A caption |
| A title and a line or two for a section | A chapter opener |
| Dates, places, milestones | A timeline page |
| Things they said, did, owned | A list page |
| A message thread that mattered | A retyped conversation |
| A recipe, letter or ticket in their hand | A photographed document |
| A hundred words of why this book exists | The first page |
| A letter to the person | The last page |
| Something only for them, not the book | A card you hand over yourself |
Handwritten or printed message →
Part of our guide to making a photo magazine. See also: a photo magazine of one event and how to write photo captions.
Books with room for words: Custom Magazine · Love Story Magazine · Anniversary Magazine