Text in a photo book is nearly always the smallest thing on the page — a caption, a date, a name under a portrait. It is also the part that has to still work in thirty years, when the person who can explain the photograph is not there.
The floor
Below about 7 point, printed text stops being comfortably readable for most people, and below 6 it stops being readable at all for many.
We set captions above that floor. It is worth knowing because it is the constraint behind two things people ask for:
Long captions get smaller or they get cut. A caption is set in a fixed space. Forty words in the space for twelve either shrinks below the floor or overflows.
More text on a page means less room for photographs. Genuinely a trade, and worth making deliberately.
What makes small text harder to read
| Harder | Easier |
|---|---|
| Light grey text | Solid dark text |
| Text over a photograph | Text on paper |
| A very light or thin weight | A normal weight |
| Reversed out — white on dark | Dark on light |
| A decorative face | A plain one |
| Glossy paper under a light | Non-glare paper |
⚠️ White text on a dark photograph is the combination that fails first, and it is the one people ask for most. It looks striking on a screen and at small sizes on paper it fills in and loses definition. Non-glare paper →
For anything that has to last
Names in full, and years. Not “Mummy at the old house” — the actual name and the actual year.
Set larger than you think. If a caption is doing archival work, it deserves the size that makes it readable to somebody who has never seen these people. Albums as heirlooms →
Dark on light, plain, and not over the photograph.
Screenshots are a different problem
Text inside an image is not typeset text — it is pixels, and it cannot be enlarged. That is why a screenshot of a message thread has a much lower ceiling than a caption does. Printing screenshots and chat threads →
What we do
Send us the words and we set them. Caption writing and typesetting are part of a designed product, so you are not choosing sizes or making layout decisions.
What is worth telling us is which captions carry information that has to survive — names, dates, places — as against which are a line of commentary. The first kind gets set to be read; the second can be smaller.
And the proof shows you. Every caption on every page, before it prints. The design proof →
Frequently asked
What is the smallest text size for printing? About 7 point for comfortable reading. Below 6 point it is unreadable for many people.
How long can a caption be? Short. A caption sits in a fixed space, and a long one either shrinks below the readable floor or crowds the page.
Can I have white text on a dark photograph? It is the combination that fails first at small sizes. Dark text on paper is far more legible.
Do I choose the text size? No. Send the words and they are typeset as part of the design, and you see every caption on the proof.
What should captions say for a book that will be inherited? Full names and years. Not nicknames — the reader in thirty years has never met these people.
Part of our guide to paper and printing. See also: short captions and long ones, do you write the captions for me? and albums as heirlooms.
Captions included: Photo magazines from ₹499 · Hardcover albums from ₹1,299