This tutorial is for magazines, but the technique is the same for chapbooks. Using Photoshop is an easy way to move elements around and create spectacular artistic effects in your chapbook. And, if you budget is tight, they have a free trial period for the software. You can probably complete your whole project for free if you get busy.
Using Adobe Photoshop for a chapbook
Photoshop shines when your chapbook leans visual: poems set over images, hand-lettered titles, textured backgrounds. It’s more work than a word processor for plain text, so reach for it when the look matters as much as the words.
- Create a new document at your page size and set the resolution to 300 pixels per inch so it prints sharp.
- Build one file per page, or use artboards to keep all your pages in a single document.
- Keep every important element inside a safe margin, and leave the inside edge clear for the fold.
- Use separate layers for the background, the image, and the text, so you can nudge each without disturbing the rest.
- Set your poems with the Type tool, and keep the same font and size from page to page for a consistent feel.
- Flatten a copy and export each page as a high-quality PDF or a 300 ppi image for printing.
Photoshop won’t arrange the pages for folding, so assemble your finished pages into a booklet order in a PDF, or hand them to a print shop to impose. If money is tight, Adobe offers a free trial, which is often long enough to finish a small project.
For text-heavy booklets, InDesign or Word is usually easier. The format guide and how to make a chapbook cover the rest.