Options for Creating a Yearbook Page

We have two main methods to create a page:

1. Use YearTech Online, the Jostens software that runs over the Internet.
2. Create the page in Photoshop. Save as a Jpeg, upload to Yeartech, insert it as a graphic on a blank page.

Which Method is Better?

It depends… (don’t you love that answer?!):

• YearTech is easier once you get to know it.
• You can easily add pictures, text and other elements (like backgrounds) in YearTech.
• You can move things around in YearTech and rotate pictures, but text doesn't rotate.
• If you want to change the light levels or other details of a picture in YearTech, you have to go back and edit the original Jpeg in Photoshop, then upload and insert it again.
• You can’t make parts of an image transparent in YearTech. E.g. You have a pic of someone’s head, and you want to float it over top of a background picture. In Yeartech, you‘d see the whole rectangle, not just the head
• Photoshop is excellent for assembling a lot of graphics into a collage, especially if you want transparency, rotations and other effects.
• Photoshop has some neat effects you can do with text for titles, but is a lousy Word Processor.
• Yeartech is better for adding substantial amounts of text that you can alter whenever you want.
• Even if you create a complete page in Photoshop, you still have to upload it to YearTech. If you need to alter it, you have to reopen the original Photoshop (.psd) file, make the changes, and re-upload.
• YearTech pages are much easier for last-minute changes

		Ellen McArthur skippered the winning boat, with an AHS crew that included Popeye, Noah and Captain Highliner
YearTech Easy to place photos & text Photos don’t have transparent backgrounds, so you see a rectangle around them unless you have a white background on a white page Can’t merge pictures together – you’ll see overlapping rectangles. No Rotation or transparency	Photoshop Easy to make photo backgrounds transparent Rotations, semi-transparency (like the text) is easy Merging and layering pieces from several pictures is easy Great for collage pages Could add other text later in YearTech	Photoshop plus YearTech Title text effects like Embossing are possible in PhotoShop Paragraph-style text is a pain in PhotoShop, and very hard to edit later è Do photo collages in PhotoShop, then add text later in YearTech!

Bottom Line

I would usually use YearTech because of its simplicity, and because it’s designed fro the job of creating Yearbook pages. All the tools and functions you need are right there. It’s also easier for us to keep tabs on your progress and give you help.

BUT, the exception is for collage-type pages. If you want to merge several pictures together seamlessly, it will look much better in Photoshop.

Final suggestion: Combine the two

If you’re good at Photoshop, use it to merge all the photo pieces together into one collage. This might be a whole page or just part of a page.

Then save the collage(s) as jpegs. Upload them and insert them on your YearTech page. Then use YearTech to add text boxes, titles, page numbers, a background etc.

Making a Page in YearTech Online

Making a PhotoShop Page