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A collection of yearbooks produced by VAYearbooks[/caption]
May and June are always a busy time here at
AlphaGraphics West End, as yearbook orders from schools that have been in the works from as early as the previous Fall begin to arrive and start production. No two books are the same, just as no two schools are identical, and with each comes new challenges to achieve the right look for each one. From the elaborate yet traditional case-bound yearbook to the simple yet functional saddle-stitched variety, yearbook design is as varied as the individuals who undertake the task of assembling a lasting memento of the school year.
AlphaGraphics West End, via it's subsidiary
VAYearbooks, is a full-service yearbook publisher, providing local service to schools both in the local community and elsewhere. While traditional book publishing would involve a team of costly professional designers to prepare a book for publication, we instead rely upon a powerful and unparalleled software program known as FotoFusion, by LumaPix. Each school is licensed to use this program for the year, and training is provided both by LumaPix experts via telephone and internet, and AlphaGraphics team members for one-on-one consultation, which is included at no cost.
The strength of FotoFusion over traditional layout programs is that it is database driven. By this method, the otherwise time-consuming manual re-layout of panel pages is avoided which saves time and money. For example, if you had a new student to add or one who missed picture day, traditionally this would mean considerable work to re-arrange other pictures of a panel page to make the insertion. But with FotoFusion licensed by AlphaGraphics West End, this is a minor change. Using the database editor within the program, you simply add the student to the database, with or without picture. FotoFusion does the job of fitting him into the panel in the correct place automatically. The program is easy to learn for anyone unfamiliar with traditional methods such as Adobe InDesign.
"FotoFusion is the most powerful layout program I've ever used. Once I learned to stop trying to manually adjust my pages, and allow the program to do the hard work for me, yearbook creation and editing was a breeze."
Eric Cornett - AG West End Yearbook Support
Whether your school does yearbook layout as a committee of parents, a volunteer individual or group, or as a school club, FotoFusion and VAYearbooks can save your school time, money and effort.
"As a Virginia-based company, your school can be proud of the fact that they are helping to keep Virginia dollars in-state and can have as much or as little direct input on design and production as they like."
Jeff Bayard - VAYearbooks Director of Marketing
Like all AlphaGraphics locations, we are committed to quality and customer satisfaction, when promised, as promised. Whatever your printing or visual communication need, we can help. Call us at 804-627-0500 or e-mail us at
us315@alphagraphics.com to get started. We are on the web at:
agwestend.alphagraphics.com. Our Facebook page is
www.Facebook.com/agwestend and we are on Twitter at
#AGWestEnd.