Turning a box of slides into a family newspaper

This post comes from Michaela, our Customer Assistant who printed a newspaper for her dad's birthday this year. With Father's Day coming up in June, we asked her to share her project. 

When my dad turned 55 this year, I was faced with the same problem I have every year: what do I buy for someone who has enough mugs, jumpers, and books to last a lifetime? (Almost all of which were bought by me!) I’ve been working at Newspaper Club since the beginning of 2013, and thought this year the perfect gift would be a digital tabloid newspaper of his own.

Luckily, finding the content was easy. A few years back, my granddad passed on box of photographic slides that he had taken during the 50s - 60s when he and my grandma were newlyweds. In the box were pictures of my dad and his brother on holiday in various UK caravanning resorts, as well as their early scouting adventures, and trips to the beach on their matching red bikes.

I’d managed to scan them in and make copies on my hard drive, but to my engineering dad who isn’t so tech savvy, they were about as useful on my computer as they had been in the box under the stairs. He’s a fan of reading and nostalgia, so this seemed like the perfect solution!

I set out to make a photo newspaper using ARTHR, our free online layout tool. We see on a day-to-day basis just how helpful ARTHR is for our customers – whether they’re creating a newspaper for the very first time, or just want a no fuss, simple way of uploading and laying out content. Since I had a fairly good idea of what I wanted to create and how I wanted it to look, I went with the blank template option. I could upload and manage my content almost anywhere in the document without having to worry about exporting images within the margins, or setting up my file incorrectly (one of the many advantages of using ARTHR.)

The selection process with these images was a struggle, as there were so many beautiful memories to choose from, but after much deliberation I whittled them down to a 12-page digital tabloid. Waiting to see the finished results come through the post was almost as exciting as seeing my dad's face, along with the rest of the family, when I handed over the newspaper (which now sits very prettily on the coffee table at my parents' house for everyone to enjoy!)

If you’re thinking of making a personalised newspaper this Father’s Day, we have lots of helpful tips on our website and in our free samples, which are designed to help you get the best out of your newspapers.

It can be quite difficult with old images in particular to get the colour balance right, so do make sure you read through our artwork guidelines to get the best printed results.

You can also contact us at support@newspaperclub.com for any additional information – and don’t forget to share your newspapers with us online or in The Newsagent to be in with a chance of winning our Newspaper of the Month competition!

Happy printing : )