← Job 03
CENTAURUS
STUDIO
Job 03 · Panel to Panel · Demo Monday 10/26

Spread Lab

Two pages the reader sees at once. You build the canvas, the trim, the panel grid and the fold yourself, then drop art into frames that crop it without wrecking it.

00What done looks like

CROSSES THE FOLD FILLED FRAME PAGE 1 PAGE 2
Your spread, guides on. Pink = trim. Dashed = the fold. Blue = your panel grid. One panel crosses the fold. One frame has art in it.

You're done when

  • Your canvas is 17.25 × 11.25 in at 300 ppi, RGB, saved as job03_panel-to-panel_spread.psd
  • Trim lines sit 0.125 in in from every edge
  • A 4-column, 3-row panel grid with gutters you picked on purpose
  • A fold guide straight down the middle at 8.625 in
  • At least one panel crosses the fold
  • One frame is filled with art you can still slide around inside it
  • Screenshot in #dsn-standup, guides showing, plus how wide your gutters are and why

01Make the canvas

  1. File → New. Width 17.25 in, Height 11.25 in, Resolution 300, Color Mode RGB. Name it job03_panel-to-panel_spread.
  2. Why those numbers: two 8.5 × 11 pages side by side is 17 × 11. Add 0.125 in of bleed on every edge and you get 17.25 × 11.25.
  3. File → Save As right now, before you touch anything.
  4. Switch your rulers to inches. Ctrl + R to show the rulers, right-click either ruler, pick Inches. Every guide box after this reads in inches. Do this first or every number below is wrong.
  5. Right-click didn't stick? Edit → Preferences → Units & Rulers → Rulers: Inches. That one's permanent.
Stuck in pixels?Typing "in" after a number does not work in these boxes. If your boxes say px, use these instead. They round off half a pixel, which nobody will ever see.trim 38 · gutters 75 · panel margin 188 · fold 2588
Why RGBEvery filter and adjustment works in RGB, and this lands on Behance and a screen first. The school printer converts on its own.

02Trim lines

  1. View → Guides → New Guide Layout. (Older Photoshop: View → New Guide Layout.)
  2. Uncheck Columns and Rows. Their gutter boxes go grey. Ignore them.
  3. Check Margin. Set Top, Left, Bottom and Right to 0.125 (pixels: 38). Click OK.
What these areThe paper gets cut on these lines. Anything past them is bleed: background art runs into it, words never do.

03Panel grid

  1. New Guide Layout again. This time uncheck "Clear Existing Guides" or your trim lines vanish.
  2. Columns: check it. Number 4. Gutter: there's already a number in there from last time. Type over it with 0.25 (pixels: 75). That's two columns per page.
  3. Rows: check it. Number 3. Gutter: type over it with 0.25 (pixels: 75).
  4. Leave Width and Height blank. If there's a number in them, delete it. Filled in, Photoshop sizes the columns by that number instead of fitting 4 across.
  5. Margin: 0.625 on all four sides (pixels: 188). Click OK.
  6. Look at the middle gutter. It lands right on the fold. That's not luck, that's the math.
The gutter is timeTight gutters (around 0.125 in) read fast, like a rapid sequence. Wide gutters (0.25 in and up) slow the eye down and feel like more time passed. Pick one and be ready to say why.

04The fold

  1. View → Guides → New Guide.
  2. Orientation Vertical, Position 8.625 (pixels: 2588). Click OK.
  3. That's the spine. Faces and words stay at least 0.25 in off it, or the binding eats them.
  4. Turn snapping on: View → Snap To → Guides.
ShortcutCtrl + ; hides and shows every guide. Use it to see the page the way a reader will.

05Drop in frames

  1. Press K for the Frame tool (the square with an X through it).
  2. Drag a rectangle inside one cell. It snaps to the guides.
  3. Drag one frame across two cells to make a big panel. The grid is a starting point, not a cage. Merge cells on purpose.
  4. Make at least one panel cross the fold. That's your money panel: the reader sees both pages at once, so it stops them.

06Fill one frame

  1. Click the frame layer in the Layers panel.
  2. File → Place Embedded and pick an image. It lands inside the frame, already cropped. Dragging a file from your folder onto the frame works too.
  3. Already have the art as a layer? Right-click the layer, Convert to Frame.
  4. The frame layer has two thumbnails. Click the content one, then Ctrl + T to slide or scale the art inside the crop.
  5. Click the frame thumbnail to resize the panel itself. The art is never destroyed. That's the whole point.

07Proof by the bell

  1. Guides showing. One frame filled.
  2. Screenshot it and post it in #dsn-standup.
  3. In the same post: how wide your gutters are, and why.

08If it breaks

PX

The guide boxes say px and my numbers come out wrong.

Your rulers are in pixels. Right-click the ruler, Inches, then open the dialog again. Or use the pixel numbers in step 01.

GRID

My columns are the wrong size or don't fill the page.

There's a number in Width or Height. Delete it, leave them blank, run it again.

SNAP

Frames won't snap to the grid.

View → Snap To → Guides is off. Turn it on.

GONE

My trim lines disappeared after the second Guide Layout.

"Clear Existing Guides" was checked. Undo, run it again with it unchecked.

MISS

My image landed outside the frame.

The frame layer wasn't selected. Undo, click the frame layer, place again.

Build the grid.
Then break it on purpose.