Digital Scrapbooking: A Fun and Easy Hobby

Marrying your computer to the scrapbook is a new and innovative way of doing things in this day of bits and bytes. Digital scrapbooking is the creative art of digitally creating images or adding photographs or memorabilia accompanied with journaling as well as many other embellishments.

Scrapbooking is mainly focused on preserving memories for the generations to come but creativity is also a major consideration as one can showcase one's memories in a scrapbook using all one's talents and resourcefulnesses. Electronic scrapbooking or digital scrapbooking as it is now known as is a method of showcasing one's photographs and memories using a digital file instead of an ordinary book.

Photo Editing and Graphic Software Packages

The digital scrapbooking page is usually made by arranging digital or scanned photographs plus some journaling as well as images through use of a software program that is able to maneuver graphics as well as text.

Many a digital scrapbooking enthusiast will use the photo editing and graphics software packages available including Microsoft Digital Image Pro, JASC Paint Shop or Adobe Photoshop to arrange their scrapbook pages. In addition, there are also dedicated software packages such as Hallmark and Ulead and digital scrapbooking can be performed on even simple word processing packages, such as Microsoft Word.

When choosing a software package for your digital scrapbooking project you should keep in mind that some of these software packages need to be learnt thoroughly before they can be used and if you are not too familiar with the workings of a computer there is need to get cracking and learn the bits and bytes by taking tutorials. The cost of these software packages is another constraining feature.

At the beginning of the digital scrapbooking project, one can browse galleries to gain ideas about style and design and also follow the steps outlined in the tutorials. The first thing to do is to create a digital file and some popular sizes of files are 5x7, 8x8, 8.5x11 and 12x12. The size of the layout will be influenced by what the intended display should look like and a resolution of 300dpi would suit most printing as well as publishing needs. One can also scan photographs or have them digitized to a CD.

One does not really require a digital camera to master digital scrapbooking and what one should look out for is the type of background that the scrapbook shall have. There is plenty of opportunity to create photo mats as well as add titles and do some journaling. Adding elements and adding drop shadows are other areas that can be used in digital scrapbooking.