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    Make a Great Coloring Book

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    fellowes-quasar500-sm3Kids love coloring books, whether they are just for fun or as a learning tool. Here are some tips for putting together your own coloring book.

    Decide on a Theme

    For instance, if you are a teacher you may want to create a coloring book that relates to what you are covering in class (National Parks, the First Thanksgiving, etc.). Same goes if you are just creating a gift for a child, though in that case, it might be fun to create a coloring book that is based on people and places that he or she is familiar with, a recent outing, or whatever the child happens to be fascinated with at the time (sports, cowboys, dogs, etc).

    If you are a company that is looking to create a great marketing tool, or just something to keep the kids happily busy while you do business with the parents, a fun little coloring book that is somehow related to your industry may be just the thing. This would be a great idea for, say, an auto dealership, among other businesses.

    Create The Pages

    There are a few different ways to go about this. If you are artistically inclined, you can draw the pages yourself by hand, or on the computer using some drawing software. If you don’t have these sorts of talents yourself, you can enlist the help of a professional graphic artist. Some photo editing software programs such as Photoshop allow you to alter photos in such a way that they resemble black and white line drawings, and you may be able to use these, at least as a starting off point.

    The images you use should be compelling and complex enough to be fun to color, but not so dense that you can’t easily tell what a given object is. Remember the age of your audience when you are putting this together. You can make it both fun and challenging with a little bit of effort.

    Create (or get your artist to create) a nice looking, color title and cover that conveys the theme of your coloring book.

    Organize it.

    Decide how you want to organize the pages of your book within your theme (chronologically, etc.) and place them within your document-creation software. From here, you will want to make PDF pages of your coloring book making sure that the fonts are embedded. If you are using MS Word, or Acrobat Professional, you can use the PDF creation application within those programs. If not, there are a few free PDF-creation programs available online.

    Bind it.

    There are a few options to consider here when it comes to binding style, but some of the most logical would be plastic comb binding, spiral coil binding, or thermal (hardcover) binding. Take a look around online or head down to your local printer to see what binding style works best for you. If you are going to be creating a fair number of coloring books, now or in the future, you may want to look into owning your own binding machine. They are less expensive than you might think, and most are rather easy to use as well.

    Turn Your Photos Into a Coloring Book

    by Leave a Comment

    Making coloring books can either be a simple one-time project, an ongoing classroom learning tool or a great business to get into. Here are some tips to get you going.

    Choose A Theme:

    There are, of course, several options here. You can make a whole book that is compiled solely of family members, of the children themselves, of animals, of a recent trip to the circus, or really of anything you can imagine. Try to choose a theme that the children will be interested in and that they will enjoy coloring. You can even make this a learning experience, such as making your them the first Thanksgiving, or something of the sort. The sky is the limit here. You may even find that you have such a knack for coloring book ideas that you decode to create your own business!

    Choose Your Images:

    Once you have decided what your theme is going to be, start compiling some images. Depending on how you are going to make them into black and white coloring-book pictures, you will either need to print them out or simply use the digital images. When you are choosing images, pick the ones that you think the children will connect with and enjoy the most, and that will be fairly easy to render into outlines while remaining recognizable. Choose images that don’t have complex backgrounds or textures.

    If your theme is a recent trip, make sure that you have a good chronology of the events, and that the child will have fun remembering them. When you are choosing the photos, you can also start to think about how long you want the coloring book to be. Fifteen to twenty pages is probably the most you want to do, unless you have a larger project in mind.

    Creating Coloring Images:

    If you are making the images on your computer, scan them and import them to a photo editing program such as Photoshop or something similar. Convert the image to black and white and and adjust the brightness and contrast to get the images as close to outline form as you can. Your software should have an option called “find edges.” If so, use it in order to help make the photo look more like a sketch done with a pencil. This is a phase of the project that will take some experimenting. You may be able to find more in-depth tutorials online or within your software’s user manual.

    If you are going the non-digital route for this part of the project, you can simply find some tracing paper and pencils and get to work. You may want to make copies so you don’t leave indentations on the original photos. Make sure that your work area is well lighted, or get a lighting box to help with accuracy. When you are finished, darken the lines with a felt tip pen and scan the images into your computer.

    Binding:

    There are a few options here. You can go the simple route and use a booklet maker or stapler for saddle stitching, or you can use something more permanent and durable like plastic comb or spiral coil binding. You can get these machines for fairly cheaply, and they are very easy to use, so if you plan on making a lot of coloring books (or any other kinds of books) now or in the future, you might want to look into having your own binding system on hand to save you money.