How to Keep Faces Off the Centre Fold of an Album

Why the fold matters

Where the two pages of a spread meet, the paper bends into the binding. Even on lay-flat albums a thin strip at the centre is distorted by the hinge; on bindings that do not open flat, more of the inner edge curves away from the viewer. A face that sits across or close to the centre line can look pinched, split or simply lost. The concepts are explained in more depth in bleed, safe area and the centre fold.

What Smart Photo Selection does automatically

• Layouts never cross the fold. AI designs and library templates place every photo on one page. Candidate layouts are scored with faces visible and off the fold.
• A 0.125 in safe zone on each side. At 300 DPI that is about 38 px on each side of the centre, 75 px in total.
• Dragging is corrected. If you move a photo or text layer across the fold in the editor, it is moved and, if needed, shrunk onto one page, and you see the message Photos and text can't cross the centre fold — moved onto the left/right page.
• Export is blocked if anything still crosses. A sheet with a crossing layer shows Fix the layout before exporting: with the layer's name and an Open in editor button.
• Face-aware crops. Detected faces are kept inside the crop and away from frame edges.

Step by step: check and fix the fold on a spread

1. 1

   Open the sheet in the editor

   From the album preview, click Edit on the sheet, or Open in Editor. The dashed line marked FOLD in the middle of the canvas is the centre of the spread.

2. 2

   Turn on the guides

   Make sure View › Guides is on, and turn on View › Print guides (trim 0.125 in, safe area 0.375 in) to see the outer safe area at the same time.

3. 3

   Look at faces near the inner edges

   Zoom in (View › Zoom in, Ctrl+=) on the frames closest to the centre. A face can be on the correct page and still sit uncomfortably close to the binding.

4. 4

   Pan the photo inside its frame

   Select the frame and use the Crop photo in frame tool (C) or Adjust Crop to move the face away from the fold side of the frame. The frame stays where it is; only the photo moves inside it.

5. 5

   Move or swap frames if needed

   With Move / select (V), drag a frame further from the centre. To put a different photo in the inner frame, select it and click Change Photo, then pick a detail or background photo that tolerates the binding better.

6. 6

   Re-check text

   Titles and captions follow the same rule. Keep them inside one page and away from both the fold and the outer safe area.

7. 7

   Save and export

   Click Save Sheet. If export shows Fix the layout before exporting:, click Open in editor, move the named layer onto one page and try again.

Choosing what goes next to the fold

The frames nearest the centre are the riskiest place for faces. Good candidates for those positions are details (rings, mehndi hands, décor), wide venue shots whose subject sits on the outer side, and portraits where the person faces into the page, toward the outer edge. Put the most important faces, especially the couple's hero portrait, nearer the outer third of a page.