Scrapbook titles for each spread: labels and patterns
Scrapbook titles identify spreads by place, person, year or event. List them in page order, keep enough detail to distinguish repeated occasions, and test the lettering beside the photos.
Page titles work like headings in a book. Someone flicking through should find Cornwall 2019 or Moving day without reading a single caption.
This guide covers the titles on each spread. The opening title page of a whole book is a separate job with its own guide.
Put these words on a page
Add your photos and write beside them in a digital scrapbook.
Page title patterns and short labels
Patterns with blanks
- [Place], [year]
- [Name] at [age]
- [Month] in [place]
- [Number] days in [place]
- [Name]'s first [thing]
- [Event], [year]
- From [place] to [place]
- [Season] at [street or house name]
- Before and after: [project]
- The [object] from [place]
By occasion, one or two words
- Moving day
- Sports day
- Snow day
- Results day
- First swim
- Last day of term
- Sleepover
- The drive down
- Allotment
- Bonfire night
- Packing up
- Open day
Plain labels
- The kitchen
- Saturday
- Dad's van
- Breakfast
- The garden
- Home
One word, for a lighter book
- Mud
- Splash
- Crumbs
- Chaos
- Again
- Bedtime
What a page title has to do
Identify the spread first. A title that names the place, person or event still makes sense years later; a joke from that week may not.
Leave the details to the captions. If the title already says Paris, 2024, the captions can skip both and name the people instead.
List page number, subject, date and proposed label before lettering. If two spreads have the same label, add the missing year, place or part of the day where it is needed.
Length and position
Use the shortest title that still distinguishes the page. A place and year may be enough; a longer event name can need two lines rather than a smaller, unreadable heading.
Put titles in the same place on every spread, for example across the top of the left page, so readers learn where to look.
A big lettered title costs space. On a page with six photos, a smaller title in one corner leaves room for the prints.
Choosing a tone and keeping it
Plain titles name things: Saturday market, the kitchen, Dad's van. Playful ones lean on a pun or one word. A mix is fine; switching on every page reads as noise.
For a gift, match the tone to the person it is for. A book for a reserved colleague may sit better with plain titles than with jokes.
When one title covers several spreads
A day that runs across three spreads needs one title at the start, and perhaps small labels such as Morning and Evening on the two that follow.
A page with one photo may need no title at all if its caption already names the place and date.
Ask someone to find a particular spread from your title list. If they need to inspect every photo, make the identifying detail clearer rather than adding decorative words.
Steps
List the spreads
Write each spread's subject on one sheet, in page order. Seeing them together shows repeats before any lettering goes down.
Write the plain label first
Name each spread by place, person or event. Swap in a lighter word only where it still says what the page is about.
Decide where the year goes
Put the year in the title of the first spread of each year, or on every spread if pages will be read out of order.
Read the run
Read the list top to bottom. No two spreads should share a title unless they are a deliberate series, such as the same holiday each year.
Questions
What is a good title for a scrapbook page?
Use enough factual detail to find the page again: a place, year, person or occasion. Test the heading beside the photos at actual size before committing to handwriting or printed letters.
Do scrapbook pages need a title?
No. A spread that continues the one before, or a single photo with a full caption, can go without. Titles help most in long books read out of order.
Should titles be handwritten or printed?
Either works. Handwriting suits a paper book with few spreads; printed or stencilled titles keep a long book consistent. Use one method for the whole book.