Easy Custom Hot Stamping, Embossing, and Debossing
Whether you're having a custom logo imprinted on 500 journal covers, or are personalizing a single family-heirloom-album, you'll find our quality craftspersonship unsurpassed and our customer service right on point. For most personalization needs, you can add the text you want--optionally choose a typeface, type color, and the print location--all from the product page, before you add an item to your shopping cart.

Our artisans can customize and personalize just about anything! Some types of customizations are more difficult, or more costly, or take longer to produce; so it is usually best to consider letting us artfully choose how to personalize, the text you supply, based on what we know looks best, is economical, and can be produced immediately. Simply decide what you want to say. Unless you direct us otherwise, we will choose the typeface, color, and positioning for you based on what will look most attractive for the sentiment and following the style of the object itself. Easy!


The only thing we can't do is decide what you want to say.
But we can give you some pointers:

Pointers on Message Length, Location and Type Size:
Each item has one or more live area zones. These are areas where personalization looks good and where type can be dependably printed. Live area zones are listed in the dropdown menu on the item's product page. Most live area zones are about an inch high by no more than 3 inches wide. That is enough space to fit one or two lines of text. How many characters and spaces can fit on a line is a variable based on the width of the letters to be used (a "M" is wider than an "I" in most cases), the typeface(s) to be used, and how the type will be sized. A good rule of thumb is: the shorter the text the larger we can make it. For each item we set a limit of 8-20 characters per line. It is possible to get more than 20 characters per line, but there is a risk of the lettering looking too dense, with characters right next to each other. For an example of what type looks like when it is too dense take a look at the Bodoni typeface example located on our typefaces page. That example has 27 characters and spaces on the first line. If you absolutely need to fit in that much type, then you will have to call customer service so they can determine if it can be done. Typing more than the set per line limit is not possible so placing an order online will not work. Contact customer service--our staff is happy to assist you!

Pointers on Initials:
It is currently common style to use one, two, or three letter initials usually without periods after each letter (unless it might otherwise look like a word). Two and three letter initials are the most common. Hyphens are used with initials if the name is usually hyphenated (some very ornate typefaces get no hyphens). Omit the middle initial if that person is not particularly fond of their middle name. A single character initial is Strong, two characters is Endearing, and three characters is Formal. Note: Our typographer may use special characters to replace periods between initials for visual beauty.

Pointers on Quotes
There aren't a lot of really brief famous quotes that will fit inexpensively on a two line cover inscription. But you can make up your own brief sayings that will fit! If you are going to quote someone famous, it is respectful to get the quote right! Altering or omitting words is not proper. Taking an excerpt from a longer text is usually fine, if the excerpt does not change the context of what the writer was saying. If you want to create your own saying based on someone else's quotation, then it is not a quote, so there should be no credit given to the original author. Author credit is customary, but not always needed on the journal cover. One way to deal with excerpts and author credit is to add an inside inscription/nameplate including the whole text and author credit. Using an adhesive inscription/nameplate in this way costs very little ($1), shows respect, and preserves the integrity of the Authors work.

Pointers on Dates
Sometimes a date can be especially meaningful, and some special occasions such as weddings, birthdays, graduations, Christian confirmations, and Jewish Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvahs lend themselves to giving personalized gifts that feature a date. There are no requirements to include a date if you don't care to, no matter the occasion. When you do include a date on an inscription, any other text tends to take a somewhat lower significance. So adding a date can detract from the emphasis on the rest of the message. The shorter the date, the less emphasis. Shorter dates might be: 2009, Jan 2009, January, 1/09, and Jan. '09. Sometimes you might want to make a date the focal point, so longer dates might be: Jan. 5, 2009, January 05, 2009, Monday, January 05, 2009. Alternatives to dates which use a date occasion without an actual date include "Our 50th Wedding Anniversary" and "Memories from our Wedding Rehearsal Day". Annualized journals are very common gifts (some give a new one every year) and are often expressed with either: name (first line), year (second line) or first name followed by year (on the same line). Travel journals and albums are also commonly annualized, some examples include: Europe 2009, Summer 2009, Travel 2010, 2009 Travel Log, 2009 Adventures, and Journeys 2009. Sometimes dates are placed on the back of a book, to give time its own space.

Pointers on Names
Similar to initials, personal preferences influence how a name is displayed on a personalized object. Nicknames are fine, if it's affectionate. Use just the person's first name, for a warm feeling and a simple look. A good clue to how someone might prefer their name personalized on a gift is to look at how they sign correspondence to you or others and consider that format. Family names can be expressed in a variety of ways: The Morgan's, or The Morgan Family, Morgan Family, or just MORGAN. Lists of names should look good and be easy to read. Commas are good for long lists and our typographer may use special characters to replace commas in name lists for visual beauty. Ampersands are shorter and friendlier. Consider breaking up even short text onto two lines especially if it contains a name. Such as:
Walton's
Gourmet Cookies
Remember to let the artisan doing the personalization worry about sizing the text; so a line with less characters will always complement a line above or below it with more characters. Try not to break a single person's name over two lines. Special characters from foreign alphabets may not be available (we will notify you if there is a problem).


Finally, we would like to clue you in on what is popular. Here are some of our most repeated imprints organized by genre...

Examples for Weddings
Here are our most popular wedding imprints: 100% Engaged, Bachelorette Party!, Best Man, Bridal Party!, the bride, Bride, Bride to Be Journal, Brides Wedding Planner, Bride's Cousin Journal, Bride's Wedding Journal, Bridesmaid, Bridesmaid Journal, Cherished Memories, Cousin of the Friend of the Bride, Fairytale Wedding Journal, Flower Girl, Future Wifey, Groom, Groomsman Journal, Grandma of the Bride, the GROOM, Happily Ever After Journal, Junior Bridesmaid Journal, Just Married, Maid of Honor, Marriage, Matron of Honor, Mother of the Groom, my Wedding Journal, My Wedding Album, My Wedding Guestbook, Niece of the Bride, Our Wedding, Ring Bearer, Sister of the Bride, Sister-In-Law of the Bride, Sweet Beginnings, taken, Wedding Bells, Wedding Day, Wedding Journal, and Wedding Memories.

Longer Examples for Weddings
Here are our popular longer wedding and quotation imprints: A Celebration of our Love, How Beautiful Life can Be When Touched by Love, One Love that is shared by two..., The first day of our life together..., The Greatest of these is Love--1 Cor. 13:13, This Day I Will Marry My Friend, This day I will marry my friend. The one who shares my life and Love.

Examples for Wedding Anniversaries
Here are some popular wedding anniversary quotation imprints: Diamond Anniversary, 60th Anniversary, 60 Years!, 60th, Our Golden Anniversary, 50th Anniversary, 50th, Golden 50th Anniversary, 50 Years, Our Silver Anniversary, Our Ruby Anniversary, 40th, Our Jade Anniversary, 35th, 35 Years, 25th Anniversary, 25th, Our Silver 25th Anniversary, 25 Years, 10th Anniversary, Two Hearts... Growing Together, Two Hearts... One Destiny, Everlasting Love.

Examples for Greetings of the Occasion
Here are our most popular greetings: Celebrate, Christmas Memories, Congratulations, Greetings, Happy Anniversary, Happy Birthday, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, It's a Boy, It's a Girl, Made with Love By Auntie, Made with Love By Grandma, Made with Love By Mom, Merry Christmas, Over the Hill, Season's Greetings, Sweet 16, Thank You, 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place.

Examples for Travel Memories
Here are our most popular travel imprints: All 50 States Travel Journal, All 50 States, America, African Safari Journal, Backpacking Journal, Bon Voyage, Cruise Diary, Cruise Journal, Cruising the Caribbean, Destinations, Disney World, en Route, Europe, Family Adventures, Family Vacation, Fun in the Sun, Hawaiian Vacation, Hiking Journal, House of Mouse, Italian Journey, Magic Kingdom Memories, Memories, Motorcycle Diary, My Vacation Journal, New York, New York City, New York City Journal, New York City Travel Journal, Our Paradise Vacation, Remember the Magic, Road Journal, Road Trips, Travel, Travel Diary, Travel Journal, Travel Log, Travelogue, Travel the World Journal, U.S.A. Travel Journal, Vacation!, Wanderlust.

Examples for Special Themes
Here are our most popular special themed imprints: A Reader's Journal, Be My Guest, Birthday Book, Cookbook, Cook's Book, Dinner Party Book, Drawing Book, Entertainment, Film Journal, Guest Book, Guests, Little Black Book, My Art Book, My Book of Birthdays, Recipe Journal, Recipes, Sketch Book, Sketchbook, Sketches, Tao Journal, Wine Journal.

Examples for Family Themes
Here are our most popular special themed imprints: Baby Book, Childhood Memories, FAMILY, Family Heritage, Family Journal, Family Tree, My ABC Book, My Baby's Book, OUR FAMILY, Through the Years.

Notes: All sales of customized, personalized, or special order books are final. No returns for unwanted customized, personalized, or special order items with be accepted. Please choose your item and personalization text carefully!

Once your personalized order has been submitted, please periodically monitor the email address you give us during the checkout process until you receive an email saying your product has shipped. We do, on a fairly frequent basis, have questions about or suggest changes for your personalization text. While we can't be responsible for checking your text for you, we will point out anything we do notice that may be a spelling or other mistake. In the event of a question, we will stop the personalization process and attempt to contact you. We will not proceed with your order in most cases until we hear back from you. To avoid delays check your email, and your SPAM filter box often until you get a message that your order has been shipped. We use email as a way of verifying text and asking most product related questions as it is less prone to human error than telephone communications.