What is a friendship book?
In Germany, children often pass around a Freundebuch at kindergarten or school. The closest English term is friendship book (sometimes “friendship album”). Each friend fills out a page with favorites, drawings and, quite often, a small photograph.
The tricky part is rarely finding a photo. It’s printing one at a useful size. Sending a single portrait to a photo printer may fill a whole 4 × 6-inch print, even though the book needs only a small corner of it.
Print six small copies on one sheet
- Choose a clear portrait with a little space around the face. Photos with a simple background are easier to trim.
- Open Foldit and upload the photo. Nothing is uploaded to a server.
- Choose 4 × 6 in, 2 × 3, Crop to fill, 3 mm spacing and 4 mm margins.
- Check the live preview. If the head is cut off, switch to Fit whole, or choose a different original photo.
- Download a 300 DPI PNG for a photo lab, or use Print PDF for a physically sized sheet. Cut out one picture and attach it to the page.
Crop to fill or Fit whole?
Crop to fill gives tidy pictures without empty bands, but may cut off part of the hair or shoulders. Fit whole keeps the complete image and may add white space. If the child’s face is close to the edge of the source photo, Fit whole is the safer choice.
Make a small reserve
Printing multiple copies at once is useful when the same child appears in several friends’ books. Keep the extras in an envelope instead of repeating the entire task next week. Ask a parent or guardian before sharing photographs of other children, and avoid adding personal details to the print itself.
Which paper is best?
Regular photo paper works well when you want a glossy or matte portrait. For a book that will be written in or handled by small children, thinner matte paper can be easier to glue flat. Let the print dry before cutting, and use a glue stick sparingly so the page does not wrinkle.