What is a colophon?
A statement, placed at the end of the yearbook, recording the names of the staff and printer, book specifications, size of the edition, and other information about the production of the yearbook.
It can be as elaborate or simple as you want. It's important to include a colophon in your yearbook as a resource for future staffs.
Here are two examples you can use as guidelines for creating your own colophon. The words in blue should be changed to reflect your yearbook's specifications.
Example 1
Highlights, Volume 32, was produced by the yearbook staff at Hilltop High School in Matthews, NC and was printed by Herff Jones, Inc. in Charlotte, NC. The account was serviced by representative Terry Carson and customer service adviser Laurie Jones. The cover was designed by Molly Brown and Star Kendall and incorporated a three color design which was silkscreened and embossed onto the Vibra Tex Iridescent Wind color background. Applied colors/foil included 23 Silver, 29 Peach, 11 Purple and F-25 Galaxy foil. Applied grain was Galaxy. The endsheets are printed on Fibertext Parchment Series Sky FCP-2, 80# Cover weight paper stock using Purple ink. The book's 220 pages are printed on Bordeaux 100 pound paper stock. The 2006 volume includes 80 pages in full color and 32 in spot color, which were printed in HJ8100 Metallic Amethyst. All body copy was set in 12 pt. AHJ Garamond, and captions were 10 pt. AHJ Garamond. Headline fonts included AHJ Algerian, AHJ Dustie and AHJ Modernart. Layouts were submitted to the plant on CD. Highlights was produced using Adobe® PageMaker® 6.5 and Adobe® InDesign® CS, on Apple® Macintosh® G4 computers with 512 MB RAM with 80 GB hard drives and a DuoScan scanner. Digital photos were taken with 4 megapixel digital cameras. Processing and printing of photos was done by Ziff Labs. Professional portraits were provided by Maddox Photography. The 1,200 copies of the book were sold for $65.
Example 2
Ligatures, Volume 26 was produced by the yearbook class at Norman High School in Prospect, ME, and printed by Herff Jones, Inc. in Gettysburg, PA. The account was serviced by representative Marcy Brady and customer service adviser Robert Glenn. Editor-In-Chief William Stone, Associate Editor Heather Taylor and Assistant Editor Glenna Howard developed the theme IN SO MANY WORDS in August at Yearbooks by the Sea after exhausting literally hundreds of other possibilities. The cover was designed by Bruce Childers and Stacey Raymon and incorporated a four-color design which was lithographed and embossed onto a 65# white cover weight stock. Applied foil included F-19 Illusion. Applied grain was Pin Morocco. The endsheets were printed on Stonetext 80# Granite Series Wheat SCG-2 paper, using Black ink. The book's 360 pages are printed on 80# Calais Special stock, with the exception of signature 6 which was run on 70# Colortext Neutral Series Natural CTN-3. The 2006 volume includes 108 pages in full color and 48 spot color pages, which were printed in HJ876 Metallic Copper. All body copy was set in 12 pt. AHJ Palladio and captions were 10 pt. AHJ Palladio. Headline fonts included AHJ Dropcapper, AHJ Eddie and AHJ Opus. Pages were submitted to the plant on disk.Ligatures was produced using Adobe InDesign CS on Pentium IIIs running Windows XP with 512 MB RAM and 120 GB hard drives, Laserjet printers and three 4 megapixel digital cameras. More than 600 frames of color and 800 frames of black and white film were shot by staff members using SLR cameras. Processing and printing were done by Friendly Photo Lab. Our Gang Photography provided the portraits. The 1,500 copies of the book were sold at prices ranging from $70 - $85 (prices, depending on purchase date). Ligatures is a member of JEA. Ligatures was awarded a Columbia Scholastic Press Association Silver Crown in 2005.
Example 3 - Chantilly High School 2005 Colophon
Chantilly High School in Chantilly, VA used an innovative approach to their colophon in the 2005 Odyssey. A PDF version can be found in our Downloads > Forms section.
The 2005 Odyssey uses individual voices to tell the story of all. The profiles that begin each section create a story that we share. We constantly change our role throughout the day and we begin to connect. Our lives overlap and a single voice begins to develop. That is my VOICE.
The staff arrived with the concept of voices for the July 2004 Gettysburg Yearbook experience. We discovered a theme that generated a shared passion. We divided the book into eight sections to show the eight main voices that students express. The dividers showcase a student that epitomizes that specific voice. The 11 profiles tell interesting and distinct stories of the students in the school. We included quotes in the captions and subheads to incorporate as many voices as possible.
The yearbook has strong vertical elements that continue through each section with color bands, vertical profiles and mods. The cover pictures include group photographs where we emphasize individual students to create a strong vertical bar. We elected to use Officina Sans and Officina Serif as the primary font for text, along with Rockwell Condensed Bold for the quotation marks.
We used 17 new PC computers along with 17 new flat screen monitors and a high-powered dual-platform server. We also switched from Adobe PageMaker to Adobe InDesign CS for page layout and Adobe Photoshop for digital photo editing. The new technology let us expand our design potential. Using two new Nikon D-70 cameras, three Nikon D-100 cameras and 14 N-70 cameras, our photographers captured the year. The added photographs of Linus Downes and Blanton Studio's Chris Lekhavanija contributed immensely.
We worked daily during two 90-minute blocks, after school and on the weekends to compile the book. The guidance of Vicky Wolfe, our Herff Jones representative, helped us to realize our theme concept.
The Herff Jones Plant in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania printed 1900 copies of the 472 page book on 9x123 100# Bordeaux enamel paper. The cover is a four-color litho with matte lamination while the endsheets are four-color printed on Colortext Neutral White material. Both cover and endsheets incorporate the use of a special order purple ink, Pantone 2685. Students purchased the book during presale for $55, or $58 dollars with a nameplate and $60 in May.
The 2004 Odyssey won the VHSL Trophy Class, NSPA All-American with five marks of distinction, CSPA Gold Medalist with All-Columbian Honors, SIPA All-Southern, CSPA Gold Crown and NSPA Pacemaker. Odyssey was also inducted into the NSPA Hall of Fame in November 2004.
Download a PDF version of each colophon which can be found in our Downloads > Forms section.