Production of stamp album pages usually involves personal choices of each stamp collector.
The majority of the Cardinal Spellman pages that were shown at Vatican Stamp Day at the Spellman Museum in Boston had several common characteristics. First, the page borders had a very standard five line design: a thin gray line, a thin gold line, a thick gray line, a thin gold line, and a thin gray line.
The top margin had a paper tear. The right side also had a paper tear image. The main paper parchment looking. Each page has Vatican City in large Red letters and subtitle in brown letters with a slightly smaller font. Title and subtitle margins varied as needed. Stamp layout centered around a cross key image around which stamps were placed at various rotations. Often there was text and image designs placed on the page. This worked very well for album page designs for sets of stamps, which was the common release practice of the Vatican Post Office pre mid-1960s.
Today's study of Vatican stamps has a slightly different format. It is largely based on cover or postcard images. The Vatican Post Office released mostly single stamps for each subject release. There is also a wide variety of intersting postmarks to consider.
It is suspected that Cardinal Spellman's album pages were made by hand back in the early 1960s. Today we use computers. Creating a similar-looking Cardinal Spellman album page begins with duplicating the five-line border. Eliminating the margin tears makes for a cleaner edge, although this can be duplicated using computers.
It is suspected that Cardinal Spellman's album pages were made by hand back in the early 1960's. Today we use computers. The biggest challenge is the font considerations. A true look-alike computer font That exactly mates the Cardinal Spellman pages cannot be found. The closest computer font to be found is 'Red Amaretto', which is not a standard computer font. Handling the cross keys and angular stamp placement something else that is possible using computers. However, before diving into the more complex areas, let's look at a simple album page that can be produced using the VPS website, right now, using your computer.
To produce album pages similar to the Cardinal Spellman style, the VPS website team has developed a webpage that accomplishes several things: (1) album page parameters can be keyed into input specification screens, (2) printable album pages can be generated, viewed, then printed, and (3) the album page system produces computer program (HTLM) code that can be downloaded for those who want to tweak the generated album page design a little further.
Building Your First Page
Sign onto the VPS website and go to the Member Page.
Click the Album Page Builder button to the right side of the screen under the gold menu bar.
The Album Page Builder menu screen will appear.
Click on Start New Album Page Build menu option. (Notice your name is on the right side of the screen. If it isn't go back to the website home & member screens.)
The Album Page Builder screen will appear.
Under Action steps go to Step 4 and click on the Generate HTML button.
A message will appear at the top of the screen. [Note second line of this message.]
Click to view the file. A blank album page file will appear. Print using your normal browser print function. (Usually this is right click on your mouse button.)
Key CTRL-M. The Album Page Builder menu screen willre reappear.
From the Select Return To Last Album Page Built. The album page builder update screen will appear
Key some data into some of the data fields, such as some text in the longer fields, and or box width / height. Then click on the Generate HTML button again.
Again, click to view the album page. You will see the result of your data entry options.
Key CTRL-M again. Your are back at the Album Page Builder Menu screen again. From here, try different things in the data entry fields and look at you album page. Have fun!!
