If you’re looking for a great personalized gift for the holidays, a family reunion or a special occasion, or you’re looking to help a group with a fundraising activity, a do-it-yourself cookbook can be the answer.

Chances are good that either you or someone in your family is the keeper of an old recipe collection. Perhaps the notes are scrawled on aging index cards in a rusty metal flip-top box — each card laden with floured fingerprints or spills from years of use.

But there’s a way to assemble and organize all those family favorites into a single cookbook without much time and effort. Technology simplifies the process and allows us to make a beautiful, professionally finished book that can include not only recipes but family photos and stories.

Several companies offer cookbook publishing services online. There are varying options, so check out several sites to see which best suits your needs.

Binding options

It’s no longer necessary to punch holes and thread ribbon through printed recipe pages.

You can create a book with one of several binding options. Publishers offer plastic coil or wire-bound variations — both of which sit flat for recipe reading and food preparation.

In addition, books can be softcover or hardcover. The latter creates more of a coffee-table book, perhaps incorporating family lore in addition to some favorite recipes.

Page-size offerings vary by company, cover option and binding, but two common cookbook page sizes are 6-by-9 inches or 7-by-10 inches.

Page formatting

Whether downloading a company’s templates for cookbook page formatting or subscribing to online access to the pagination templates, a person can create their own designs for the individual cookbook pages. Companies offer a variety of template options, ranging from a single page per recipe to multiple pages per entry for more space.

Pages can also be formatted to include color or black and white photos with any or all recipes. If you don’t have photos to upload, some companies offer you access to a photo library, either for free or for a small fee. For example, you could find a professionally styled photo to go with grandma’s best chocolate chip cookie recipe or the coveted holiday fudge with secret ingredients.

Photos can be incorporated onto the same page as the recipe or featured on an adjacent page. Some templates allow photo sizes to be altered to personalize the pages.

Like a traditional book, printing is done on both sides of the pages. And of course the final price of each book is influenced by the number of pages, so as much as you might like to have a full-page color photo to accompany each recipe, that might not be a practical option.

Type

You don’t necessarily have to type in every family recipe. Some companies allow you to scan and import the file or cut and paste if you have the information in your computer already. Other sources allow access to the page templates by multiple people, so Aunt Suzie can enter her own favorites, and your mom can access and add her pages to the same cookbook file.

A few online programs allow you to alter the type style and font size within the available offerings. If this is important to you, shop around to find a company with this option.

Categorization

Give some thought to how you want the recipes organized. There are programs that automatically alphabetize recipes by the title, mixing up Bacon Bites with Bananas Foster; others allow you to establish categories, like Desserts, Main Dishes, etc., and then choose the sequencing yourself.

Most templates allow you to drag and drop completed pages into your own preferred order within the categories, or in an uncategorized book put them in any order you choose — if not by food category, perhaps by the person who contributes the recipe. This offers the most flexibility, particularly for a general cookbook, as opposed to one focusing on a specific topic like Grandma Smith’s Best-Loved Desserts.

Some cookbook printers allow you to create dividers between sections, allowing for easy categorization by the kind of food or the contributor. Dividers may be tabbed to extend beyond the page width, or simply be the same size as the pages but on a slightly heavier paper stock.

Covers

Covers for family cookbooks can range from those with a simple homespun feel to full-color glossy versions with a collage of family photos and an elaborately styled title. You can create your own using standard-format templates or enlist the services of a professional designer at some cookbook makers.

Laminated covers and nonlaminated covers are available, depending on the company you select.

Extras

To beef up your cookbook, simplycookbooks.com can add a bonus section to your personalized portion that contains cooking hints, including measurements and substitutions, a glossary of cooking terms, food shelf life, etc. This feature offers added value if you’re using the cookbook as a fundraiser. The company also offers some marketing help for selling a fundraising cookbook, including website widgets, customizable posters and order forms.

Printing

After all the information is entered into a company’s template, you can request a proof that shows exactly how the cookbook will look. This is the time to check ingredient quantities, spelling and grammar to ensure your cookbook is perfect and ready for the printing process. To double-check, ask multiple people to read through the pages.

Printing prices depend on how many cookbooks you’re printing and the format, binding and cover selection. Minimum quantities vary by company, so be sure to check before you begin the project.

Heritagecookbook.com offers an online pricing calculator where you can enter the number of color and black and white pages and the binding type. Note that most cookbook publishers don’t include shipping in the book pricing, so you’ll need to add that to determine individual book prices. As with most printing projects, the higher the quantity printed, the lower the cost per book. This is especially important if you’re looking at a cookbook fundraising project with a group or organization.

The printing process can take 10 to 15 days. Add shipping time beyond that, so back up the bookmaking timeline generously if you need them by a certain date and particularly if you have several people involved in the book’s creation.

— Reporter: gwizdesigns@aol.com