I adopted a 'decent' philatelic stamp page size: 240mm x 282mm (9.4" x 11.1")
and not A4 or
American Letter. This page size opened up many commercial philatelic
binder options for me, including the Lighthouse
"GRANDE Classic" ring binder (produced in 3 and 4 hole), springback binders; and the
very commonly
used 4-ring and 22-ring binders sold in UK and Europe via Stanley Gibbons and
other provincial stamp retailers.
I used an old version of QuarkXPress Passport (version 7.3 from
my publishing days) to do all the page layout work (with its
brilliant page element library) but other alternatives are Adobe
InDesign, CorelDRAW and perhaps MS Publisher. You might also want to
take a look at AlbumGen (stamp album design
software) which can combine with images and data from
EzStamp.
I chose to have my pages to USSR punched with 22 holes. My
collection to end USSR are housed in 16x identical
Soviet red :) coloured philatelic ring binders (see binders page on
market choices) with matching slipcases so that the collection can be stored
correctly (i.e. vertically) to keep the stamps in great shape.
I have added spine labels produced with a Brother P-touch
label printer and also looking include binder cover labels of the
Coat of Arms of Russian Empire, RSFSR and USSR ...probably using the
Avery® Online Print Service.
1200 DPI Digital Printing & Paper Choice In terms of printing and paper choice, pages were digital
printed (pictured above) at 1200 dpi by commecial printers,
not a high-street print shop. Many digital print shops exist on
the high street but not all have the same spec machinery - do your
research.
Paper spec: I used Mondi Colorcopy - 100% recyclable, ECF (elemental
chlorine-free), FSC™ paper containing pulp from tree farms - this
160g/m2 paper has a special surface treatment, is non-toxic, CO2
neutral, carries the EU Ecolabel, and is ageing resistance ISO
9706 certified (guaranteed an archival life of over 200 years).
Also has an environmentally friendly production ethos.
Pages are heavily illustrated, all numbered and stamps appear in
Stanley
Gibbons
Russia catalogue Part 10 number order.
Most pages include stamp set titles, year and individual stamp
captions often missing from mainstream commercial albums.
Odd snippets of Russian history included in run of pages.
My generous stamp border sizes allowed me to fit clear Hawid type
hingeless stamp mounts to every stamp, protecting the whole
collection. I also have about 300 glassine interleaves to
additionally protect the most valuable stamps (first 5 volumes to
1952).
The generous number of illustrations makes it really easy to identify
and place any stamps I still need.
Miniature sheets (as defined by SG (some catalogues refer to
these as 'souvenir sheets') were also included in the
date run of pages as were savings, tax,
consular, charity and AIR stamps.
I printed off some extra 'topped and tailed' blank pages (with
appropriate Russia crests) to accomodate my extra blocks, colour variations, etc.
Visit my YouTube
channel for more details...and (as @June 2020) to see other country stamp
collections being sold on behalf of the widow of a late stamp
collecting friend of mine who sadly died due to post Covid complications.
Click Estate Sale logo (on right) to view these
items and other clearance bargains!!
Russia Catalogues
I based my album pages on the excellent SG Part 10 Russia
specialised catalogue. Now £29.95 in digital form -
click image below.
Other Russia catalogues include those by Zagorsky, Michel and Scott.