Creating Your Own Custom Blank Genealogy Fan Chart
In addition to a wide variety of blank genealogy charts which have either no background image or a decorative and artistic background, we can also modify any of those designs to make a custom designed blank family tree chart just for you. A customized blank genealogy fan chart is a fun, eye-catching, and conversation starting treasure for any genealogist. The alterations which we can make for you are limited to the following areas on any of the blank ancestor fan charts we have for sale:
- Add or substitute your own background graphic or photo. Some of our customers have images or photos which are very meaningful or enjoyable for them to view. The background can be anything you'd like – people, places (the old homestead for example) or things. This is a great way to make sure that the image fits your own personality and passions.
- Change or eliminate the genealogy saying which appears in the lower left-hand corner of each blank fan chart
- Change or eliminate the title of the chart which appears in the upper right-hand corner of each fan chart
- Change or eliminate the color and/or pattern which is present in the decorative outer ring surrounding each chart.
- Our company name, information and logo which appear in the lower right-hand corner of each chart are not customizable and cannot be removed.
Before you begin deciding on how you want your personalized blank genealogy fan chart to look, you should download the technical specifications for our full circle and/or half circle fan charts. This information will give you the precise measurements of each chart and the boxes on each chart. The boxes which are shown in these two documents are totally to scale so that you can practice writing in each one to make sure that they are adequate for your needs. Changing the box or chart sizes is not one of the custom choices you can make.
The ordering process for customizable blank genealogy fan charts
Once you've made all of your decisions and selections for the customizable areas of your chart, please contact us by email with your specifics. To keep your design charges at a minimum, your objective is to be as clear as possible and to have carefully thought out your choices so that you won't need to have us prepare an alternate version. In your email, let us know the following essential items:
- Base chart to modify - Are we starting with a particular stock chart which you have seen on the 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 generation chart pages? If so, what is the order code?
- Number of generations - How many generations (5 through 10 for full circle and 6 through 9 for half-circle) do you want to appear on your chart.
- Genealogy saying - Do you want to accept, change, or eliminate the genealogy saying which appears in the lower left-hand corner of each chart? Our stock genealogy quote is – “He who cares nothing about his ancestors will rarely achieve anything worthy of being remembered by his descendants - Author unknown”.
- Chart title - Do you want to change or eliminate the title of the chart which appears in the upper right-hand corner of each chart? The default title is “10 Generation Ancestor Chart” (or how many generations appear on the chart). You can pick anything you want such as “Ancestors of William Smith”.
- Decorative outer ring - Do you want to change or eliminate the color and/or pattern which is present in the decorative outer ring surrounding each chart. Please download our outer ring pattern guide for your choices. Many of these patterns are the same ones which we are already using on our standard blank charts. On some of our charts a color overlay has been applied to alter the pattern somewhat. This can be seen in the PDF previews which are available for each of our standard stock charts which you can purchase via our shopping cart. If you are unable to make decisions about a particular color or texture, it would be best that you don't include the decorative outer ring at all.
- Background image - Do you want to substitute your own background image? If you are furnishing us with a background image, you should attach it to your email at this time. You should also describe in your email where the circle or semi-circle boundaries should be. Good choices for a background image include images or photos with lighter colors and not a large amount of black or dark colors. This allows us to use a higher opacity setting so more of the detail is visible. If you would like to include a graphic image as opposed to a photographic image, a vector based graphic image is preferable to a pixel based graphic image. This is because vector based graphics are scalable to any size without loss of resolution or the image becoming pixelated or fuzzy. Vector based graphic images normally end with the file extension “eps”. Regardless of the format of an image, we normally lower the opacity of a background image to about 10% to 15% of its original state depending upon how much dark color is present. This is so that you will be able to read the entries which you will be writing in pencil or pen. It is also important that your image selection will take up the entire circle or semi-circle without cropping off an essential part of the image, or without leaving a blank area. A good idea is to print your image and then draw a circle or semi-circle around the area if you want to see how it will fit as a background image. A little further below are a few examples of what you should keep in mind with background images.
- Follow up - You should follow your email up with a phone call so that we can discuss and verify each of your custom choices and get your credit card information for the design charges. We will bill your credit card for the initial $25.00 design charge at this time. Once we've implemented your design change choices, we will send you a PDF preview for you to review and approve before we print your blank ancestor fan chart. Only after you've approved the design will your credit card be charged for printing and shipping.
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Click chart to see larger version |
This is a good example of a group photo where everyone is close enough together to work relatively well as a background in a full-circle ancestor fan chart. If there would have been a bit more room at the top of the photo, it would have been even better. A lighter colored dress for the woman in the front row would have been nicer as well.
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Click chart to see larger version |
This 1960's family reunion photo is a good example of the challenges you face in selecting a group photo where everyone is close enough together to work relatively well as a background in a half-circle ancestor fan chart. If there would have been more space on the sides of the photo, the semi-circle wouldn't have cut off two of the heads, and more of the bodies of the children on the bottom row would have shown as well. |
Our pricing for custom blank genealogy fan charts
Your charge for printing will be identical to any similar blank chart of the same size which you see on our web site; however, you will incur design charges for the modifications you make. You should have very specific ideas in mind before you contact us to order a custom designed blank genealogy chart if you wish to keep your design charges to a minimum. You should rely on your own likes and dislikes as opposed to asking us what we think and then basing your decision on our likes or dislikes. Our charge for preparing a custom designed blank chart is based on the time spent with you on the phone, exchanging email, and doing the custom design work. If you are totally prepared and there is no need for phone consultations or exchanges of email, expect to pay $25.00 for each design we prepare. This can include as many of the changes outlined above as you'd like if we do them all at the same time. If you are prepared and know exactly what you want, it is possible to get everything done quickly and for only $25.00. Because we have chosen to offer this service at a low price, you need to understand in advance that our charges are based on the total time spent to achieve a single design as opposed to single charge of $25 for an open-ended series of design changes along with email and phone consultations. If you're not quite satisfied the first time around with your choices, each additional round of changes or tweaks is another $25.00 charge or possibly more.
If you aren't totally prepared, or if you have us do multiple design attempts, you should expect that your up-front design charges will climb from $25 to $50, $75, or $100 rather rapidly. Since our custom design charges include the time spent on the exchange of email and phone calls, please read all of our information on our web site carefully and thoroughly in advance. If we need to respond to multiple emails where you are bouncing ideas off of us or wanting our opinion on different design possibilities, we will need to treat this the same as an actual design attempt because of the time involved. If you are not totally prepared and don't want to spend a lot of money on design charges, you should strongly consider purchasing one of our stock blank genealogy charts instead. All design charges are payable in advance regardless of whether you end up purchasing the blank chart or not. Our satisfaction guarantee which applies to charts which we print directly from genealogy software does not apply to any of our stock or custom designed blank charts. Our satisfaction guarantee for charts printed from genealogy software is a guarantee of workmanship performance and is not a guarantee that a customer will like the design, style, or artistic decisions which he or she made. All sales are final, so make sure you really like what you're ordering as there are no returns or exchanges because you don't like how a custom designed chart looks.
Custom charts can only be ordered by phone and email and NOT through our shopping cart system. As is the case with all of our blank genealogy charts, they may not be reproduced and sold to others.
Contacting us
Please call us at 630-653-8400 or e-mail us at sales@ancestryprinting.com if you have any
questions about our blank family tree charts or submitting
your order. International callers can also Skype us if preferred; however, we ask that you mail us to set up a convenient time for a Skype to Skype call. We are located in the central time zone of the U.S. (GMT/UTC-6 and -5 in the summer), and can make arrangements for incoming Skype to Skype calls up to around 10:00 PM local time on most nights. We only accept Skype to Skype calls that have been pre-arranged by email.
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