Discover a new world of creating Photo Books, a new revolution in printing your photos! This web site will help you start a photobook. There are lots of ideas so browse around. See the list of publishers I recommend below. Please share this site with your friends!
When my friends see the Photo Books that I have created, they love them! They want to make them! They want to know how to do it! Actually, its pretty easy. I can make a Photo Book in as little as two hours. I can do a whole year of our family photos in about 16 hours. You can too!
How to Make a Photo Book
To make a Photo Book you will need to:
Step 1 - Load your pictures onto your computer. See Tips and Tricks.
Step 2 - Pick a publisher to use, I have my favorites listed below.
Step 3 - Login and use their FREE software to select your photos and make your book. You pay only for the products you order.
Step 4 - Buy your book and they will mail it to you.
These publishers have made their software friendly and easy to use, just read each screen. They will practically design it for you if you let them. You can do this! Just try it!
Which Publisher to Use?
These publishers that I offer or recommend. I prefer them because of their quality, price, and features. They provide all your tools for FREE! These books compare to Heritage Makers books. Recently I have seen some photo books from some other popular companies that I considered to be very poorly made and very expensive. This upset me. When I compare a photo book, I am looking for picture quality, the thickness of the paper, the quality of the binding, the features of the book cover, and the price. I am sure there are other publishers which make fabulous books, but these I know make great books.
Recommended "Free to Use" Publishers Click on the coupon or URL. Check back often for new coupons! If you don't see a good coupon, email me and I'll find one. darcy@photobookstory.com
I'm loving this new Software!! SmileBooks provides you with all the tools you need for free. Flexible layout templates, lots of backgrounds, autofill features with assistant, and more! Add as many pictures and text frames as you want. Move them around by drag and drop, resize pictures and edit them directly with the software. SmileBooks has hundreds of backgrounds to choose from, but you can also use your own pictures as backgrounds on a single or even a double page. The covers are fully customizable. Choose your background, add as many pictures as you want and write text. Windows and Macintosh platforms.
Photo Quality (9), Paper (9), Book Cover Features (10), Binding (10), Book Creativity (9)
Beautiful Photo Books and photo gifts. Several book sizes and templates to choose from. New Simple Path feature which makes making a book easy! Book designs with title on spine and pictures on cover of the book. Ability to change fonts and backgrounds per page. Easy to share books with others. Offers other photo products also. Print your own digital scrapbooks to a bound photo book. Macintosh and Windows platforms.
New feature: Shutterfly will print a single scrapbook page for you to put in slip covers!
Beautiful Photo Books and photo gifts. Quick and easy to use. Several book sizes and templates. One font and background per book makes designing a book simple. No sharing of photo books, just photos. Offers other photo products also. Macintosh and Windows platforms.
Photo Quality (8), Paper (9), Book Cover Features (8), Binding (8), Book Creativity (8)
Several people have recommended this publisher to me, although I have not tried them yet. I liked their web site and the features they offer. The books are advertised as archival quality with acid free paper. Also, you can get friends and family to add to your book. Coordinating a project with others would be easy with this site.
Rankings are forth coming. Highly recommended by several PhotoBookStory readers.
Tons of backgrounds online, photo book covers, automatic book creation feature, lots of design templates, online community.You need to install the free software tool on your pc, then create the photo book. The Picaboo web site will not start the publishing software on your pc. Picaboo does Digital Scrapbooking too. Windows platform only.
Photo Quality (8.5), Paper (9), Book Cover Features (10), Binding (10), Book Creativity (10)
Offers only photo albums. Produces a nice book with several templates to choose from. New Photo Jacket for the book cover. Windows and Macintosh platforms.
Photo Quality (9), Paper (9), Book Cover Features (9), Binding (8), Book Creativity (7)
Explanation of Rankings
I thought these might help you select the publisher you are most comfortable with. Really, its kind of like choosing your favorite piece of chocolate, they are all very good publishers.
Photo Quality - I'm looking for clear crisp pictures with perfect color and brightness. Any 3 of these that aren't perfect will lower the score. This is very difficult to judge. The difference between a 9 and an 8 is very slight.
Paper - I'm looking for thickness, acid free, and semi gloss paper. The paper needs to stand up to alot of use, and enhance the quality of the photo.
Book Cover Features - New books now allow photos to be printed on the book cover and titles on the spine (10). Some now provide book covers (or Jackets) which can accomplish the same thing (9). Most will have a center cut out with the book made of either linen, or leather (8).
Binding - I'm look at the quality of the binding, glued (8) vs stiched (10). If its stiched, I look at the quality of the thread and stiches.
Book Creativity - I'm looking at the ability to be creative when creating the book. How many templates are available? Can you change backgrounds, fonts, etc...? Some allow you to be extremely creative (10) and others do not allow much deviation in your book. However, even a simple book can be very beautiful (and easier to put together).
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed on this web site do not imply any warranties of goods or services, but are the sole experiences of the web creator. Your experiences may be unique and different. Information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed. Information may change without notice.
