Photobooks (Memory books)

What are Photo Books & where best to buy them online?

Photo books are essentially a photo album, the only difference being that the photographs are printed directly on to the pages of the book.

This gives your digital photo album a very professional feel. What's more, you can have your digital photos printed to any size within the book - vary the size of your prints to create a more interesting layout. When you see one for the first time, with your photos, you will say "wow!".

 

(Check out PhotoBox's "Do it with a photobook" page, to see why people like you think photobooks make great gifts!)

How to create a Photo Book?

Some websites offering photobooks require you to download software in order to create the book. However, there are a good choice of online shops that let you do all the design work online through their own website. Personally, I prefer this as I try not to  install to much software on my computer if I can help it.

Firstly, upload your digital images to the website. Select the style and size of book, then position your photographs to their best effect by simply dragging and dropping your images.

 

Customise the layout of your pictures and text

Choose a layout style for each page and add text for descriptions and captions. You can save your photobook to finish at a later date, change the layout and swap photos to see which look best. Some sites such as www.myphotobook.co.uk even let you use special effects such as transparency.

Finally, place your order and within days your photo book will be delivered. A perfect present, way to preserve your photo collection of holiday pictures or wedding pictures, or a portfolio of your work.

You can, of course, simply print your digital photos or frame your photos, but creating a photobook is just so much better. Below is a list of what we think are the best online photobook services:

 

The PhotoBox site is great. It's clear, easy to navigate and there are good instructions on how to order a photobook. I ordered a photo book from this website and was impressed with the flexibility of the layout options, the quality of the book and the delivery.

I ordered a photo book for my Mum, who doesn't have a digital camera, internet connection or a computer so she can't share our family digital photographs. She was thrilled.

PhotoBox have added to their photobook range – you can now order stylebooks and notebooks. Their photobooks are still very good value at £19.99 for 26 pages with the option of adding up to 70 pages now. They come in three different styles with a special Kids style coming soon.

The style books are slightly smaller, come in four attractive styles and contain a minimum of 30 pages, especially good for adding text and anecdotes to your photos. All for £14.99.

Photobox's new notebooks are great, very colourful with three themes and a huge variation on designs for the cover. They are ideal for creating a journal, notebook, recipe book or travel diary and come with lined or plain paper insides. Excellent value.

Photobox is highly recommended for Photobooks

My Photo Book offers a fantastic range of books which come in all shapes and sizes, with different covers including hard back, soft back, spiral bound or a simple booklet style.

Prices vary according to what you buy, but you can easily afford a photobook from this site, or splash out on something special such as their Maxi format with a linen hard back cover in a choice of seven colours.

Have the cover printed with one of your favourite photos or choose from 13 different colours in the soft cover range. Their sturdy spiral bound photobooks are ideal for business presentations or design portfolios.

You do have to download their software and install it onto your PC or Mac in order to use the service. It's compatible with Windows 95/98, Me, 2000, XP and with Macintosh OS X.

 

TruPrint offer a solid range of photobooks, coming in 3 sizes with several different covers. With prices starting from as little as £9.99, TruPrint are worth checking out (and they're a high street name we're all familiar with).

SPECIAL OFFER:Truprint usually have a special offer and Christmas 2011 is no different. Get 30% off orders of £20 of more!
Enter coupon code OVER20TREAT at the checkout. (Valid until Dec 31st, 2012)

Find details of Truprint's special offers here...

Cewe Color is Europe's largest photo processor, apparently, with clients such as Jessops, Lloyd's Pharmacy and Rowlands in the UK. And they definitely do photobooks. In as little as 3 clicks you can create the photobook on your PC and pictures look great in various styles and formats with lots of room for individual creativity. Right now the software is not Mac compatible but a version for MAC is coming soon.

So, let's take a look at how My CeWe Photo Book works. Basically:

* Transfer your photos to PC
* Download software
* Install and run the application 'My CeWe Photo World'.
* Choose your book size, i.e. Extra Large, Large, Square or Small Booklet
* Use the "CeWe Photo Book assistant", to create a book in just three clicks. (You may wish to choose from the six cover styles at this stage)
* Click on the 'to order' button to start the order process

 

Prices start from £5.99 (up to £70) at the award-winning Cewe - worth a visit, I'd say.

 

Kodak Gallery offer three sizes of photobook – extra large, large and small, and all include a front window to show the photo on the first page. The choice of covers includes leather and linen (except for the mini size) which makes your books very stylish. Covers also come with a large selection of colours. You can choose layouts and add captions.

Bonusprint have extended their range of photobooks and now offer spiral bound mini albums in three sizes, as well as their pocket, medium and large photobook range (the medium photobook comes in two sizes). The large and medium books come with leather or linen covers in various colours. Choose from different backgrounds and layouts and as usual you can add captions.

Bonusprint offer a good product but the photo software that you have to download is only compatible with Windows 2000 XP or above. Mac users go to www.photobox.co.uk, www.myphotobook.co.uk or Colourmailer.

Bags of Love have three sizes of photobook, A3, A4 and A5, with the A4 size coming in both landscape and portrait. The cover is personalised both front and back with your photos, the books are handbound and you also can have free red-eye and date stamp removal on some sizes.

Bags of Love are offering an up-market product "hardcover deluxe coffee table style books" with artworkers taking care of your photos, so these photobooks are for a special occasion and the prices reflect this. Presentation box or tin also available. You have to pay before uploading your photos.

Snapfish now offer five different photo books, their large Signature photo book comes with a velvet or leather cover, then they have Classic, Story, Everyday and Mini books too. The Story book comes with a customised dust jacket making it extra special. The Mini books are tiny at 2 x 3 inches but are great for your handbag. There are also plenty of styles and colours to choose from.

You need to have Adobe Flash Player installed on your computer to use Snapfish, if you don't you will be prompted to install it when making your photobook.

Do you know of any resources we've missed, or do you disagree with what we've put then please get in touch with your feedback, or leave us a comment below...

Comments	Date
By John Morgan	2011-02-08 22:30:22
Multiple problems with Yophoto. No telephone number, they don't respond to email. Software very unreliable on an iMac too many problems to mention, absolute frustration
By Nicola	2010-07-28 13:02:28
I have recently used Albelli.com and the book i received was fantastic! loved the photo cover - full photo spread over front and back on hardback cover - nice glossy finish to cover and pages and the software is nice and user friendly with loads of options for page layout and the positining of photos. It did take a little longer that expected to arrieve, however, but i believe they are not based in the uk. all in all, i will definatly be ordering from them again!
By Martin W	2010-03-11 14:10:48
I have tried www.lalouk.com where you can upload unlimited photos and create photo-books together with others online. You can also use the photos in calendars or greeting cards. The cool thing for me is that one can download the photo-books, calendars and cards as pdf and print them at home. The site charges 30 EURO per year but for me the cheap printing pays off. Like this I have produced a nice set of brochures of my recent holidays.
By diane Jones	2010-02-15 16:06:52
Buy an Applemac - good quality, easy to use, prompt and reliable and wonderful photoalbums. Photobox highly recommended too
By colin	2009-10-20 10:27:42
I have just used Yophoto's new photo frames. They are fantastic value for money. The quality of the photos was excellent, the mount and frames are also very good. I have only used them for photobooks, but they have just changed their software and added some new products. I am a Mac user so the new Mac version was good to see.
By Kate Davies	2009-06-25 21:48:38
I found a site called MyCreation (www.mycreation.co.uk) where I could download photobook software for Mac (I don't much like PC's). I had complete control over the design I wanted and it was quite easy to get to grips with. The finished book was good too...recommended!
By Annabel Hipperson	2009-06-20 23:39:31
I have just got my book I ordered from a UK company called 2m2u.co.uk. It is fantastic, the quality of the product is just what I wanted and it took only 5 days to get it delivered. I want to recommend 2m2u to everyone.
By Kath Bonson	2009-04-04 14:27:42
I just tried out the Aldi Photo site and was very pleased both witht he software which allowed me to personalise just as I wanted and also with the quality and service.
By Paul	2009-04-01 09:05:31
Here is what we did and never looked back - The hardest part buy a MAC - After one day you will wonder why you every put up with Microsoft windows. The easy part use the iPhoto application inbuilt photobook designs. Seamless, effortless and beautiful results every time.
By Anna	2009-02-15 22:57:25
I tried to get my wedding album printed by Snapfish, but when it was (eventually) delivered, the resolution of most of the pages was incredibly bad - as in 1mm pixels! No telephone number to call of course, so I had to wait 2 weeks for a "nothing we can do" response. They refunded my money (less delivery charge), but now I'm back to square one, and of course I didn't have anything to give my parents for Christmas! And no, the resolution of my photos was not at fault - I uploaded at about 600dpi and the preview was fine. Humbug.

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