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011 Selecting a Photo Book Service
Photo Books Are Great for Preserving and Sharing Memories
As discussed in the prior article, photo books differ from photo albums in several ways, not the least of which are:
• The photos are printed, not glued, on the pages,
• One can design his or her own cover, and
• Dozens of copies can be made easily and relatively inexpensively from one original.
This is great news for families who need to make multiple copies of unique, one-of-a-kind photos that have been handed down for generations.
The following how-to example from ShutterFly.com, one of the leading photo book services, provides prospective customers with two path options in making a photo book: a simple path and a custom path. The overall approach, however, is nearly identical to that of most other photo book services.
The Simple Path
You may decide to create yours with a simple path in which most of the work is done by the service. With the simple path, you will be able to:
• Choose from more than 20 styles with preset backgrounds and layouts
• Easily edit your pictures and enter short captions
• Choose from 1-4 pictures per page (up to 400 pictures or 100 pages)
• Choose from five sizes of photo-cover finished books ranging from 5×7 to 12×12.
A simple path may be your best choice if this is the first time that you have ever made a photo book. The service will arrange your pictures, and you will only need to add captions. You can share these online through social networks or through the site that you used to create your book. You will need to:
1. Start with the simple path
2. Choose your photo book size – the service will then load the template for that album
3. Choose the photos that you want to upload – these may be from your desktop, an internet site or even your Facebook account!
4. After you have uploaded your pictures, you click pictures.
5. The next screen will allow you to work with those pictures. First, decide if you want to change the style of your album by looking at the choices that the service offers.
6. Next arrange your photos in the book like you would want them to be displayed.
7. Some services allow you to add text or captions to the pages which you would do now.
8. Look over the final book and make any changes required.
9. Order your book. (Most services also have the ability to just save your book in case you want to make changes before ordering).
The Custom Path
When you choose a custom path, you will be able to customize your photo book page by page and will be able to:
- Choose from an extensive collection of backgrounds. These are based on themes and then background choices within that theme. Within those designs are also multiple choices of colors. At this time, you can also choose the text font and color.
- Easily arrange pictures and text in a variety of layouts. With the custom path, each photo can be dropped in right where you want it with just want you want to say.
- 1-16 pictures per page (up to 1000 pictures)
- Choose your cover design.
- Choose from five sizes of books in satin, suede, or leather ranging from 5×7 to 12×12.
- Then review, order and pay for your book/s.
Your will need to start with the custom path:
Select a style:
Select a background:
Select a layout for each page:
Drag and drop your photos into the spaces provided:
Select the size and cover for your book:
Finally, review and order your book.
If your project involves a book with many pages, many copies, or a lot of text and photos with custom layouts, you may want to do the project by yourself. If so, the prior article, “010 How to Make a Photo Book,“ will give you some hints.
You may also want to check the offerings of other leading photo book suppliers including the Current special offers at Kodak Gallery!, PhotoWorks
, and Mixbook.com
.
Begin now to put a photo book together. You and your loved ones will all be glad you did!