You probably have thousands of photos sitting on your smartphone’s camera roll collecting digital dust. Most people share their favorite photos on Instagram, only to forget all about them once the likes stop coming in. Letting those photos disappear and get forgotten is a shame—they represent happy memories and important moments throughout your life. It’s time to start showing your old photos some love by giving them new life in a personalized photo book.
What’s the difference between a photo album and a photo book?
You may think that these two terms are interchangeable, but there’s actually an important difference between the two. Photo albums are ideal for individually printed photos. Instead of stashing hundreds of photos mixed together in a box, organizing your prints in an album ensures they see the light of day. Photo albums can be as basic as sticking prints in plastic sleeves or as DIY as making a scrapbook. If you’ve got a pile of photos in a shoebox, you should probably consider keeping them in a photo album.
Photo books are a great way to showcase digital photos kept on your smartphone, computer and social media accounts. Instead of sticking photos into an album one at a time, you can use a design template and user-friendly app to curate the perfect collection of photos, which can then be printed on high-quality paper in a hardback book. All aspects of these books are customizable—fonts, captions, page layouts, paper type and more. So, if you have a lot of digital photos on your various devices (say, of your graduation or birthday party), you should probably consider showing them some love by printing up a custom photo book.
So, if they’re different, what are some pros and cons?
A photo album is built one photo at a time and its capacity depends on the predetermined number of spaces it has in it. Photo books are different—you can include as many photos as you please, and can even have multiple photos on one page.
Photo albums typically contain fixed plastic sleeves or inserts for your prints, allowing you to take out or add photos in the future. You can decide what type of photo paper to make the prints on. With a photo book, your photos are printed directly onto the photo paper of your choice with the finish of your choosing, which means you can’t change the photos down the road.
Photo album covers aren’t customizable unless you add your own DIY touches. Whatever is on the cover stays there and usually has nothing to do with the contents of the album. With a custom photo book, you do have the option of customizing the cover, as well as customizing the design within the book and adding any embellishments you’d like.
What is a photo book?
If you have an active Instagram account where you keep your favorite photos, an Instagram photo book is the perfect extension of what you’re already doing. Think of it as a way to bring your Instagram account into the world, as a physical object you can show to guests or just look at it when you want to think of all the good times.
Simply choose your favorite Instagram images straight from your feed, customize the backgrounds, layouts and embellishments of your interior pages, then add, move, and resize the pictures to your liking. Do you write the best hashtags for your Instagram photos? Include them in your custom photo book! You can even add additional pages when designing your personal photo book if your memories need extra space. Once your social book is designed finalize it by choosing a hardcover or softcover photo book, paper type and lay-flat pages. An Instagram book is a great way to share your wedding pictures, create a personal yearbook or relive your travels.
How do I create the perfect photo book?
Thanks to a user-friendly platform, creating a custom photo book is easy and fun. It doesn’t take much to create a stunning book and, with these tips and tricks, you’ll design an eye-catching one in no time:
- Organize your photos: Add your photos into one easy to find folder before you login to the design site.
- Choose the right photos: after organizing your photos, shift through them to choose the ones that are the highest quality and will look attractive when printed.
- Highlight your favorites: optional layouts typically feature several photo sizes on the same page. Design your interior pages to highlight your favorite photos.
- Create variety in spreads: don’t be afraid to switch around the layout of photos and use a variety of templates in your photo book.
- Pick a theme: choose a theme that gives your book a storyline.
- Include helpful text: be sure to include dates, captions, quotes and any descriptions that will help recreate the memory.
- Tell a story: design your photo book with your photos in chronological order so that your book tells a story.
A photo book is a fun, creative way to organize your favorite photos and an impressive way to relive your memories. The key to making a stunning book is to customize it to your unique personality.
