If you want to make a digital photo memory book, photo book printing is available from many different online digital photo book sites. If you have ever want to make your own photo book, you will find that it easier to do than you may have imagined.

The hard part, actually, might be choosing a photo book creation and printing service to use. When making a photo book, the different major printers out there have different things to offer. The purpose of this page? To help you shop wisely and get the best photo book printing for your project.

How to Print a Photo Book

While it's possible to print your own photo book from your home printer, you'll always get the best results (and in most cases, the best price) by designing a photo book online and having it printed and shipped to you.

Even so, there are a whole host of "tools" that you will need for priting a digital photo book, all of which will be provided by these online photobook services. Which means that in choosing which photo book company to use, you will need to review what each printer provides and how that fits within your photo book project.

Photo Book Priting Tools

Some of the different items that you will need to choose to publish your own photo book are:

1. Photo Book Creation Software
2. Photo Editing Capabilities
3. Themes, Backgrounds, and Layouts
4. Online Collaboration
5. Different Size, Cover, and Binding Options

1. Your Photo Book Creation Software

The different photo book services out there offer completely different options and usability levels with their photo book creation software. And since this is the first thing you will use in putting together a photo book (and should include most of your tools, like editing, themes, layouts, etc.) choosing a photo book printer with a great software program is essential.

Download or Online? While there are still a few photo book printers that provide online use of their software, most of the best services offer a software download instead. Why? Because this allows for a more complex and faster-running photo book creation software with more designs and features. So unless something about your computer makes this a not-great option for you, downloaded software is generally the best kind to use.

Free or Pay Software? Some photo book printers, like DigiLabs, offer a pay-per-download software. But more offer a free download so you can play with the software and create all the photo books you want before you actually order one.

My favorite is probably the free software download, Picaboo X, which is the program used a Picaboo.com. It's a very small, quick download, it has tons of features, lots of designs, and is easy to use. A good option for both newbies and advanced photo book printing.

Keeping it Simple: Don't have a lot of time to design and print a digital photo book? If you just want to have the photo book software arrange and lay out your photos for you, almost all of the printers we review will allow that feature.

My Photo Book Software Reviews

Don't know what photo book printing service to opt for? A photo book software review of each digital photo book printer can be found on our photo book review pages. This comparison was based on someone who wanted to be very creative in their book design.

2. Photo Editing Capabilites

If you're looking into photo book printing to create keepsakes using your own digital photos, chances are some of the photos will need a little editing.

Where to Edit? For minor photo editing, such as correcting red eye, cropping a photo, or sharpening an image, your photo book printing service's software should be sufficient. If, however, you want to do things like smooth skin, fix lighting and coloring, or perhaps trim down your thighs in your bikini vacation photo, you'll need photo editing software like Photoshop.

Another Free Option Don't have Photoshop, and don't want to splash out the hefty fee to buy it? You can get most of the capabilities you need from free photo editing software, which will generally have more features that your printer's built-in photo book software, but less than a program like Photoshop. My favorite is probably Paint.net, which is free and simple to use.

3. Photo Book Themes, Backgrounds, and Layouts

One of the reasons why digital photo books have become so popular lately is its flexibility-- with a simple software download, you can make highly designed photo books that look just as nice as a hundred-hours-of-work photo scrapbook.

The reason why this works so well is that many photo book services provide a ton of photo book themes, backgrounds, and layout options. Depending on the photo book printer you use, you can have access to anywhere from dozens to thousands of digital photo album themes. The two biggest are probably:

Shutterfly Shutterfly has a huge selection of backgrounds and themes for photo books designed by their in-house staff.

Picaboo.com: Picaboo has many in-house designers, as well, but also offers thousands of very unique user-created backgrounds and themes for photo books. New ones are added every day. The best choice if you want variety.

4. Online Collaboration for Photo Books

In most cases, having all of the photos and software you need for your photo book on your computer is sufficient-- most photo book designing is a one-person project. But if you're creating, say, a family photo book/recipe book, or a school yearbook, you might need to collaborate with others in its creation.

The amount of collaboration offered for photo book printing by different services is extremely variable. Check my page on online photo book collaboration to learn about which printers offer which collaborative features... and which offer none at all.

5. Photo Book Size, Cover, and Binding Options

Depending on the scope of your photo book project, the number of cover, binding, and size options may or may not be important to you. For a small brag book or a baby book, the standard sizes and options are probably fine. But for, say, a high quality wedding photo book, you might want binding, paper, and cover options.

Photo Book Size Options

If you've ever looked at any of the online photo book websites, you will notice that, with most printers, there are many book size options available. Choosing the Right Size for Your Photo Book highlights the most common sizes and suggests possible uses for each size.

Photo Book Cover Options

Most photo book printer services offer a variety of different cover styles and materials, from linen to cardboard to velvet. Photo Book Covers explains the different types of book covers that are available. We also provide a chart showing which type of covers each photo book printer offers. If you need a specific cover type this will help you narrow your review to those printers who carry the type of photo book cover you need for your project.

The first choice for a top-quality photo book is generally a leather cover. Visit my leather photo books chart to find out which photo book printers offer leather cover options.

Photo Book Binding Options

Not sure what type of binding method is good for you? Book Binding Methods will explain the different types of photo book bindings available through most companies.

Photo Book Printing Companies

Now that you know everything you're going to need for making and printing a photo book online, the next step will be choosing your actual printer. While there are dozens and dozens of photo book print and design services on the web, there are a few "major" ones that tend to be the best and most popular options. Many of these sites will be familar because many of them also print photos.

The"top five" major (and probably the best) photo book companies are:

Picaboo.com: Picaboo isn't the cheapest of the photo book printers out there, but they probably offer the best quality-to-price ratio. They also offer, probably, the largest selection of cover types. Their size selection is smaller than some of the others, however.

Shutterfly.com: Shutterfly is one of the most popular photo book printing services because of its easy-to-use photo book software and really attractive designs. They also offer softcover books for really low prices for those on a budget.

Kodak Gallery.com: Kodak Gallery is the photo book and photo gift branch of Kodak. They're a good choice for very simple photo books, as their software has limited flexibility and editing capabilities.

Snapfish.com: This is another easy-to-use photo book printer, with the bonus of offering an online software that doesn't necessarily require a download.

PhotoWorks.com: Photoworks is by the greeting card company, American Greetings, and provides simple photo books with a high level of design. These books have less flexibility than Picaboo or Shutterfly, and fewer layouts, which can make them simpler to create.

Want to read our reviews of these photo book printers, as well as read about some of the other dozens of options out there? Check out my photo book reviews page, or see some user reviews at photo book experiences.

Pricing and Budget

If your budget is the biggest concern for you when deciding on a photo book service, you'll probably want to take a look at Photo Book Covers, Sizes and Prices. This page displays all the covers, sizes, and prices for each printer we have reviewed This tool helps you compare each one's offerings, and find out which one will fit most easily into your budget.

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