A primer for how to print photo albums is just like any book of elementary principles. But this primer isn't a tutorial for actually creating a photo book... Because assembling a digital photo book online is very easy! No lesson plan needed. Just follow the instructions given by your photo book priting service. This photo book help guide will tell you everything you need to know before you actually sit in front of the computer and make your own photo book.

Using this Guide: Some of this is basic photo book help, and some of it is more involved. If you already know something, just jump over that area and check out the next topic.

Now... still wondering why you should create photo books when keeping 'em on the computer is cheaper and easier? This page will give you a TON of reasons why!

What You Need to Be Able to Do

In order to print photo albums of digital photos, you don't need to knnow much. In essence, the basic skill for creating an online digital book is the ability to drag pictures onto a page.

If you can play solitare... In all honesty, if you have the computer know-how to surf the net and play Solitaire on the computer, you have all the skills necessary to print digital photo albums.

You also need to be know:

Using your digital camera is the most obvious way to get digital photos. But that's not the only way to get great digital pictures to print photo albums. You can also:

Scan old photos with a scanner,

Use an old photo CD created when film photos were developed, or

You can even take pictures of old pictures with a digital camera.

Below, I'll talk a bit about how to do all three of these, and how to manipulate your photos and get them all ready to print photo albums once you've got them on your computer.

Want to learn how to take better photos? I won't talk much about that here, but my Better Digital Pictures page will give you some great tips.

Or visit practicalphotographytips.com for a ton of digital photography tips and digital photo tips.

Choosing a Photo Book Printer

After you you know everything you need to do in order to prepare to print photo albums, you've got to decide who to work with! Well, that's more or less what the rest of this Make Your Own Photo Book website is all about!

Here, you'll find lots of resources to help you choose the best photo book printer for your project. So take a wander around some of the following pages!

Photo Book Reviews

Overview of Photo Book Printers

Photo Book Printing

Photo Book Templates and Backgrounds

Photo Book Questions and FAQ's

Before You Create Your Photo Book

The hardest part of the photo book creation process happen before you put the book together. First, you need pictures... and you need a great idea for a photo book. This can be harder than it sounds, so check the page I just linked to for some fun and creative digital scrabook ideas.

Visit this page to for some family photo ideas for taking great portraits and candids for a photo book.

Of course, the first step when you want to print photo albums from digital photos is to get your photos onto your computer. The three most common ways to get your photos off your camera are:

1. Connect with your USB Cable. Many digital cameras come with a USB cable that inserts into the camera and then inserts into the USB port on your computer. Your computer already has the software loaded onto it to help you recognize and use the camera when attached through the USB port.

2. Insert your memory card into your computer. Some computers come with a slot for most memory cards. In this case you just insert your card and your computer will allow you to read the card as if it were another hard drive. If you do not have a slot for the memory card you can purchase a reader that has a place for your card and connects to your computer through the USB port.

3. Use a docking station. Some cameras come with a docking station that connects to the computer's USB port. Check to see if there i s a compatible docking station for your camera, if you like this option the best and your camera doesn't come with a docking station.

Don't have your camera yet? Check this page for tips on how to choose a digital camera for making and printing photo books.

If you have prints of pictures that you'd like to include in a photo book, you can easily use them in your digital photo book. Just scan 'em! In general your options are:

1. Scan the photos yourself on a home scanner,

2. Have a service scan them for you, or

3. Go to a drugstore or photo store and use their scanners.

1. Have a service scan your photos

Have some photos to scan and looking for a photo scanning service? There are services that will scan your photos for as little as $0.19 a picture. This is a good option if you do not have many pictures to scan and do not need them right away.

Because of the expense --it's almost as expensive getting photos scanned to print photo albums as it is printing the photos themselves-- this option isn't great for larger batches of photos.

2. Scan the pictures yourself

There are many types of scanners, but a flatbed scanner works nicely for scanning old photos. I did a crazy project last year -- I decided to scan all of our photos!! 4,000 scans later... Needless to say the project took me months. I used an HP All-in-One Printer/Scanner/Copier and it did a fine job. This is not an expensive piece of equipment, so don't feel you need to go out and get the best-- and if you need a new printer, it's smart to invest in one that does scanning too.

Software for Scanning Photos: When scanning the pictures you'll use to print photo albums, you will need a software program to help you with the imaging and scanning. I just used the software that came with the scanner and did not upgrade.

More on DIY Photo Scanning and Scanning Services

Have some old photos that you want to use to make a digital photo book, but don't have a scanner? If you have a digital camera and need to get a digital copy of an old photograph you can simply take a picture of the picture!

To do this, be sure you've got good natural lighting (don't use the flash) and that your camera has a quality close-up feature.

Or just take your hard-copy printed photos down to your local drugstore or photo store and have them scanned and stored on your memory card.

While you'll surely have all the family photos and places all ready to go, sometimes you just don't have the right decorative pictures available to finish off your book.

Don't despair -- you can check out how to use stock photos to find pictures for your book.

Organizing Your Photos

Have you ever tried to find the pictures from an event that happened a year ago? Getting photos together and keeping them organize can be one of the hardest steps when you print photo albums.

Saving your pictures to folders saves you time in the long run. Even if you do not label the pictures, you should organize groups of pictures on your hard drive. Using "My Documents" is the easiest way to do this. I never download pictures unless I create a specific folder for those pictures. If my card is full, it may take 3 or 4 folders to organize the photos.

More than One Category? Sometimes a photo could go into 2 or 3 different categories. It is easier to make a copy of the photo and put one in each folder. This could happen if you are on a vacation and take a picture of Uncle Mike. You might have a folder for that vacation and one for relatives.

Organizing Folders: There is no set logic on how to organize the folders - use what makes the most sense to you and take into account how you may be using the pictures in the future. Go to our How To Organize Photos page for more detailed ideas.

Here are 5 different ways to organize your digital photos:

1. Organize Photos by Date

I find a general year archive a good idea. In that year I will include a wide variety of folders, but I have found that I tend to remember which year a picture was taken. This yearly archive will also include several special occasion folders. Sometimes you have a few pictures that really don't fit into your other categories, so you can just put them in the yearly archive. You can also decide if you want to use monthly or quarterly photos.

2. Organize Photos by Projects

If you have several projects in mind then you can organize by those projects. Family History project, Travel Retrospective, School Daze. You can organize by these projects as you get pictures.

3. Organize Photos by Special Event

Special events are milestone events that take on a life by themselves. A wedding or the birth of a baby are obvious ones, but any event that is something you might want to commemorate with a photo project could use its own folder.

4. Organize Photos by Personal Preference

Got a way you want to organize your photos in preparation to print photo albums? Hey, if it makes sense to you, go for it!

5. Organize Photos with Photo Management Software

Photo management software will allow you to put tags onto your photos and search the pictures by these tags or keywords. You can give each picture more than one tag, so it can be included in more than one search. For instance, if you have a picture of your daughter's first birthday, you tag that picture with birthday and your daughter.

Here is a review of Photo Management Software

Go from How to Print Photo Albums primer to the Make Your Own Photo Book Main Page.