Picaboo

There have been several improvements in the Picaboo site since the last time it was reviewed, and it still remains one of my favorite sites to make a photo book. They have just come out with some new, high quality books (Cape Cod, Modern, Victorian, and Ranch) which are available in the latest version - 2.5. The new books are printed using a 110 lb. matte paper, rather than the 100 lb. glossy used on their other books. The pages in the new books also lay-flat, eliminating the bending that occurs when normal pages are sewn directly into the spine. These all come at a much higher price, though. For more information on pricing, see our Covers and Sizes page. While this publisher still carries a few lower end cost books, they have eliminated quite a few because they did not meet the quality standards.

You have an unlimited number of backgrounds available to you through this site. Now you can customize the front, back and spine of a cover. You can make the perfect cover from the thousands of backgrounds or use any photo to create a full-page bleed.

Editing your pictures has improved with such tools as zoom/crop, rotate, white borders, and shadows to make your photos look just right. You can remove red eye and adjust brightness and contrast very easily. Now, in addition to the existing photo tools, you're just one click away from changing any photo to black and white or sepia. You can see the changes to your photos in real-time right on the page of your book. There’s a good variety of text boxes and fonts to choose from. Layouts still continue to be the most advanced and have a wide variety. The “Tips & Tricks” section is very helpful.

There’s no “upfront” photo uploading, so adding pictures to your book takes only seconds. If you want to reorder your pages, it’s as easy as “drag and drop”. Do you like to auto fill? You can group your pictures onto pages before your book is created and “Story Flow” auto creates a book based on the theme you’ve selected. And, of course, as with other publishers, you can also share a digital copy of your book with as many people as you want – for free.

Picaboo’s book – “The Wedding Flush Mount” is a great addition to their line. If you’re looking for a premium, thick book feel – this is the one for you. The books come in two sizes – an 11x8.5 and a 14x11. Both are landscape orientation. The pages lay completely flat and extend across the entire page. You can choose from six leather cover colors. For more information on this, visit our wedding page.

Support for the site is excellent. “Live Chat” was put to the test on a Sunday night at 11:00pm and I received instant feedback. If you don’t need help immediately, you can also contact Picaboo by email.

Updated: March 6, 2009

Feature Set Review

Background Themes	Over 14,000
Layout Variety	More than you would ever need - a great selection
JPG as a Background	Available for any page
Digi-Scrapbooking Friendly	Extremely
In-book Editing	Yes
Text - variety and Full Page	Nice variety
Embellishments and Corners	Nice variety
Full-Page Bleed	Yes
Final Grade	A+