Make Your Own Photobooks

Picaboo Photo Book Review

Picaboo always seems to offer something new each time I review the site. The newest tool is called Story Flow and is for those people who do not want to design a book themselves. Your job is to group your photos onto pages and choose a theme. Picaboo will then use Story Flow and design the book for you. How easy is that?

Picaboo offers three levels of books. The first is the Classic or Regency line, and those books are similar to the regular books that other photo book printers offer. Then there are high quality books (Cape Cod, Modern, Victorian, and Ranch) which are available in the latest version software 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 these higher-quality 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.

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.

You have an unlimited number of backgrounds available to you in their photo book software. 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.

The photo book software is downloaded to your computer, so there’s no “upfront” photo uploading. This means that 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 have 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.

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.

Visit our Coupon Page for current deals and promotions at Picaboo.

Specifications

Paper Weight Classic and Regency: 100# glossy
Lay Flat Books: 110# semi-gloss - thickness of an index card
Flush Mount: Kodak Endura sliver-halide photo paper mounted on lay-flat board
Max. # of Pages 160 pages or 300 MB file size
flush mount: 90 pages or 300 MB files size
Shipping for one book $10.99-15.99
Mac Compatible? Beta version available

Updated: March 5, 2010

Picaboo Photo Book Review

What is the Quality of the Photo Books?

The review on this page only reviews the software that you use to make your photo book. In order to review the quality of the photo book you receive or the quality of any help please go to Photo Book Experiences. Here you will find what other people have said about this printer/publisher.

The quality of these comments are only helpful if Make Your Own Photo Books site visitors take the time to leave comments about their experiences. Please pay it forward to other site visitors by taking the time to leave a comment (good or bad)if you have made a photo book.

Comparative Photo Book Software 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+

For an explanation of the Feature Set Review.

Photo Book Sizes

The prices given are based on a 20 page book with printing on both sides of the pages. Additional pages are available for an extra charge. The price given is the lowest price for that size category.
Hardcover
6x8 $19.99
8.5x11 $29.99
11x14 $449.99 (flush mount only)
Softcover
6x8 $9.99

For a more detailed pricing, please visit Photo Book Covers and Sizes

Learn about other photo book publishers


Photo Book Coupons

Kodak Gallery

Picaboo
Picaboo - Create a Photo Book. Special Offer: buy 1 get 1 free!

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Shutterfly
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Snapfish

Jostens Photo Books
Save 15% on a photo book for mom!



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