While doing this Smilebooks review (or any photo book service review) I always keep this in mind: photo books should be fun to make. And I have to admit I had fun working with SmileBooks. They have also added a few features that will help with the design of your book-- making it pretty easy if that's what you're looking for.

SmileBooks "Design Service" Feature

Smilebooks now has a fantastic offer for those people who like photo books, but just never get around to designing one. For a very reasonable fee a human designer (not just an autofill program) will work to create a beautiful book for you.

How It Works: You just need to decide what style and size book you want. You even have the choice of uploading all of your pictures to have the designer choose the best photos to use, or going through the pictures yourself and uploading only the pictures you want to use in the book. Complete FAQs and pricing can be found at the Smilebooks Design Service.

SmileBooks Do It Yourself Software

This SmileBooks review is based on their downloaded program. Many photo book printers offer either an online program or one that you can download, but this is the first printer that offers both! The review for the online version is at Smilebooks Online.

The downloadable photo book software is a good choice for those of you who like to design your books while offline. It is a hefty downlad of 80.7 MB and takes quite a while to download, even with a fast connection.

SmileBooks Templates and Designs

Besides having an almost unlimited number of layouts, you now have more backgrounds than you could possibly use. If you don't like the provided backgrounds, you can go online and download some more. They now allow you to upload your own photo to use as a page background. Image masks are a new fun option that will put a new shape around your picture. But it is more than that -- you'll need to see it to understand.

The Assistant: You can either use The Photo Book Assistant that creates the book for you, or use the many layouts and make the book yourself. When doing this Smilebooks review, I chose (as I normally do) to create a photo book on my own. Fortunately, you do get some automatic help if you are doing it on your own. One picture that I was using was too dark and the program suggested that I fix it. I clicked a button, and the image was much lighter-- very helpful.

Help and Customer Service

There is no online help because you are working locally on your computer while offline. There are some good instructions and help that you can read that answers most of your questions.

In writing this Smilebooks review, I did test out their customer service email feature, and got a response within about six hours. About par for the course with most photo book printing services.

SmileBooks Photo Books and Paper

One thing that stood out when doing this SmileBooks photo book review was the paper they use. The paper that Smilebooks uses is 135 lb. This is thicker than most photo book printers who use 100 lb. paper. The books have twenty-six pages, where most printers have twenty. There is also a new option of making a book with actual photographic paper and features a lay-flat binding.

Updated:August 11, 2010

Smilebooks Photo Book Review

Comparative Photo Book Software Review

Background Themes	Numerous
Layout Variety	Over 170 layouts
JPG as a Background	Yes
Digi-Scrapbooking Friendly	Yes
In-book Editing	Yes
Text - Variety and Full Page	Add unlimited text to each page
Embellishments and Corners	Yes
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 26 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
8x8	32.95
8x11	34.95
11x8	39.95
11x14	89.95
12x12	68.95
16.5x12	149.95
Softcover
8x8	26.95
8x11	28.95

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

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