Give the Gift of Memories
The holiday season is upon us, which means we are hurrying and scurrying, looking for the perfect gift for everyone on our shopping list. The stores are filled with clearance-priced sweaters, perfume sets and useless gadgets that will soon be relegated to a musty box that's never opened again.
Instead of a typical generic gift, why not use technology to give a personalized photo book that will wow the recipient and become a cherished family heirloom? It's relatively inexpensive and it's super easy--especially compared to fighting the crowds at the local mall. Most important, if the recipient isn't aware of the wonders of technology (like my mom), you'll be lauded as a genius for years to come.
Personally, I like the idea of photo books so well that I'm planning on ditching my scrapbooks for easily printed photo books. I like idea of having a scrapbook to capture memories in an organized, detailed manner but don't actually have the inclination to sit down and fiddle with scissors, stickers and other expensive paraphernalia. I love the no-muss, no-fuss capabilities of printed photo books.
What do you need to create a photo book? A computer with an internet connection, lots of digital pictures, and a credit card.
If you have access to an internet connection and lots of digital pictures you probably already have an account at one or more digital picture processing sites. Almost every single one of these sites offers photo book services, though the selection and prices vary greatly from site to site. To find the offerings from your favorite photo site you typically need to go to a link titled "shop" and you'll find either "photo books" or "memory books," depending on the company. You'll then get to preview the different sizes and colors available. Most sites usually have at least three sizes available and offer several different colors of covers. Some sites even offer to print the name of your book on the cover while others have a peek-a-boo hole that shows the first picture in the book.
I've practiced making books at several of the most popular photo sites. The process is almost identical at each site. First you upload your photos, then you tell the site what size book you'd like to make. Some sites also allow you to choose a theme or style so the pages of your book will have a pretty, colorful background. Others only print a white background.
After you've got the size of book selected you'll need to "add photos" or "choose photos" to use in the book. You'll go through all the photos you have uploaded at the site and specifically choose the ones you'd like to use in this book. You don't have to use every one you select but it's nice to be able to weed out the ones you know you don't want to use instead of importing your whole collection. The more pictures you select to use, the more scrolling you'll be doing so only pick the ones that will look nice in the book.
Once you have a selection of photos most sites let you either choose to arrange photos in the book yourself or select "autofill." Autofill means they will automatically put all your pictures into the book in the order in which they were uploaded. It is very easy, but I don't recommend it. The pictures will not be placed in a logical order and they won't necessarily be in the layout that you would like to use. I used autofill and quickly realized that it made me work even harder because I wanted to move things around and put everything in chronological order.
At this point you'll go to a screen that shows a double-page spread of the first pages of your book. There will be a place to select the particular layout you want for each page. The bottom of the screen will have all thumbnails of all your pictures that you've uploaded and selected for inclusion in the book. You simply select the picture you want in each available photo slot and drag and drop it to the page. Most layouts have room for a small caption. You hit "next" as you finish each layout and keep following the same procedure. Typically you must have a minimum of 20 pages in the book. Each additional page costs extra.
After researching the various sites I've decided Shutterfly has the most richly featured book-making capabilities. They have a huge variety of backgrounds to choose from, as well as several fonts and photo-enhancing edges. They have a layout for every possible need, including layouts that allow whole pages to be used for journaling. Also, once you place a picture in a designated position you can double-click the picture and edit it. You can zoom in, zoom out, remove red eye, rotate the picture and use special effects like black and white and sepia tone. If you like the idea of scrapbooking but don't have the time, this is the perfect solution. You can also write on the cover, spine and back of the book. The only downside? It's expensive. The prices are at least $10/book higher than the other sites. Is it worth it? If you can afford it and you like creative control, it probably is. This album will last a lifetime.
Snapfish and Wal-mart use the exact same book creation software and have all the same features available. The difference? Wal-mart's books are cheaper. They both have a wide range of backgrounds but I didn't like them as well as I liked the Shutterfly backgrounds. Again, you can choose different layouts but the choices are not as extensive as Shutterfly. The prices are more reasonable and you'll be the only one who knows you could have had more options. The recipient will just be thrilled to receive a book filled with personalized photos and captions.
Kodakgallery.com has fewer options than the above sites and their books are more expensive than the Wal-mart books. They only have about ten layouts available, which isn't a whole lot. They do offer the ability to crop the photos to your liking as you place them in the book. This means you can zoom in on a face or other object, which can make any picture look better.
Winkflash is the only site that I've actually bought a book from. They have a choice of three sizes and are very reasonably priced. They do not offer any backgrounds and only have about 11 layouts to choose from. If I had done my research before ordering the book I wouldn't have used them, but I have to admit the quality is excellent and the recipient of the book thought it was beautiful. If you're on a budget or don't care about frills Winkflash may be the way to go.