One of the best gifts you can make for a grandparent or parent is a photo album book, filled with photos of family and kids enjoying everyday moments and special occasions such as vacations or holidays.
There are several great sites you can choose from when creating a photo album book. The best ones are easy to use, not too expensive, and perhaps most important, result in a great-looking finished product. Some great sites to consider:
1. iPhoto
Apple
If you have a Mac, iPhoto is a wonderful tool with which you can make gorgeous photo album books, calendars, and cards you’ll treasure for years to come. The books come in either hardcover or soft cover, and range in size from small pocket-size to large (11 x 8.5 inches, or in the case of hardcover books, 13 x 10 inches).
Check out the options and prices for iPhoto books. This way-cool tool makes it easy to create sophisticated, high-quality photo album books you’ll be proud to keep for yourself as well share with loved ones.
2. My Publisher
This site is easy to use and allows users to create beautiful photo album books. The downsides include limited design layouts and software that must be downloaded before use, but overall, My Publisher is a great tool for creating great photo album books. Read About Family Computing Guide Christy Matte’s review of My Publisher.
3. Snapily
This one has fun written all over it. Snapily is a new site that offers something unique: They take your photos and use a special process called lenticular printing to create 3D and animated cards. Read Christy Matte’s review of Snapily to see if it’s the right tool for you to create your photo album book.
4. SmileBooks
SmileBooks is fairly easy to use. Once it is downloaded, users can write captions, descriptions, and notes, which can be useful for describing those family memories you want to document. The site offers 400 backgrounds (or you can use your own) and has more than 170 templates. For more information, check out About’s Guide to Adventure Travel Lois Friedland’s review of SmileBooks.
5. Shutterfly
With Shutterfly, you have the option of creating your own book page by page or simply using their preset backgrounds and layouts (a super-fast way to go). Unlike other comparable sites that require minimum purchases within set timeframes in order to maintain an account, Shutterfly allows clients to store their photos free of charge for an unlimited amount of time. Another big plus: Shutterfly lets friends view images without registering.
