Why create a photo book? We believe photos are meant to be held, and life is meant to be shared. Whether it’s a long-awaited trip, a life-changing event, or simple moments of everyday living, your photos are snapshots of your life. Nothing captures your unique experiences quite the same way as a still-shot, a memory frozen in time. But, as life moves along, our camera rolls fill up rapidly and our images are left just sitting on our phone, waiting to be printed.
You probably want those moments securely saved in a beautiful, timeless custom photo book that can be enjoyed and shared with others. But where do you start? Here at SimplePrints, we know a thing or two about creating photo books online. Today we are sharing our best tips on how to make a SimplePrints photo book that you’ll treasure.
Select Your Book Style
So you’re ready to create a photo book online! First things first: choose a size and style of photo book that best suits your life. Do you want it to be a handheld size – perfect for gifting or for a photo collection of a single event? Consider our 8×8 photo book. Or are you ready to make more of a statement? Select a 12×12 photo book – perfect for coffee table photo books, art lovers, or a lengthier yearly photo book.
Wrap your photos up in a cover that suits you best. Do you prefer a flexible, light soft cover or a durable, impressive hardcover?
Our high quality photo books are professionally bound with FCS-certified pages, so choose whichever style you like best — you can’t go wrong.
Think Thematically
It’s easy (and perfectly acceptable) to tap the most recent 20 photos in your camera roll and wrap them up between some nice covers. But if you are looking for something more, craft your custom photo book that tells a story or anchors on a theme. You could pick a person, a location, a recent vacation, a hobby activity, or a series for an annual volume collection. Get artsy and combine your favorite shots organized by color, scene, or texture. The options are limitless — tell the story that matters to you!
Feeling stuck on deciding what story you want your book to tell? Here are some popular photo book themes we’ve seen.
A Year To Remember
A Love Story: Name and Name
Our Best Eats
Hello, World: A Newborn Story
A Dog’s Life/ A Cat’s Tale
PARIS (or any other city, country destination)
Here I Stand (Travel photo book)
The Story of Us
Baby’s First Year
Family Recipes
An Adoption Story
All About (Person)
A Journey to (Location)
Wedding Album (Wedding photo book)
A Mother’s Love
Memorable Moments
Happy Mother’s Day/Father's Day/Birthday/Anniversary
These themes will inspire you when you are creating custom photo books for any occasion.
Select Your Favorite Photos
If your device is anything like ours, it’s full of photos often rolled together into one massive album. SimplePrints app is designed to make adding photos, even from a number of sources, a painless process. All of your images, from multiple photo accounts, can be curated to create the perfect photo book collection. Pull in your favorite photos from Photos, Camera Roll, Instagram, Facebook, Dropbox, and Google Photos simply by choosing “Add Photos” in the app. Select as many as you would like from each account, and they will be uploaded to a photo page.
Insider Tip 1: Your custom photo book creation process will be a more enjoyable experience if you have your photos ready in advance. Then you can focus on designing the pages and layouts. Edit your images before starting your photo book project. Make sure your photos are accurately cropped and adjusted for color, contrast, and balance. Apply any filters so your images will print just how you want.
Insider Tip 2: Once you are happy with your photo edits, organize your favorites into a separate album on your phone. This will make the uploading process fast and seamless.
Layout Your Pages
Once you upload your photos, they are placed in your photo book with each image on its own page. If you want a more robust template, we have you covered. You can create text-only pages, collage pages, and a combination page of text and images.
To select a different layout for a photo book, tap on the page you’d like to change and a banner of layout options will appear at the bottom. Scroll through and select the template you like best. Your photos will appear along the top and you simply drag and drop them into the template. You’ll be creating stunning pages in no time.
Insider Tip 3: Select 4-5 layouts to use within your book. Limiting the number of page layouts allows you to create a custom photo book that feels both interesting and cohesive.
Insider Tip 4: Consider your book and page size when selecting collage layouts. For an 8×8 photo book, adding more than 6 images per page will make it hard to clearly see each image and could make the page feel too crowded. At SimplePrints, we recommend saving the layouts with more than 6 images on a page for a larger 12×12 photo book.
Insider Tip 5: If you have a low resolution warning on any photo, consider choosing a different layout so the photo in question will print smaller, and more clearly.
Insider Tip 6: To create a more artistic, professional photo book design, identify your most beautiful images and select a full page layout for each of those. We love the simplicity of the one per page layout, as it allows you to really take in the details of each photograph
Add Captions
Although a picture tells a thousand words, sometimes adding a few extra can make a big impact. Tell the story behind the photograph by adding a caption to the bottom of the page. Simply tap on the page, select “caption,” and type away.
Insider Tip 7: For an artsy coffee table photo book, consider giving each image a succinct, descriptive title. Your guests can interpret the images meaning how they prefer, ask you questions about the person, location or experience. You could even use the image titles as a conversation piece.
Insider Tip 8: Keep your captions short, simple, and related to the images on the page. You want your photos to shine. If you have a long story you’d like to include, consider a few full text pages interspersed throughout your book.
Customize Your Cover Design
What would you like people to see when the book is sitting unopened on your coffee table? Select a cover photo that is high resolution, and inviting. Choose a photo that will remind you of a favorite moment and keep you smiling every time you see it on the shelf or on display.
Finish up your cover design by choosing from 3 templates. Add a simple title in your favorite font choice and your book will be ready to order!
Insider Tip 9: Design your cover last. It’s tempting to choose the cover photo first, but you’ll be better able to pick the one that best represents the theme of the photo book if you wait until the end.
The Finishing Touches
Add some heart to your project by finishing off your book with a personalized introductory text page. Our personalized photo books are designed to anticipate your needs. Each photo book includes a dedication or text page right inside the cover: the perfect space for you to write a note of appreciation to a gift recipient, include a trip itinerary, document a timeline or outline of a family event or love story, or stick to the default “Made with Love by Your Name.”
Insider Tip 10:You are the creative design expert on your book preferences, so we print your book exactly as you have designed it. Once you complete your project, look over it in “Preview” mode to triple-check each page. Notice any errors? Make any needed changes to touch it up before ordering. If you notice last-minute changes after you have placed your order, email us at hello@simpleprints.com and we will hold your project for 2 hours before processing.
Your Next Project Awaits
Now that you’re equipped with our 10 insider tips, create your next photo book with confidence!
Feeling inspired now? Go ahead and get started!