Most of us are familiar with the traditional photo album – a book filled with pages of clear plastic sleeves to insert your acim. Most of them come with 200 to 300 slots for your photos and have covers made of vinyl, leather, fabric or some type of coated paper. Before plastic sleeve albums came on the market, most albums were adhesive – with clear overlay pages and a tacky backing which stuck to the back of the photos (in many cases it’s hard to remove the photos from these types of albums as the adhesive has bonded and are impossible to peel off!)
What is an online photo book?
The digital photo book is the successor to the photo album. There are many companies on the Internet that provide free easy-to-use software that you either download or use online to create a book filled with photos that you lay out yourself.
How do traditional photo albums compare to online photo books?
Size & Weight
Since photo books are digitally printed, they tend to be lighter in weight and less bulky. You can fit several hundred photos into a single 100-page book very easily. My traditional photo albums are very heavy and therefore not as portable and they take up about 4 times as much room as my photo books.
Ease of Duplication
There’s no way to duplicate a photo album unless you make two identical albums. (I’ve done that before to make a gift for a friend of a trip we took together and it can be tedious!). With digital photo books, you can print one book, or ten! Your files are saved onto your hard drive or on the company’s website, so you can easily go back later to print more books if you want another copy. In many cases you can switch size, style, covers etc. without having to redesign your layouts.
Because photo books are easy to duplicate, they make great gifts. Make a family history book and then print several copies for thoughtful and personalized Christmas gifts for your family. Gather all your family’s cherished recipes and add photos for a unique collaborative cookbook! Make a photo book of your baby’s first year and give a copy to the grandparents. The possibilities are endless and everyone loves receiving personalized gifts!