Projects for Image Preservation & Sharing
> Projects for Families
Family Photo Books That Tell a Story
Themed photo books are easy to publish, make treasured gifts, and provide context to a collection of images.
Photo books are a product line that has improved greatly in the past few years. The sophistication of the layout and editing software has become much stronger, and the choice of book sizes, bindings, covers, and layouts make it possible to publish your own coffee table quality book for a reasonable price.
With the ability to vary page layouts within a given book, and the ability to add text and image captions, you can tell a themed story or memory in a very professional sort of way. Although they are called photo books, they can be made to be illustrated history or story books, where you or other members of your family are the lead characters.
Although larger hardcover photo books are not cheap, they are quite reasonable when compared to the time and expense involved in creating traditional photo albums, or family history books. Photo books can be a convenient and cost effective way of creating any themed and annotated collection of images.
This ability to combine images, text, and captions can give additional meaning and personal color to a collection of images, and it becomes much easier to create a story that can be passed along.
Additionally, once the layout is completed, multiple copies can be made easily, while taking advantage of volume discounts.
If you have an online album or share site at
Shutterfly.com,Snapfish.com
by HP,
or Kodak Gallery,
you can create a photo book from
images stored with each, or with additional image uploads.
My top choice for Online Photo Books is Picaboo.
Picaboo is a niche website which only offers photo books
and cards. The site's focus on photo books allows it to offer some
additional and impressive layout features. Additionally, the relatively unique approach of Picaboo is to allow you to
download their proprietary software, and to Create A Photo Book
at your own pace on your computer at home. Only when you are ready to purchase, do you
upload the finished layout and associated images.
Styles and layouts are extensive, and the software is quite flexible. Whether you choose to use Picaboo or not, it is worth a visit to the site's "Idea Center" to see what can be done. I especially like the "Heritage" section ideas in the idea center. There are plenty of good tips and thoughts on how to capture a family heritage in one of Picaboo's photo books.
Links to Picaboo and the three leading online printers are provided above and to the left.
Tip: If you do download Picaboo's free software to see what it is all about, the download does take some time, and you will be asked to create an account short of providing any credit card information. Before, you can actually get started, the software will also download some themes, and this also takes some time. Note that "Heritage" themes are not included in this download, but can be accessed by a link to more themes at the website.
