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Best Family Photo Books

Best Family Photo Books

By Zoltán G.Zoltán G. Verified by Sander D.Sander D. Last updated: July 23, 2024 (0)

Back in the good ol’ days, families took lots of photos and then put those pictures into albums, shoeboxes or photo books. Nowadays photos end up on Facebook, Instagram or the hard drive of a computer. Why should we let the old tradition fade away when there is a true 21st century solution for safekeeping and cherishing family pictures in a fun way? Time to rediscover the joys and wonders of creating a photo book!

Modern photo book builders are all cloud-based and are easy to use, thus you don’t have to be an expert or ask the help of a photography expert to create your own photo books. Online photo book services have straightforward photo book editors accessible through mobile and desktop browsers and mobile apps that let you fill up a photo book with your photos. You get to choose your own theme, you can choose various book sizes, covers and paper styles, and even allow other family members to collaborate on your book with you.

Family photo book ideas

A family photo book is a common project, therefore picture exchange and collaboration is a must. Most photo book builders allow users to accept pictures uploaded by others to the online photo storage of your photo book account. But sometimes the editor goes even further and allows the same editorial control over the book not just for you, but for your collaborators too (like relatives living far away). Probably none of you are pro photographers, so collaboration helps you eliminate the less spectacular pictures. Regardless of whether you plan to make several copies of your book for others or not, try to avoid pictures that look super artificial or in which you and your family act completely out of character; family photos must capture the moment as it is, artificialness just ruins the overall impact.

Build your photo books with family and friends

As for smaller details like templates, backgrounds, themes etc: do whatever you want and enjoy yourself. The only restriction is that you shouldn’t overcrowd photo book pages (4–6 photos per page are enough), use square or landscape format, and stay within reasonable limits regarding size, cover and the total number of pages: you are creating a simple photo book, not writing a novelization of family events…

Family history books

Although you, your husband/wife and your child(ren) are indeed a family, everybody who is related to you in any way can be deemed part of the family. And which family member doesn’t have a story to tell?

The problem is that photos taken by elder or long-gone family members are usually not in the proper condition to be put into a photo book – especially if that photo book only exists in the cloud at the moment. Thankfully there are lots of photo developing agencies that specialize in digitizing old photos in a professional manner. The only downside is that the process might cost you a fortune, so you can turn to solution No. 2: scanning the pictures by yourself. Modern 3-in-1 printers can perfectly digitize pictures which you can enhance with the help of clever software like Photoshop, Paint.NET, Adobe Creative Cloud or, in fact, Instagram.

Once the picture is taken care of, you can ask older family members to tell stories related to those particular photos. It can be anything from a memory to something that comes to mind looking at the picture; the point is that a story makes your book more personal than a simple, noncommittal caption.

Recommended family photo books

Mixbook
Mixbook
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • Foolproof photo book editor
  • Numerous customization options
  • Hundreds of photo book themes
  • Good size-to-cover pairings
  • Fast printing and shipping
  • No mobile app for Android
  • No offline mode
Starting price: $14.99/unit Visit Mixbook
Collage.com Photo Books
Collage.com Photo Books
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • Easy-to-use, mobile-friendly editor
  • Advanced photo adjustment options
  • Over 200 themes (backgrounds)
  • Non-expiring coupons
  • Long running refund policy
  • Expensive base prices
  • Inconsistent size–cover pairing
Starting price: $29.99/unit
MyPublisher Photo Books
MyPublisher Photo Books
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • Foolproof editor
  • Various customization options (large books)
  • Cost-friendly pricing
  • Worldwide shipping
  • Discounts, loyalty program
  • Slow, lagging software
  • Terrible save feature
  • Insufficient size–cover/binding/paper pairing
Starting price: $2.99/unit
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