Binder Photo Books: The Neverending Story

Thankfully, however, a bit of thinking outside the box can solve this problem; enter binder photo books, the albums that can be customized with more or fewer pages even after the book is deemed complete.

Style and practicality

At first glance a binder photo book – or scrapbook – is nothing more than the combination of a store-bought photo album and a plain document binder. As a matter of fact, this kind of photo book works the same way as binders, where transparent pockets – which substitute the pages – can be added or removed by popping open the three rings that serve as the binding of the book. And this, with the option to customize the book’s contents at any time, is exactly why these type of custom photo books are more practical than their traditional counterparts.

But there is more it than just this. For starters, unlike document binder pockets that exist only in one form, there are binder photo book pockets that can hold up to three photos at the same time. Then there are the physical attributes to consider, too: not only do these books come in various shapes and sizes, but they are also manufactured with more refined covers like leather or carved wood for approximately the same price as the most basic photo books available at a professional photo printing service.

Is this customization heaven?

Customizing the book’s content later on is indeed the best feature of binder scrapbooks, but that doesn’t mean that they should be considered perfect substitutes for their traditional counterparts.

The most noticeable issue is how inconveniently photos are arranged; to fill the photo book, all pictures have to be printed out at a specific size and then manually inserted into each photo pocket. In addition to that, there is little to no room for customization, especially when it comes to embellishments that either have to be added to the pages permanently – such as with stickers – or attached to the photos before printing. And then there is limited use of text, which can only be featured on separate hole punched papers or on cards that have been cut to fit the photo holders.

Simply put, the time it takes to customize a binder photo book to perfection may take longer than creating a regular photo book with an online builder.

Alternatives to binder photo books

While using a binder scrapbook to store and show off your favorite photos is certainly a valid method of doing so, it’s impossible to say that it’s the best way. If you want to guarantee a top-quality photo book that is printed exactly the way you imagined it, then consider turning to a professional service. Of course, the cost of such professionalism does mean that once the book is ordered and delivered there is no way to add new pages to an existing book without damaging it beyond repair. But that’s not entirely the case, though, as there are a few tricks to have the same book with extra pages.

One such method is to simply reorder the photo book with new pages. All photo book printing services save past photo book projects, meaning it’s possible to revisit a project and add new pages to the book without any hassle. Admittedly, the book’s price may end up being more – especially if the total number of pages exceeds the required minimum of 20 – but the cost of additional pages is always insignificant.

The other, albeit unorthodox, method is to think ahead and create the photo book with extra, blank pages. This is ideal for many reasons: not only is there no need to reorder the book and pay for it again, but you can also recreate the feeling of assembling an old photo album and customize the blank pages any way you want without actually damaging the book.