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On the surface of it, you’d be forgiven for not really understanding the difference between ‘photo books’ and ‘photo albums’. Those two terms have exactly the same meaning, and hearing one might conjure a false image of the other. They’re also pretty similar concepts: both are used to store photos and memories, both look quite similar on the shelf and both make great gifts for friends and family. How could there really be that many differences?
But when it comes to your time, money and overall satisfaction with the end product, there’s bound to be a format that best suits you. Where photo albums typically feature one-sided sheets of sticky paper to apply your own printed images, photo books are custom-designed to your preferences, printed with the images in a much wider variety of options. But which is best? Well, that’s not such a simple question to answer: it all comes down to preferences, but there certainly are some things to take into consideration.
Without a doubt the biggest difference between photo albums and photo books is the printing technique. The photos in an album are always printed on 100% genuine photographic papers, which are then mounted to sturdy photo boards to allow the album to have layflat binding. Pictures in photo books, on the other hand, are digitally printed onto brochure-like, glossy or matte double-sided papers and are glued together like a regular book or magazine.
However, as of late, photo book companies have started offering layflat bindings for photo books as well, allowing customers with a limited budget to get a product that is really quite similar to an actual album.
These are the attributes in which photo books and albums are almost 100% alike. They both come in various sizes, orientations, and can range from simple hard covers to more interesting materials like leather, linen and, in very rare cases, metal. The only difference is that albums never have soft photo covers as the layflat binding technique demands a sturdier cover type.
Thanks to the special printing of photos, the binding technique and the sturdier covers, albums are destined to last for much longer, keeping your most precious memories in perfect conditions. This, alongside the feeling that you are holding something special, is one of the reasons why the most important moments of someone’s life usually end up in a photo album rather than a photo book, which is printed and assembled in the most cost effective way. This means the latter is more likely to fall apart and it is possible that your photos won’t look the same after a while.
And now here is where photo books win by a mile. Photo albums commemorating significant life events are intended to last for generations, and so creating them takes lot of time and money. Not to mention the fact that reproducing albums is basically out of question due to the high costs and the fear of losing the special feeling we touched upon previously. These concerns do not apply to photo books: the cheaper printing technique is the main reason why photo books can be purchased at a significantly lower price than photo albums, and why more copies of them can be ordered at the same time.
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