How to print a photobook

The invention of smartphones means that most of us have hundreds or even thousands of photos on our mobile devices, but they rarely get printed, and are therefore often forgotten. Photobooks are a brilliant way to bring your pictures to life and treasure them forever.

For personal or professional use, a photobook can tell a story, bring memories to life or showcase your talents, making them well worth the investment.

A photobook is a book in which majority of the content is photographic with limited or no text. Photobooks come in various shapes and sizes and images can be printed in colour or black and white to reflect the intent behind the photobook. A photobook is like a photo album in many ways but for the fact that the images are printed directly onto the page rather than being stuck to it or attached using photo sleeves. This makes the overall look much neater and more professional. Photobooks are also more durable as the images don’t fade or bend, unlike printed photographs which can fade with time and get damaged as a result of being removed from the album by inquisitive hands.

Photobooks make for wonderful gifts as so much thought and effort go into creating them. They are ideal for any occasion but especially wedding anniversaries and Mother’s/Father’s Day. They are also a brilliant marketing tool and show your professionalism, helping you to stand out amongst your competitors.

You could print your very own photobook at home, but this requires a lot of time, patience, equipment, and technical know-how. If you don’t have all these things, you will want to know how to make a photobook online. You can do this with WTTB. We make the process straight forward and enjoyable and give end results you will love.

First choose your book type. We have a great range from saddle-stitched to hardback, but the most popular choice for photobook printing is lay flat. When printed on a lay flat book, your images flow across the full spread of the page without a break in the imagery, making them impactful and bold.

Lay flat books are ideal for personal photo albums but make a great marketing tool for creatives, designers, photographers, and property developers as you can show off your impressive portfolio of work seamlessly and in bright, bold print.

Once you know the type of photobook and the binding you want, choose the images you want to include. If you are showcasing your photography work, you will want to show the full range of your talents, so don’t only include one type of event (wedding photography, for example), make sure you include the range of services you offer so your photobook appeals to a variety of potential customers. Try also to mix up between black & white and full colour so your photobook has some character and depth.

If you want to make a photobook online for personal use, it’s important to remember that the images need to be good quality. In this day and age, photographs taken on smartphones are absolutely fine and print perfectly clearly, but if you have taken screen shots of pictures or zoomed into an original image and cropped it, this can result in pixelated images. But don’t worry too much, most software will quality check your images and highlight any that might not print perfectly for you.

Large, centrefold images really do jump off the page and capture the imagination. Bright and bold pictures full of colour and excitement tell a beautiful story and make people smile, but large full spread photobooks aren’t the only design type. Mix up your photobook with photo collages that guide the viewer through a story and keep the design fresh and interesting with each turn of a page.

Play with colour and different hues and edit the photographs you intend to include to get the best version of the image.

You can also mix up the mood to reflect reality. Life isn’t all skipping through the meadow and smelling the flowers, there can be beauty in sadness and stillness, joy in mess and chaos. These are the moments that are real, so don’t be afraid to choose honest pictures that capture all aspects of life, this will bring a wonderful human element to your photobook and evoke a range of emotions in the viewer.

We hope this article helps you print a photobook that you will cherish for years to come. Whether you are printing a wedding photobook or want to create a photobook for the family to look back on for generations, they are a wonderful keepsake for both personal and professional use. There are many templates available online but if you want something bespoke, we are here to help, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with our experts.

And remember, if a picture tells a thousand words, a photobook tells the whole wonderful story.