Self-Publish with Snapfish Photo Books

It's that time of year again when you can hardly bite into a gingerbread cookie without someone snapping a photo. But for me at least, all that digital cameras have done is let me bury my gallery in computer files rather than burying my developed film in boxes in the closet. It's just hard to figure out a way to tastefully preserve and display the pictures. Photo books, real hardcover versions created online with digital gallery, may be one way. I decided to "field test" Snapfish's photo book offerings. See how mine turned out after the jump!

BEFORE


I logged on, indicated that I wanted to create a photo book and I was off! After debating the merits of the 4" x 6" flipbook (a flipbook! how fun!) and the 12" x 12" signature photo book with a velvet cover (a velvet cover!), I decided to try out the classic 8" x 8" version. For a 20-page book, this size starts at $26.99 (if you're not in a hurry, wait for one of Snapfish's frequent promotions--a deal with Rachael Ray means 20% off all photo books through Dec. 24. Enter code RRBOOKS20 at checkout). After choosing a background color scheme, I was taken directly to my book editing page. Helpful tips appeared in pop-up bubbles to help me make my choices. And boy are there choices.

You can choose the background color or pattern, the size and orientation of the gallery, whether or not to include text, the text font and size, and the length of the book. The sheer variety of the options got my mind racing. The possibilities really are endless. A yearbook-style family album? No problem. A cookbook full of classic family recipes? Coming right up! I grabbed a couple dozen gallery from my wedding, used the easy upload feature and got to work.



Unfortunately, the downside of having all those options is the potential to overly complicate things. Even for a person who considers herself patient and web-savvy, I was overwhelmed. It would be easy to spend an entire day designing a 20-page book. On the flip side, after you upload your gallery, the program gives you the option to "autofill" your book; with the click of your mouse, Snapfish will automatically place your gallery in the book. If decorative flourishes and chronological order aren't that important to you, you might want to think about this. (Luckily, there's also an undo button.)

Another snag I hit had to do with the sizing of my gallery. They were large files but Snapfish still kept warning me about the potential for them to print blurry due to low resolution. In the end, I ignored Snapfish's warning and my book arrived with a blurry cover. Whoops. So be sure you're working from original images at the largest dimensions possible and heed any warnings that pop up on the screen.

My book arrived days later and, apart from the blurriness, I couldn't be more pleased. Take a peek inside!