It’s been years since I’ve put together a photo book – thousands of photos of the kids and ourselves, a few sets of prints here and there – but nothing as beautiful as a Blurb photo book
I guess the biggest hurdle was the “inevitable” learning curve when it comes to any kind of layout/creative software. I’ve used other photo book software years ago, and it was just so tedious and clunky to use. I didn’t feel like it was helping me create the best photo book ever — but this is where Blurb has me converted.
The BookSmart software is a free download from the Blurb website – and is perfect for photo books that will have some text. There are other options such as Bookify Online ad PDF to Book, but I found BookSmart more than enough for me.
BookSmart was really user friendly – buttons to add/remove pages, buttons to add images to your ‘My Photos’ list. the photos even have a little indicator (a green tick) to let you know you’ve already used it (so handy). there’s even pre-made page layouts for text and photos so it’s easy to create professional layouts, even if you’re a novice.
The photobook I made was a mini tribute to my baby girl Jovie – it’s her birthday in a couple of months and I really thought it would take me a month to create the photo book and a month for it to be printed and sent to me. But you know what? BookSmart made it so easy to finish off the book layout (I think it took me 3 days?) and Blurb printed and had it sent out to me in under a week. How good is that?
Receiving the finished product in the mail was overwhelming – the photographs of Jovie are beautiful (of course!) but the book itself is well made also. I’m already planning on creating another photobook via Blurb for Jasper, and then another one with my mum that features her recipes and my photos. And then maybe another one for Jovie again..
You’re not limited to creating strictly a photobook – it can be a kids story book, a book of your blog entries, a photobook & storybook of your wedding – you’re only limited by your imagination. There’s also an option to sell your book online via Blurb – self publishing has never been easier!
If you haven’t printed a photobook before, or haven’t created one in ages – I recommend Blurb! Check out their website and get started today.
