You don’t need a graphic design degree to create the perfect photo book – with bonusprint’s pre-designed books you can get a professional finish without the fuss. There are 211 themes to choose from, including baby books and wedding books, so they’re ideal for those big milestone events. They make great gifts too, with super-cute celebration books for the kids, to cookbooks, and travel books.
All our templates are easy to customise – simply drag and drop your favourite snaps and add your own text. Plus, because all the design work’s done for you, it’ll look like you’ve made a huge effort to create that extra-special gift, when really, you’ve had your feet up in front of the TV. Follow this simple guide to get started and to get the most out of our pre-designed books.
Step 1. Pick your creative photo book design and size
Head to our pre-designed photo books page. Here, you can choose from our most popular designs or browse by theme, including yearbook, wedding, baby, and travel. Click the design you want to customise, then select the size. Most of our pre-designed books start from medium and go up to extra-large. Here’s a list of our pre-designed photo book dimensions to help you find the right size for you.
• Medium 20 x 15 cm
• Large 28 x 21 cm
• Extra-large 39 x 29 cm
• Medium 14 x 14 cm
• Large 21 x 21 cm
• Extra-large 30 x 30 cm
When you’ve selected the size and style of your book, click ‘Create now’ to go to our editor.
Step 2. Sort your photos in order and by theme
To make it easier to create your photo book, make sure your photos are in order before you start customising. If you’re creating a yearbook, tidy your image files and make sure they’re in chronological order. When you’re making a wedding album or a baby book, group all the photos you need by theme. We’ve got some tips to help you upload, scan, and sort through your photos if they’re a bit all over the place.
Step 3. Upload your photos
When your images are all tidy and you’re ready to get started on your photo book, head back to our editor then click ‘upload photos’. Click the file you need, highlight all the images you want to use, and then click ‘open’.
When you’ve uploaded your photos, you’ll see them down the left of your book, next to our editing tools. Because our pre-designed photo books come with suggested image layouts, all you need to do is to drag the image you want and drop it into one of the empty picture boxes. It’ll resize the image to fit the box automatically, but you can resize it manually by clicking on the photo if you want to.
Step 4. Edit your backgrounds
If you’re using the pre-designed photo books as a guide and want to put your own stamp on it, you can still edit backgrounds, just like with our blank photo books. You can add a colour or find a pattern to match the style of your pre-designed book.
Step 5. Customise your photo book with captions
Our pre-designed layouts also suggest the best places for text on each page, so you can add any captions you like. Just click anywhere that says ‘text’ or ‘enter your text’ and start typing. If you don’t like the position of a text box, you can delete it or move it around.
Step 6. Get creative with clip art, masks and frames
There are loads of creative photo book extras you can play around with to put a personal twist on your album. You can add clip art, masks, and frames. And if you’re creating a themed book, like a baby book or a yearbook, you can sort through the designs by category to find a style to match.
Step 7. Add extra pages to your photo book
Can’t fit any more photos into your pre-designed book? You can add as many extra pages as you like. Click the little plus signs in the horizontal bar underneath your photo book design to add pages where you want. Just keep in mind that the extra pages you add are blank. But you can recreate a similar look on those extra pages by picking clip art, backgrounds and frames to match your theme.
Step 8. Remove any pages you don’t need
If you’ve added too many extra pages, it’s easy to delete the ones you don’t need. Click on the page you don’t want in the horizontal bar under your design. You’ll then see a little rubbish bin icon in the corner. Click the little icon, and it’ll delete that page.
Step 9. Ready to order your pre-designed photo book?
Happy with your photo book design? Click ‘add to basket’. Here you can add all the finishing touches, like glossy pages to make the colours pop in your images or a cover option if you’ve chosen a linen or faux-leather bound book. You can even order a second book in a smaller size, so you can gift one and keep one for yourself. Then you’re ready to place your order, and get your customised photo book delivered to your door.
Top tip: save as you go
Remember to keep saving your photo book as you go. There’s a little ‘save’ icon in the top left, so make sure you click that regularly while you personalise your photo book.
For a professionally designed finish without the fuss, give our pre-designed photo books a try. If you do want to create your book from scratch with full creative freedom, then Create yourself is the way to go, so you can decide every little detail yourself. And for those projects where you’ve got too many photos and not enough time to sort through them for your photo book, Smart Assistant has got you covered.
To find out more about our editor options and to pick the perfect route for your next project, read Discover 3 easy ways to create a photo book.