Taking a photograph is more than just capturing a moment because along with it, our emotions too get framed forever. Photos are one of the finest ways to walk down our memory lane, and if they are woven together into a beautiful photo book; the experience of viewing them cannot be expressed in words.
So, we bring to you an ultimate guide to help people transform their photo memories into stories in the form of amazing photo books.
Photo Book/Album: Still A Trend?
You might be wondering, in this digital era, are photo books still a trend? Well, guess what? A photo album was, is, and always will be the best way to relive the special moments of our life.
Despite having too many digital solutions or platforms where we can save photos and go through them anytime, the feeling of a photo book is mysterious. It is truly one-of-a-kind gifts or a way to rejoice and preserve your memories permanently — all through print.
If you are wondering whether it is risky or the right business to step into, then guess what? The online photo printing industry is experiencing a growth spurt. According to a study conducted by Market Research Future, the global photo printing market is expected to reach $26,113 million by 2023.
So you can see the future of the online photo book print business is pretty bright; hence if you are planning to join the bandwagon then all you need is your gut feeling, entrepreneurial spirit, deep market research, and an effective photobook design software.
How To Get Started?
- To set up an online photo album design store, first of all, you need to study the market and research the latest trends, then create a lucrative business model that works for you.
- Next, you must decide your products i.e., what type of photo book are you willing to offer, including the page type, finish, etc.
- After that, pick up your supplier wisely as you don’t want to compromise on the quality of the final product, right?
- One of the most prominent aspects of your business is choosing an e-commerce platform as a lot of things depends on how your platform will perform.
- The fifth and most important step is picking up a photo book designer software as ultimately the online photo design tool is what is going to decide the fate of your business.
- Next and the prominent factor is the printing method. Various types of printing methods are available today hence ensure that your final product delivers the outputs just the way you have imagined.
- Operations & infrastructure – an area that you have to decide how it is going to be. Whether it will be a print-on-demand business, if yes then how you are going to manage logistics, printer, professionals etc.
- Lastly, the crucial one – launch and marketing. Try to stay ahead to beat the completion by marketing your business in every way possible. Make videos, write blogs, start with paid ads marketing, make referral programs, stay active on social media, optimize the website content for SEO and Google rankings etc.
Tips To Create An Eye-catching Photo Book
As too many things matter to take a perfect photograph, designing a photo book too; need a few things to be done right. Take a look.
1. Define your purpose and plan accordingly
A photo book can be of any type. It can be of any occasion or memory, so you need to define your purpose first to design it accordingly. What story are you trying to tell will make up the rest of your photo book.
For example, a photo book of your vacation can be colourful, playful etc., but for your corporate, the same won’t do. From layout, colours, text, everything has to be decent and sober; hence the purpose of the photo book matters the most.
2. Choose your design tool
To personalize or customize a photo book, you need an online design editor using which one can easily design a photo book even if; have no designing experience.
With an online photo album maker, you can easily allow your customers to carry out the entire process from design to ordering and even printing of personalized photo albums. Therefore, by integrating a photobook design software with an easy-to-use and interactive design studio on your online store, you can not only control every aspect of your photo book business from the product catalogue, offering editable templates, managing orders, print-ready output files, managing customers, offers, discounts and much more but also give your customers the freedom to personalize their photobook as they desire.
3. Set the pictures, layout, and design
You have your photo book purpose and design tool ready then, it’s time to start creating your custom photo book, for which you must first organize and choose the right photos and highlight the ones you are going to keep.
Select a layout and design keeping the purpose in mind from the free templates available on the online design editor.
4. Sort, select, and sequence
Remember, “less is more” so sort and select the best shots and avoid redundant, poorly composed or focused images. The next step is sequencing. Arrange your photos in such a way that it tells a story on its own.
5. Correct the size and symmetry
Stuffing as many photos as possible in a photo book is nothing but a huge disaster. Remember photos are the star of a photo book hence no matter what you do, they must serve their purpose. Therefore, place your photos in the right manner to maintain visual harmony. Size them as per their importance and avoid too many frames, backgrounds, fonts or other decorative distractions.
For example, for a series of photos, place them like a film reel, for panorama; use two pages to present them well, and for multiple images; use the grid, etc.
6. Play with colour, tone, & texture
There’s no doubt that the photos will tell their story itself, but then there’s also nothing wrong with adding more life to it. Work on the colour, tone and texture features to make your photo book look more appealing and serve as a visual treat to the viewer.
7. Include white space
Don’t fill every empty space with photos. Leaving some space around or beside a photo is extremely important as it will make the photo book appear even more attractive. Give your photos some room to breathe and witness the magic.
8. Text & type matters
Don’t be in a notion that since it is a photo book, the viewer will be interested only in photos. Texts add more charm to the photos, and hence they must be sized, styled, and placed in a manner that suits the purpose of the photo book.
9. The finale – cover & finishes
A photo book is not just a collection of photos; it is an emotion, an experience; and hence everything from photos, the paper, text, size, design, colour, cover materials matters as they together give the feel of memory associated with it. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to every minute detail from the cover photo to the finish of your photo book.
10. Get them print ready
Once your photos are set from every point of view, format them in acceptable print quality. Save a copy of it for any further edit and get them in a print-ready format.
Wrapping Up
There’s no strict rules and regulations for designing a photo book as it is for a pleasant experience, but when presenting, there’s no harm in making them heart-warming and meaningful either. Hence, if you want to provide your customers with the freedom to design their photobook as they want, you need to have an excellent and effective online design editor that fulfils the above-mentioned purposes.
