Snapfish makes photo books a snap!

On one of Oprah's shows she was giving away a free photo book on Snapfish.com.  The custom cover book usually cost $29.99 plus shipping and tax, for a total cost of about $39.99. The book has 20 pages, but you can add additional pages for $2 each.

I decided to do two books for my grandson for Christmas, a memory book of his first trip to Disney World and pictures I had taken of him in 2008.  I easily uploaded my pictures from my computer to the Snapfish website and proceeded to make my book.  There are 9 different types of books, from a 2"x3" mini book to 12"x12".  The book I made was the 8"x11" custom cover photo book. 

The first thing I had to choose was the theme for the book and the look of the cover.  After I completed this step I was taken to the page that will let you choose the pictures that will be used in the book from ones that I uploaded.  The next step took me to a picture of the book where I could see exactly how each picture and page theme would look.  I was really impressed with this feature.  When you click on the next page, it even turns the page like a real book.  When I received the book, I was amazed at how it looked exactly how it did on the website! 

I was able to easily click on the edit tabs at the bottom of the page to change the way the pages looked.  I was able to put anywhere from one to nine pictures on a page with or without text.  There is also an option for a text only page.  I would have liked to see more theme options, but they are an adequate amount to make a nice variety of pages.

When I added some pictures to the book, it gave me a warning on top of the photo that it had low resolution and may not print clear.  I had two pictures that I decided to use even though it was giving me this error and they still came out perfect in the actual book.  I took the chance that they would come out OK, but you may want to head the warning, to avoid being disappointed.  When I was done with the book, I previewed it in the preview window and saved it.  I was then able to go to the shopping cart and make my purchase.

I did have a slight problem with a couple of pages that had a plan white background instead of the decorative one I had picked.  I had noticed that when I was previewing the book it did show the white pages, but when I went back to edit, it showed the decorative pages, so I thought it was OK.  I believe it was just a glitch in the program at the time, because I did two other books without that problem.  But a warning that if you do see something not right in the preview, I would try to correct it before ordering the book. 

The books are very nice quality, printed on acid-free paper. I would highly recommend these books for a memorable keepsake.