A baby is born, someone gets married, you have a family reunion or go on a trip, and lots of photos are taken. Rather than leave them stored away on your computer bring them out for everyone to see with a fancy printed photobook!
This article is about a website called picaboo.com that allows you to create a professional looking photobook, or scrapbook, using your photos. The website helps you arrange your photos into pages, and provides fancy drawings, phrases and pictures to add to your photobook for the ultimate memory.
Go to www.picaboo.com and click the “Start your photo book” button. Click the style of photo book you would like to create, and then click the “Make a photo book” button. Next select one of the blank layouts or predefined themes, such as Travel, or Wedding. Click on the selected theme and the photobook editor will open.
The editor can take several seconds to open, but when you see the “Let’s find some photos” screen, click the “My Computer” button, select the photos you would like to use and click the “Open” button to bring them into Picaboo. Once the website finishes loading the previews of your photos, click the “Add to book” button.
Picaboo can automatically fill the photobook with the photos you have uploaded in the order they were taken. If you want to use this function, to save yourself some time, click the “Yes” button on the autofill pop up. Otherwise, click “No”. In this article, we chose the manual option.
An added photo may be larger than the area available in the layout so that part of the photo will not be visible. If an important part has been cut off, click on the hand icon in the centre of the photo and drag it into a new position. If you move something by mistake, use the “Undo” button to return it.
If your page has a placeholder for text, select it and enter some text of your own. To add text to a page without a placeholder, click the “Add Text” button and use the controls on the text menu to set the format. You can change the font type, size, and colour, as well as add a semi-transparent background to the textbox.
Use the grey arrow buttons below the book to move between pages. Each page has a different layout for your photos. You can change the layout of a page by clicking the “Layout” button and choosing a new layout. Use the “Photos per layout” filter at the top of the panel to filter out layouts for a specific number of photos.
Give your book some character by adding images and phrases from the Sticker menu. Click the Sticker button, select a category from the drop down list, or type a word to search for a specific item. Select a sticker and then click the “Apply Sticker” button. To change the size, click on the square box on one of the corners, and drag it in or out.
To save your photobook, click the “Sign up/Sign In” button and register a new account. High resolution copies of your photos will upload, and a message will appear in the top left hand corner confirming your work has been saved. There is no need to finish your entire photobook all at once. You can log back into the Picaboo website at another time and click on “My Projects” and then click the photobook and select “Edit”.
Once your photo book is finished, you can order a printed copy of it. With the editor window open, click on the “Add to Cart” button in the top right hand corner and you will be prompted to select the size you want it, also kind of binding and cover. Once this is done, click the “Add to cart” button and then the “Go to checkout” button to complete your order. Extra Tip!: Picaboo sometimes have promo codes available. Go to www.retailmenot.com and enter “picaboo.com” in their search box to find promo codes that you can enter at the checkout to get a discount off your order!
