What Are The Differences Between A Photo Book And A Photo Album?

Making a precious keepsake begins with choosing the right format. Below you’ll find a helpful guide to help you decide whether a photo book or an album is best for you.

This guide will help you make the right choice between a Photo Album and a Photo Book, whether you’re a newlywed planning your wedding or a photographer explaining your product lines to a client.

Soft cover photobooks and hardcover lay-flat albums are among the options for preserving memories today. There are differences between these options. Let’s have a general look at the differences between photobooks and photo albums.

A Photobook Is A Collection Of Photos.

The new sleek design and “trendiness” factor of photo books has made them a dominant force in the photo solutions market. It’s a printed, bound book that incorporates photos and, most times, text, similar to a children’s picture book. With the ability to customize a Fotolibro online, users can add special photo effects, custom text and other aesthetically pleasing features, something they couldn’t do with traditional photo albums.

  • Softcover – paper cover, regular paper pages and stapled binding.
  • Photographic cover – usually a photo cover with pages printed on regular paper, bound with perfect binding (a type of glue) or stitched together
  • Leatherette cover— a synthetic material, with paper pages glued together or sewn together

If you’re a photographer, binding a photo book means taking all the pages together – or grouping them together – and placing the book block within a pre-made cover. It’s necessary to wrap 14% of the cover around this book block to hold it to the cover, thus forming a tunnel for it to sit in. This “tunnel” keeps the pages from folding completely when glued or sewn together. In other words, if you open a book and leave it on the table, it will not stay open, and its pages will not lay flat. Flat lay paper, however, which is more expensive and more difficult to print on, comes with a small “plastic” hinge that enables the paper to lay flat.

When it comes to creating panoramic pictures, placing pictures across pages, or extending a background across two pages (laying flat), lay flat paper is most challenging. There are very few companies that offer this feature, which is a beautiful and important addition to a professional wedding book.

What to choose for your memories: wedding album or wedding book?

Photo Books vs. Photo Albums: A Comparison

Type of Paper

The type of paper used in albums and books is clearly one of the biggest differences. Kodak Endura Professional Lustre photo paper is used to print Photo Album photos, just like a traditional photo. It has a slight sheen and a UV coating to protect it. Lustre paper is the industry standard for photo printing.

Photo Galleries

Photographic paper is used for printing photos for Photo Albums. On the other hand, digital presses print photos on regular double-sided paper with a glossy or matte finish for photo books. An album comes with a limited number of pages and thicker, more durable pages.

Digital imaging or traditional photo developing processes are both used to print pictures for photo albums onto special photographic paper. After the pictures are printed, they are mounted manually onto sturdy photo boards. As a result, pages will lay flat and deliver images and designs that are completely panoramic in nature. Through this process, the pages become thicker, more durable, and more resistant to wear and tear. As a result, your pictures will also have real-life colour vibrancy.