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Momento Photo Books   Reviews

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Reviews 4.5.

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We were delighted with the Memory book…

We were delighted with the Memory book that arrived in time for my Mum's 96th Birthday. The quality was superb and the photos will bring her much pleasure. This is the first book I have made. Jackie's help and guidance were amazing and this has given me the confidence to make more books for the family.

Date of experience : 22 April 2024

Holiday 2023

This is our 3rd book experience and Jackie has always made it easier with her helpful suggestions and artistic flair..we do appreciate her help. It is a high quality product.

Date of experience : 25 April 2024

Fantastic experience.

Fantastic experience. We have recently compiled a photo record spanning 50 years to celebrate our son's birthday. Today the completed album from Momento arrived in the post and we are absolutely delighted with the end result. It is not just the completed album that has inthralled us but the journey getting there in reliving forgotten memories. Many thanks to Jackie from Momento. Nigel and Liz Wilson . Devonport Auckland

Date of experience : 18 July 2023

Reply from Momento Photo Books

THANK YOU Nigel and Liz for the lovely review. How lucky your son is that you created such a priceless gift. I'm sure he'll love it. If you/he are keen we'd LOVE you to email a photo of him with his book + a few words of what it means to him, to [email protected] for us to share on social and our Reviews page (https://www.momento.com.au/reviews). Enjoy the celebration and may he enjoy the book many, many times. Libby ( Co-founder + Marketing Manager)

Love Momento

I have been using Momento for a few years now and have created over 30 books. I love the quality of the product; the pages are good quality and the colour of the photos great. Creating the books is easy, lots of layout ideas, frames and embellishments etc, its easy to use. My only issue is it can shut down without warning and doesn't always save the work, however I will continue to use Momento as I cannot find another company that produces the same output - and that's what counts. It's worth paying a little bit more for a great product.

Date of experience : 27 May 2023

Thanks Annie. Glad you like your books, and congrats, 30 is quite a haul 👏 Pls contact Jackie about the software issue. Sounds lik we can fix it. Have you installed the latest software? Send reply to [email protected].

Fantastic product. Fantastic support.

I have been using Momento books for 15-20 years. I love the software, the ease of use, the quality of the books and the fabulous service. Nothing is ever too much for the Momento Team. I have just submitted another 6 books for printing and needed to get them done within two weeks. The process as always was as smooth and streamlined as possible. I cannot recommend the product and the team (in NZ and in Australia) highly enough.

Date of experience : 05 July 2023

Christina! 6 books in 2 weeks is phenomenal! I hope you enjoyed it and your eyes didn't get too dry in front of the computer :) We so appreciate our long-term loyal community members too. Enjoy all your books often, and if you feel inspired, we'd love a photo of you with your photo book collection to share (landscape orientation is best if possible) THANKS again

Now have 70 photobooks

Now have 70 photobooks! Tried other products, but this meets my needs in terms of flexibility and finish. Most important to me is the longevity of the company. I dipped my toe in back in 2009 and am still able to produce a quality photobook that matches every other one I have produced. Thank you.

Date of experience : 05 May 2023

Wow! 70 photo books is very impressive! Good on you. So glad you're happy with your collection. Enjoy the books often :)

The absolute best service! 10/10 recommend!

The absolute best service!! Obsessed with the book, I got a ‘letters to the bride’ book made in a rush and I honestly couldn’t rate the service I received high enough especially with Jackie, she was amazing!! and the quality of the book was just WOW!! 10/10 would recommend :)

Date of experience : 11 October 2023

Hey Anna - sounds like you're happy with the book and your Momento experience :) THANK YOU, that makes us very happy. And YES, you can't get higher level customer service than Jackie. We're very lucky to have her.

I have now made 4 Momento Photo books…

I have now made 4 Momento Photo books to preserve for my children 60 years of pictorial memories and am now more relaxed that the many hard copy photo albums made over time may not survive! Once mastered the program provides for the setting up of attractive pages from your selected images and if needed there is plenty of support offered by Jackie Harris the Momento Customer Support Officer. While the books are not cheap the finished article is of a very high standard and a pleasure to revisit again and again. I would recommend Momento to anyone one wishing to preserve memories in a very attractive way or to create a special interest book of your choice.

Date of experience : 04 May 2023

Thank you Charles! We share the same concern as you, that photos not printed may not survive for future viewing, so CONGRATULATIONS on your achievement. Your children and future descendants are very lucky you've taken the time to produce these books. And yes, Jackie is superb and very generous with her time and support. We're lucky to have her. Enjoy your books often :)

I have been using Momento NZ for over 13 years and have always found their finished products to be of the highest quality. The customer support provided by Jackie Harris is wonderful, a friendly voice on the end of the phone who always offers support and suggestions. The software is easy to follow and the range of finishing options is exceptional, something for every type of album presentation. I would totally recommend Momento as a professional company to deal with, always producing a high end product.

Date of experience : 20 May 2023

Momento wins for quality and support

Momento is top of the list for two main reasons. The first is the outstanding customer service. I have called for assistance and advice on a few occasions over the years and every single time the advice is accurate, effective and delivered with warmth and interest. This personal connection is extremely rare in the business world today. There is a real, live, superbly knowledgeable person at the end of the phone! Wow! For me this means I can tackle a new project with confidence, knowing that any time I will be able to get help. The second is the quality of the work. My Momento books take pride of place in our house as the quality of both the images and the book-making are exceptional. And, going back to the customer service, if there is ever an error (very rare indeed!) that error is remedied immediately. New Zealand does have other good photo book companies but Momento leads the field and I have no hesitation in recommending their services to anyone who values quality and service.

John, thank you and sorry for the tardy reply! Your review is equally appreciated for its "warmth" and it's so lovely to hear that your photo books have "pride of place in your home". May you and your family enjoy them often.

Love Momento books…

I must have done over 20 Momento books now and love them. They are perfect for travel, weddings and family. They are high quality and the software easy to use. It is easy to do a book over a period of time ie pick it up and put it down as time permits. The support team are fantastic and delivered promptly. I would highly recommend and will use time and time again in the future.

Date of experience : 13 April 2023

Thanks so much Sarah - your review is appreciated :) Enjoy your books!

A quality company

Having used this company over many years I have found their services always prompt and helpful. The software is easy to use and their end product is of the highest quality.

Date of experience : 08 May 2023

Much appreciated Don. Enjoy your books again and again.

Quality service and product

Momento Pro provides the most amazing customer service. So impressed with the quality paper, printing, binding, and embossing - and there are multiple choices, but from many discussions and Jackie's trusty knowledge and recommendations after listening and knowing what I wanted in my end product, it was clear which winning combo to choose to create the perfect print folio.

Date of experience : 08 June 2023

Thanks for the kind words Virginia ;) we’re lucky to have Jackie care so much about everyone receiving the best book possible. I’ll pass this on to her too. Enjoy your book many times :)

Magnificent Momento Photo Books

In my opinion, these are the best photo books on the market. The quality of the paper, the covers, the clarity of the prints is fantastic. But better than the outcome is the process of putting the book together - it is so much fun publishing a finished work with my pictures. Whether its a simple calendar, a photo book of the latest trip or family wedding or the more complex recipe books of old family favourites, this system caters for the lot. From simple to complex - you choose. Better still, because the system is so flexible, you can be as artistic as you want. I created the Empire State building out of the words NEWYORK - it took sometime to work out how to do it - but the final result was stunning. And if you can't be bothered being creative, don't worry, Momento can do it for you. It has so many very cool options to choose from plus easy to follow tutorials on how to use the system. The cost is slightly more than other versions - but the quality is far superior. Some tips. 1) choose only the best photos from your phone - not all of them. 2) Start with a small project - like a calendar of pics from one event. 3) Don't worry if it's not perfect - sometimes good enough is just that - good enough. 4) Make sure you finish the project. 5) make sure people see your finished product. Its such a cool thing to 'unlock' those special moments from your phone and share them with others. Momento photo books are the perfect way to do that.

Date of experience : 11 May 2023

Hi John We’ve just given your five star review five stars! We also think you should join our marketing team for your outline of top tips to design a Photobook and for identifying all the things we care about and aim for. Thank you and may you continue to enjoy creating your photo books again and again. Libby (Marketing manager)

I'm very impressed with the quality and…

I'm very impressed with the quality and care I received making a book through Momento Pro.

Date of experience : 23 May 2023

Thanks for your review Oliver. Enjoy your book :)

The best photo books in 2024: Mixbook, Shutterfly, Printique, Snapfish and more tested

What service should you use to make the best photo books and photo albums? We reviewed and compared five of the most popular services to find out

The quick list

Best overall, best image quality, other services we tested, how we test photo book services, when is the best time to buy a photo book.

• How to choose

1. Best overall 2. Best image quality 3. Best value 4. Other services we tested 5. How we test 6. Photo book test scores 7. The best time to buy a photo book 8. How to choose

Whatever the occasion, a personalized photo book always makes a great gift. But where do you begin if you want to turn your photos of a summer trip to Spain or a surprise birthday weekend in the mountains into a beautiful present?

We’ve been testing the best photo book services for more than five years by doing what you would do: creating a photo book. In the process, we looked at which service was the easiest to use, which offered the most options for things like clip art and binding, which had the best image quality, and which offered the best value. 

This year, we tested Mixbook, Printique, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Vistaprint. We've also included shipping information where available, as photo books take time to make — and will cost more the longer you wait to order. 

And be sure to check out our picks for the best photo calendars , and best photo cards , and discover 9 tips to make the best holiday cards .

Great features, excellent image quality, the easiest-to-use software, and even online chat support make this our top pick overall.

Read more below .

If image quality is your number-one criteria when choosing the best photo book service, go with Printique, which also has powerful design software.

Read more below.  

While not the flashiest of services, Vistaprint had good-enough quality and affordable prices to make this a solid value pick among photo books.

Read more below.

The best photo book services

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.

Our expert review:

Specifications

Reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

Mixbook was the best service overall for making photo books of the five we tested. Its combination of ease of use, top-notch image quality and good value should make it appealing to a broad range of users. Newbies will love Mixbook’s fun and easy-to-use software while more advanced users will appreciate the wide range of customization options to help you get creative. And the image quality of our 20-page, hardcover book came in a close second to Printique.

If you’re intimidated about designing a photo book, Mixbook takes out the stress with clear and fun-to-use software that helps make the process a breeze. At the same time, there are hundreds upon hundreds of ways to customize your book, including 644 design templates alone, if you want to take a deeper dive. Mixbook had among the best-looking and most user-friendly project editing software of the services we reviewed, matched only by Snapfish . The interface offers a myriad of options but isn’t cluttered and optimizes the space by providing a roomy preview of your project.

In terms of image quality, our finished book from Mixbook tied Printique for the best cover while coming in second place for its interior pages. For the photo books we created during testing, we used an image of a waterfall we shot at Yellowstone National Park. The photo was captured at sunset and Mixbook did a great job of reproducing detail in both the brighter light at the top of the waterfall and the shadow areas in the valley below. On the inside pages, Mixbook's default Everyday Semi-Gloss finish produced solid, pleasing contrast. Both light and dark skintones in our portraits were rendered true-to-life.

Other things we liked about Mixbook are its well-designed mobile app that lets you manage your projects on the site or create products from the photos on your phone. And finally, Mixbook’s handy 24/7 chat support is built right into the design interface, so it’s always available if you get stuck while making a book.

If you order a photo book from Mixbook, be sure to check out its shipping information and deadlines .

Read our full Mixbook review . 

2. Printique

If image quality is your main concern for photo books, Printique is the service for you. While some competing companies have caught up in other ways, Printique still makes the best-looking books around. Their overall stature, however, has slipped a bit, dropping them to second place behind Mixbook after being ranked first for books in years past. What’s changed? Printique’s software feels dated now and is a challenge to use, which could turn off less experienced users. Printique’s photo books are also significantly more expensive than the competition.

For serious photographers (including pros), though, the trade-offs may be worth it. The most distinctive thing about Printique’s books are their very thick, rigid pages, which are similar to what you’d find in a professional wedding photo album. Similarly, even the entry-level books come with a layflat binding that prevents a furrow in the seam between pages, making this design perfect for images that span spreads. The pages display really well with excellent color, skin tone, contrast and sharpness/detail. We also liked the results of a few black-and-white photos we included in our book, which looked dramatic without losing detail.

While Printique’s software offers the most control of the services we tested, we feel it’s better suited to the advanced user than newbies. Seasoned designers will appreciate the variety of rulers, gridlines, submenus, and toolbars offered in Printique’s feature-rich interface, but beginners might be intimidated. 

Another barrier for entry is price. Printique doesn’t really have an “entry-level” book that’s comparable to the other services since it only offers the premium layflat binding option with lavish, thick pages, which cost more. This level of quality doesn’t come cheap.

When ordering a photo book, be sure to check out Printique's shipping information and deadlines , so you know how long to expect before it arrives.

Read our full Printique review .

3. Vistaprint

If you think Vistaprint is only adept at making business cards and other marketing materials, think again. The company has expanded in recent years to include a wide range of personal print-on-demand services including photo books. While it’s difficult to find the book-making option on Vistaprint’s vast website, once you do, we think you’ll be pleased with the process and the results, as we were. Plus, the prices can’t be beat, making it the best value of all the services for books.

For testing purposes, we made hardcover books with all the services in approximately the 11 x 8.5-inch, landscape format since we felt that size would appeal to most users. At $30, Vistaprint’s book was the cheapest of the five companies; $5 less than Shutterfly, which was the second cheapest, and a whopping $45 less than Printique, which was the most expensive. As an added bonus, Vistaprint’s entry-level books come standard at 24 pages, while all the competition’s books start at 20 pages.

Given the affordable price, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of our photo books from Vistaprint. Our wraparound matte cover shot of a waterfall had rich detail even in the highlight and shadow areas, showing good dynamic range. The white endpapers for the front and rear inside covers have a classy look and feel as does the well stitched binding. The image quality of the interior pages was inconsistent though, with some of our landscape and cityscape images looking vibrant and crisp, while portraits were flat and overexposed at times.

Vistaprint’s software isn’t snazzy, but it gets the job done. It may look basic and a bit dated but unlike Printique’s complicated and outmoded interface, Vistaprint’s rudimentary software provides a relatively stress-free experience for making photo books. Just don’t expect anything fancy or a vast assortment of editing tools and you won’t be disappointed.  

Read our full Vistaprint review .

4. Shutterfly

Shutterfly is an easy to use and reliable service that does a lot of things right. In particular, the paper quality was great overall, and it did a decent job with its photo printing. Mixbook remains the best photo book service overall for its higher quality and better software, but if you want a relatively stress-free experience in creating solid if not spectacular books from a seasoned brand, Shutterfly is the one for you. 

We thought Shutterfly’s software offered a good compromise between providing full control over a project and not overloading you with too much information. If you get stuck while making a product, just click the question mark icon in the lower left to bring up the help overlay. The only downside is we found the software somewhat slow to use; in particular, there was a noticeable lag of a few seconds before images displayed in a layout.

Despite its robust and intuitive software, the resulting photo books were a mixed bag. While the page quality was the best of all the photo books we reviewed, the color was just ok, with some pale skin tones in portraits getting washed out while darker skin appeared oversaturated with a loss of detail.

The default glossy hardcover was quite eye-catching though, and the color of our waterfall shot looked natural with ample detail. But the shiny cover surface is prone to glare. Inside, the pages have a good weight and the smooth matte finish produced minimal reflection. Some brighter images, however, appeared slightly washed out in print. We also weren’t so keen on the binding, which felt flimsy, and cut off the edges of the images in the center crease. So, while Shutterfly did a good job overall, there are enough misses to fall short of the top tier of Printique and Mixbook.

Before ordering, be sure to check out Shutterfly's shipping guidelines .

Read our full Shutterfly review .

5. Snapfish

With how easy and user-friendly Snapfish’s software was to use, we really wanted to like this service more than we did. The process of creating photo books, calendars, and cards with Snapfish was so pleasant, we expected the finished products to be equally satisfying. Unfortunately, its photo book came in last among the services we tested.

The bright glossy hardcover of our book didn’t look bad from a distance, but when inspected closer it lacked detail in the flowing waterfall shot. Not awful but not great either. The print quality of the inside pages is where Snapfish really stumbles. The floppy pages in our standard 8 x 11-inch book were the thinnest of all we created from the various companies. On the other hand, while the stitched perfect binding of the book looked cheap, the crease between pages cut off only a small portion of the images. Comparatively, most of the other books in our testing obscured noticeable portions of photos in the binding.     

We wish all of the photo printing brands would emulate Snapfish’s snazzy software. It’s not only simple to use and logically laid out, it turns the process of creating a photo book into a pleasure rather than like pulling teeth. When creating a book, you can scroll through an authentic looking visual representation of the entire book to see all of the pages more easily. Snapfish’s book builder also had the fastest load times of the various companies we tested, with virtually no lag when dragging and dropping images or scrolling through layouts. 

In the end, Snapfish is something of a conundrum. While we would recommend it for anyone who might be intimidated by the process of creating products, those with more discerning image quality taste for books should look elsewhere.

Read our full Snapfish review .

For testing purposes, we created similar custom-designed books from the five services in our evaluation, Mixbook, Printique, Shutterfly, Snapfish and Vistaprint, which we deemed to be the top companies on the market. We made 20 to 24-page hardcover books with all the services in approximately the 11 x 8.5-inch, landscape format since we felt that size would appeal to most users. The only major difference in the five books was the one created with Printique, which only offers a premium layflat binding and professional-quality, thick pages, even as an entry-level option. 

While creating our books, we picked layouts and designs that were similar across the five services as well. For photos, I used my own portraits, landscapes, and cityscapes, which were shot in both studio and natural light. For portraits, the subjects encompassed a variety of skin tones. The three main factors the services were judged on were software, image quality, and value. For the book-making software, we considered both the levels of customization offered and the ease-of-use. 

For image quality, we compared photos across the selection of books, as well as against the original digital images displayed on a MacBook Air retina display. Criteria for judging included cover quality, paper quality, color, skin tones, contrast, and sharpness/detail. For value, we took into account both the price of the photo books and the level of quality of the finished product. So, for instance, a good quality book that cost a low price would get a higher value score than a poor quality book at a similar price. The same value scale was used for more expensive books in our testing.

This year, we evaluated Mixbook, Shutterfly, Printique, Vistaprint, and Snapfish. However, in years past, we've also tested a number of other services, none of whom made it into our top tier. If you'd like to read those older reviews, they're listed below. Just bear in mind that the quality of some of these services may have changed since we last reviewed them.

  Motif review | Artifact Uprising review | Amazon Prints review | Mpix review | Picaboo review | Blurb Bookify review | CVS Photo review | Walmart Photos review | Mimeo review

Procrastination is a natural human instinct, but it will cost you when it comes to photo books. In particular, if the book is a gift for the holidays or if you just want it quickly for yourself, you’re going to be paying more for rush delivery services, which can increase the cost greatly. And in our experience, fast delivery is the one thing that is seldom discounted by book companies. 

So, try to order you books as early as possible. Not only does it save you time, it gives you the chance to look over the book and order a reprint in case there are any errors. Another reason to order as early as possible is that many of the best photo book services offer big discounts throughout the year — up to 50% off in some cases, or with other extras thrown in. 

How to choose the best photo book service for you

Image quality The most important factor for most people is that their book should look good. But what does this mean exactly? In simple terms, it means the quality of the photos should be great — skin tones should be accurate, lighting should be correct, and details should be crisp. In the best photo books, you should have good contrast, deep blacks, and an overall evenness in color gradation. 

Book construction A photo book should also be built well. You shouldn't see pages coming free from the binding, the paper itself should have a substantial weight and feel, and images and text should be aligned properly.

Book-creation software If a company has poor software, you’re likely to either not be able to create the photo book you want or grow frustrated with the process and give up. While ease-of-use is a key factor, customization is also important too and our favorite brands offered a good combination of both with their software. You should be able to fully edit the book templates, easily find background art and more, and make fine adjustments to your photos, too.

Cost Price is also an important factor. With the exception of the most and least expensive options, you won't find too much variation between photo book printing services. However, some services offer options like better paper, different-size books, and things like lay-flat binding, which means you can open the book flat on a table, and not worry about breaking the spine.

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Dan Havlik has worked in the photo industry for over decades and is currently editor-in chief of Wild Eye ( www.wildeyemagazine.com ), a new magazine devoted to the celebration of nature, wildlife, and underwater photography. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Outdoor Photographer and Shutterbug magazines. He has been an editor and writer for a variety of other publications and websites including Photo District News (PDN), Rangefinder, Wired, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Consumer Reports, Maxim, Men’s Journal, Imaging Resource, and LAPTOP. Dan is also an avid runner with three marathons under his belt and has written fitness reviews, including guides to the best running shoes and GPS watches, for Business Insider.

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Best photo books 2024

The very best photo books you can create from your own photos and order online

Easy to use, with plenty of designs to choose from and a high-quality finish, Mixbook is our top choice for photo books.

The best photo books can be the visual equivalent of a mixtape - curated with love and care, they are capable of evoking feelings and bringing back memories. And unlike a battered C90 in the tape deck of your car, they are only enhanced by the fact we all carry a smartphone in our pocket these days.

As a thoughtful gift for a loved one or family member, a photo book is hard to beat. Spend some time collecting images from special occasions, and you can guarantee a long-lasting, treasured reminder of happy days. They’re a versatile gift, endlessly adaptable to weddings, vacations, celebrations and more besides.

Any of the services we’ve collected here can create such a book for you, so we’ve tried and tested the best photo books, scoring them in terms of how good their print quality is, what the layout options for the pages were, and how quickly they could be printed and delivered. The image quality delivered by the finished article was the most important criterion, followed shortly by how versatile the book was. 

Mixbook comes in at the top of our rankings, but we didn’t find a digital photo book that was actually bad - they are all highly rated and your choice comes down to the one that best fits your needs.

Books aren’t the only digital printing options we’ve looked into. We have guides to the best photo cards , for when you want to send a special message with only one image attached, as well as the best greeting card software , for you to create your own.

1. Mixbook: Best photo book overall

Why you can trust Top Ten Reviews Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

Mixbook Photo Book

Our expert review:

Specifications

Reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

Mixbook scored solidly across all of our testing categories. The photo books we received were of a high standard, with sharp pictures, accurate colours and quality paper. More importantly, the company has also got a really watertight guarantee, which allows you to return your product for a full refund if it doesn’t come up to scratch in any way.

Another reason we really like Mixbook is that it makes the whole process of creating a photo book feel fun. When we were reviewing services, we found that it takes roughly three hours to create and finish an album. But thanks to Mixbook’s brilliant array of designs, and its ability to easily pull pictures from multiple social media streams and computer drives, the whole activity felt like a breeze.

In addition to the thousands of backgrounds and stickers available, Mixbook also regularly releases new designs and has a genuinely engaging blog that’s populated with interesting tips. There are some Martha Stewart designs on there at the moment, along with posts detailing the best way to go about making a family recipe book. Of course, you can also start designing your book from an entirely blank canvas, too. 

When it comes to printing, Mixbook gives you eight book sizes and five cover materials to choose from. Handily, the site will give you a warning if your photos are too small and at risk of looking pixelated. You’ll also get a discount if you order a large number of photobooks and you can even rush shipping for an extra fee. 

• Read our Mixbook Photo Books review

2. Shutterfly: Best value photo books

This is a great budget option, with plenty of regular sales appearing on site and a base price that’s very reasonable, too. The compact 6 x 6 photo book option can cost as little as $19.98 and lets you print images across 20 pages. We found that the company delivered high quality goods. When we used the service to print our own book, it had great crisp images and excellent color reproduction. 

Like Mixbook, Shutterfly allows you to pull in images from your social media feeds, and you can also rush shipping if you need it printed in a hurry. However, do be aware that the refund isn’t quite as watertight as the one offered by Mixbook. Shutterfly will only refund you if the product is faulty - if you make a mistake, you’ll have to take the financial hit. 

The site doesn’t offer quite as many customization options as our top-rated photo book printing service, either. Although it has recently overhauled its book building experience, offering customers the chance to whizz through the process in a smaller amount of time. 

• Read our ShutterFly Photo Books review

3. Artifact Uprising: Best for high quality prints and gifts

Artifact Uprising

This definitely isn’t the cheapest option, but in our tests it scored the highest in terms of quality. Also of note is that this is the only service we tested that has a focus on sustainability, giving you the option to pick recycled paper for your prints.

You can produce some really beautiful hardcover books on this site, including vacation mementos and baby albums. A lot of the books come with the option of adding linen covers, which is a nice touch, and while it doesn’t have the widest selection of designs, the ones it does offer are really sleek, modern creations.

It also offers a bespoke service, where someone curates images and designs your layout for you. This can cost in excess of $100, though, so it’s not a service that everyone will want to use. If you’re looking for a cheaper option, Artifact Uprising also offers a softcover book starting from $15. But for this price, you could also get a more customizable product from somewhere like Shutterfly.

In general, we’d recommend Artifact Uprising for when you really want to go all out on an expensive, high quality product, as this is where the company excels.

4. Printique: Ideal for special occasions

This company is well known for its high standards. When we tested it out, it was miles ahead in terms of printing quality, yielding the best photo clarity and color accuracy of all the services we tested. However, that luxury comes at a cost – a 20 page, hardcover book will cost you $49.99 at minimum.

That’s why we recommend this option for when you really want to commemorate a special event. It’s perfect for wedding pictures, for example. You can choose between several different types of paper, including glossy, luster and deep matte varieties. So while $49.99 might sound like a lot, you really are getting the best quality out there. And like a lot of the other services in this guide, there are regular discounts available to bring down that price. 

There are thousands of design and layout choices to pick from, and it’s easy to pull in photos from places like Facebook, Google Photos, Flickr, Instagram, Dropbox and Amazon. It has a slightly complicated design process compared to other platforms, so it may take you a little longer to build something you're satisfied with (although if you’re committed to making the best photo book you can, we recommend you put aside a couple of hours for each project regardless.)

Printique offers 15 photo book sizes, whether landscape, portrait, square or horizontal-spine. It’s worth noting, though, that the book sizes are slightly unusual: for example, it sells an 8 x 12, 8 x 10 and 12 x 15 instead of the typical 8.5 x 11 or 11 x 14 options. 

5. Meijer Photo: Great for customer service

Meijer Photo

Meijer Photo is a US institution, and it is generally well loved by its satisfied customers. If you're buying a photo book from here you have the comfort of knowing that this is an established and trusted provider, and you can even visit a brick and mortar store if you want to collect quickly, or you have a problem with your order. While we didn't see any kind of money back guarantee with Meijer, we're fairly sure that most issues can be resolved quickly and easily in store.

Meijer has good print quality too, and its range of photo books - while limited - are good quality. You'll pay a low price for all photo products from here too, and if it wasn't for the frequent promotions run by sites like Mixbook and Shutterfly, this would rank as our cheapest provider overall.

The site is easy enough to use, but what Meijer really lacks is a wide variety of options when it comes to photo books. This is a pretty vanilla printing business, so lacks the range and features of more specialized providers. If you want to shop here because you know and trust Meijer, you'll get a good photo book, but there are better options out there.

6. Photobook: Best for versatility

If you want to get really creative with your photo book, then you'll need some software with a great range of tools. Photobook impresses in this area, the Malaysia-founded website providing an extensive palette with which you can design your masterpiece. Whether you're looking to expand, crop, rotate or put frames around your images, Photobook enables you to do it with ease. And if you do get stuck during the process, there are a bunch of 'how to' videos, along with a live chat service, to help you.

Our experts found that the images came out a little dark or grainy at times, but on the whole were satisfactory. Should you be disappointed with your final product, Photobook offers a 100% quality guarantee that enables customers to get a full refund if they're not entirely happy.

The other thing to say about Photobook is that it offers a huge range of other picture-based products, from calendars to kitchen aprons. There are also a number of branded items from your favorite high-street stores, which can be personalized with the name of your loved one for a gift that they're sure to cherish.

7. Snapfish: Best for extra photo gifts

Snapfish and Shutterfly have now technically been merged, but the companies remain distinct in terms of the services they offer. Snapfish is certainly still one of the largest photo printing services in the world - but this comes with advantages and disadvantages.

On the positive side of things, the company offers some great prices if you’re looking to bulk buy printed gifts. In addition to photo books, it also offers custom mugs, keyrings, pillows and face masks. Discounts regularly appear on site, so you can get some genuinely good offers here, especially if you need products printed for corporate events.

However, in our tests, the quality of the printing wasn’t quite as good as some of the company’s main competitors (like Mixbook.) Moreover, the experience of creating the photo book wasn’t as enjoyable. The site is a nightmare to navigate, with various pop-ups appearing on screen as you try to reach the checkout, pushing extra features and products. The designs aren’t as inspiring as competitors, either, as they’re all very basic. 

It’s a good option if you have simple needs, and want to prioritise saving money, but other services provide better quality.

8. Amazon Prints: A cheap service

Amazon Prints

Amazon Prints is a good option if you're looking to create a stylish and affordable photo book, as long as you’re not looking for the level of customisation offered by the services above. Our test photo book had a high print quality and was well built – despite it being the cheapest in our guide.

You can manually choose your backgrounds, stickers and the placement of your photos. The interface gives you the freedom to create your own layouts, and lets you crop and zoom into photos as you please. It also warns you if your photos are too low-res and will print blurry, which is helpful. The process, however, is very complicated and you may struggle to use it.

If you need to make a photo book in a hurry, you can choose from among the 13 pre-designed photo books and use the autofill feature. This photo book service also enables you to share images with other Amazon users to create collaborative photo projects.

It’s good to know that any purchases over $15 automatically receive free standard shipping. This can cost between $5 and $13 with other photo book services, so it’s a significant saving. Amazon Prints also offers a strong money-back guarantee. 

9. Walmart Photo Books: Very fast creation

Walmart Photo

If you need a photo book in a hurry, Walmart Photo is probably the best option for you. While the print quality isn’t as good as the other services, it's possible to create a book online or in-store and pick it up just an hour later. 

Walmart Photo is also one of the cheapest photo book services online. But, as you’d expect, the lower cost means lower quality and fewer options. You don’t get as much control or creative freedom as the other photo book creators in this guide, and the design tool is harder to use. For example, we couldn’t fit the cover image to the design window and so some of the people were cropped out and the photo became distorted. Nevertheless, if you need a photo book now , Walmart Photo is your best bet.

How much does a photo book cost?

The price of photobooks varies by service, as you might expect. But to get a good idea prices for a 20-page 8.5 x 11-inch book usually start at around the $30 mark and hit $46 at the top end.

The other factor to take into consideration with price is shipping, which is usually charged as extra. This can be as much as $10 so it's worth shopping around on this factor too. On top of that there can be tax added too, with as much as $8 added in our testing. All this varies by the number you order, how close you live to the printer and the state you live in.

Is it worth using a photo book printing service?

Despite all the costs mentioned, this is a service that pays for itself when you see the end result. No matter how good your home printer and arts-and-crafts skills might be, you'll struggle to match the quality of the end results that these professional services offer. 

So even if you have the best graphic design software and high quality printers available to you, a photo book printing service is easier and can offer better results.

How long does it take to design a photo book?

How long you want to spend perfecting your photo book is up to you but generally speaking most top end options have easy to use software. As such you can whip up a winning photo book in as little as 30 minutes. These can pull in photos from social media or your device, making that otherwise tough part, simple.

It's best to take your time over your photo book though, spending a few hours to get it just right. This means a better end result. Of course if you need to digitize photos too, add that time on.

What are express photo books? 

If you're in a real hurry to get your photo book, perhaps as a gift, then express photo books may be helpful. These are same-day photo printing services which allow you to pick up your photo book from a physical store. Some places where you can take advantage of this are Walmart Photo, CVS Photo or Walgreens Photo. Each of these offers an impressive one-hour pick-up time.

By comparison most other online services are going to take a few days, or even a week, to have your book printed and delivered to you. While these can mean you save money over express services, it does mean you need to plan ahead.

What are bespoke photo books?

If all this sounds like too much effort, there are bespoke photo book services that take even more of the work out of it for you. Services like Artifact Uprising offer professional designers who will do the legwork for you, for an additional fee of course.

All you need to do is get them the photos, tell them the sizes you want for the end result and have them go to work. You can then review and adjust before deciding on the final outcome.

How do photo book subscriptions work?

If that automation idea sounds good to you then a subscription service could be ideal. Photo subscriptions from the likes of Chatbooks, mean you'll be sent a photo book each month based on the photos from your smartphone, Instagram, Facebook and Google Photos.

Charged at $10 per softcover, or $15 for hardcovers, these books are shipped for free and are created for every 60 new photos. 

Photo book options

When you are buying a photo book, there are many things to consider outside of the cover design. It can be tempting to pick the prettiest cover, but measurements of size, layout options, and paper quality matter too. 

If you are new to buying a photo book, here are some important things to keep in mind before adding one to your cart. 

Size, shape and orientation

Most photo books are available in the 8.5 x 11-inch size, ideal for landscape photos. This is great for you if you have tons of average-sized horizontal photos. You can also get bigger, 14 x 11-inch photo books for larger-than-average snaps. 

While this works great for landscape photography, it may not be the best option for you if you are a fan of portrait photos. Selfie lovers should opt for vertical-oriented photo books that perfectly accommodate tall and narrow photos. 

Paper Quality

Paper quality might seem like an afterthought for photo books, but the right paper quality can actually change the whole look of your photo book. The most popular paper qualities include a glossy, matte, or luster finish, all of which look great depending on the theme of your photos. 

If you have vibrant photos with vivid colors, it’s best to opt for glossy paper, while a matte finish is ideal for a neutral or serious vibe. A luster finish is a good option if you want something bright but not super glossy. 

If you are looking for premium quality, opt for Lay Flat, which a fine paper made of extra thick cardstock for firmness and shape retention. This is best if you want your photos to lay flat in the book (instead of the curved shape most photo books offer). 

Cover and binding

 Now comes the best part: choosing the cover. This is one of the first things people consider when buying an album. 

Along with a great design, the “feel” of a photo album can also add to the nostalgic experience. Most popular cover options include leather and velvet as they offer a premium look for special photos. 

When choosing a cover, also look at the binding. Is it strong and durable to sustain regular use? Or is it pretty but delicate, making it suitable for rare use?

A good layout can make or break your photo book. The layout defines how your photos are arranged in the book. Here are some great questions to ask yourself to find the right layout:

Are all photos horizontal or is it a mix of landscape and portrait orientation? Is there space for taking notes and marketing dates? Can you change the layout or is it fixed?

Use photo books for online photo album storage

Lots of photo book services are happy for you to use their server space to store your photos. That means you can upload all your pictures as you take them for online backup with unlimited space. Not only does this mean your photos are secure but it's also easier than ever to create photo books, photo cards, canvas prints, photo paper prints, iPhone cases, gift mugs and more.

Some services, like Amazon Photo with Amazon Prints, will even recognise faces allowing you to create people specific albums more automatically. These also let you organize photos but to do this really well it's worth looking at good quality photo organizing software . 

Digitizing photos for your album

If you’ve been in the photography scene for a while, chances are you have analog photos you’d like to feature in a photo book. But to do so, you need to digitize them. 

The easiest way to do this is with a scanner, often found on an all-in-one printer . However, if you don’t have a scanner, time or the inclination to digitize your photos yourself, we recommend using a  photo scanning service .

If you have old slides you’d like to include in your photo books, you'll also need to convert them to digital media. As stated previously, you can always use a photo scanning service. But if you want to save some money and do the conversions yourself, we recommend investing in a slide to digital image converter . Keep in mind that this process, while not difficult, does take an investment of time if you have a lot of slides to get through, and it isn’t the most exciting work.

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Andy was the previous Editor-in-Chief of Top Ten Reviews. With over 18 years experience in both online and print journalism, Andy has worked for a host of world-leading tech and gaming brands, including PC Gamer and GamesRadar. He specializes in photography, technology and smart home, and has provided expert comment for sites like The Guardian. In his spare time Andy is an amateur photographer, and teaches at the National Film and TV School.

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The best photo books in 2024: create a personalized picture album online

The best photo books not only make excellent gifts but are a great way of storing your most treasured memories

Best print quality

Best for discounts, best top-end photo book, best for busy people, best budget option, best turnaround time, best color accuracy, best for social photos, best for worldwide shipping, best for smartphones, photo book creation advice.

It's never too early to think about the festive season – and the best photo books are a great way to gift your loved ones something sentimental and personal (without breaking the bank!). Whether you want to create a wonderful round-up of your friend or family member's favorite memories or celebrate a specific event, the best photo books are the perfect gift.

1. Best print quality 2. Best for discounts 3. Best top-end photo book 5. Best budget option 6. Best turnaround time 7. Best color accuracy 8. Best for social photos 9. Best for worldwide shipping 10. Best for smartphones

A photo book isn't just a great gift though – it's also a lovely way to celebrate your own memories and experiences. Plus, with all of the customizable features and stylish templates available, you can make your photo book truly unique. We particularly enjoy the ability to create your own custom front cover, which truly adds a little extra polish.

• How to create a photo book

Many of the services available here give users the choice between auto-filling the pages of their photo book, or manually arranging the images themselves. If you don't need your book in a specific order, being able to automatically fill the pages can be a fantastic time-saver.

To help you find the best photo book service for you, we've reviewed and rated each of the products in this guide. We've tested each service based on the quality of their books, the speed of the shipping and how functional and user-friendly their photo book creator tools are. Discover our favorites below…

The best photo books in 2024

Why you can trust Digital Camera World Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out how we test.

1. Printique

Our expert review:

Specifications

Reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

Printique is the online service of Adorama, the well-known photo store in New York. And the company's expertise in photo printing is obvious in the quality of its products and finish it delivers. If you're looking to create a professional photography portfolio, you'd be hard-pushed to find a better photo book service to do it.   

The best photo book options are available in square, portrait and landscape format, in 14 different sizes, plus there are six paper weights to choose from. All of the hardcover, fabric, and leather photo books options have pages that lay flat, which, unlike other companies on this list, Printique doesn't charge extra for. 

The Printique photo editor interface looks a little busy, but is fairly intuitive and easy to use, clearly highlighting book edges, where and how to upload images, and add special features including stickers, shapes and frames. The only slight downside to this service is the lack of editing options after a product has been added to the cart, so make sure you're completely finished creating your book before doing so.

See our full Printique review

When it comes to the best photo book service Mixbook are hard to beat. Their products are available to ship worldwide, it regularly runs big discounts making it very good value. The Mixbook software is very easy to use and it can all be done on your web browser. Choose from over 400 fully customizable templates plus there are lots of backgrounds and stickers you can include to make it really unique. 

There are three different paper finishes to choose from, semi-gloss, pearl and an ultra-thick premium matte paper if you want a lay-flat photo book. We ordered the 8.5 x 8.5-inch classic square glossy hardcover book and found the process very easy. Uploading images was quick and it didn't take long to arrange them.

When the photo book arrived we noticed there was some fringing on the edges of the cover image and the logo. We also spotted some color inaccuracies, especially on the cover which has a red tinge to it. However, most of our issues were with the cover of the book. The images printed on the inside were true-to-color and printed nicely. Plus, the design and layout of the book were genuinely beautiful and helped bring the photos to life. 

We think Saal makes some of the best photo books, at least as far as the very top-end ones go. The  Saal Professional Line Photo Book  is bloody epic. The first thing I love is that Saal probably has the best design software of any printing company. You can create designs with your own software and upload them as PDFs, but Saal’s downloadable desktop software makes life incredibly easy for uploading, editing, adding text and graphic elements, and moving pages around.

The presentation box is utterly stunning, made of a premium leatherette material. The same leatherette finish can also be used for the back and spine of the Professional Line photobook, echoing a consistent level of quality. You can choose any number of finishes for the front cover, but we were blown away by the acrylic cover – it’s thick, hardwearing, looks great, and simply screams quality. 

The whole thing is finished by hand, and is a step above any other premium finish out there – especially since there are no unsightly logos or branding, unlike other print houses. With layflat binding, the pages on the photo book are completely even – making them perfect for laying a big, beautiful landscape or panoramic image across a double-page spread. Pages can be finished in matte or gloss, but my favorite is the silk, which makes portraits looks particularly lavish. 

Colors are authentic, lively and full of pop, even if your images have the most psychedelic palettes, and blacks are deep and rich while retaining plenty of detail.From the instant you open the presentation box to the moment you turn the final page, Saal’s pro photo books are just next-level wow.

4. Shutterfly

Shutterfly is a fantastic option for anyone who wants really simple-to-use software to create a professional-looking photo book. There are lots of templates and background to choose from plus a Many My Book service where you can supply your images and design ideas and Shutterfly designers will do all the hard work for you. 

Shutterfly also offers a number of great discounts throughout the year, so if your need for a photo book isn't immediate, a good offer is always just around the corner.

5. Snapfish

Snapfish has been in the personalized printing business for more than two decades and offer a range of products including photo books. The software is an easy drag-and-drop experience and you can pick from 120 themes. 

The quality of the Snapfish photo book isn't quite as good as other on the list but it regularly offers pretty hefty discounts so if you don't need it straight away look out for these. We were pleased with the photobook we received although the colors seemed to be accurate they were a little more saturated so be careful if you're sending in images that are already highly saturated. We also noticed a couple of wonky prints and once you spotted them they were so hard to unsee. 

If you're after a super high-quality finish, look elsewhere but if color accuracy and value for money is your game, Snapfish is a great option. 

6. Walgreens Photo

Walgreens Photo is one of the best photo book sites to use to make a quick and simple custom photo book. And by quick we mean the same day if you're able to pick it up. Its easy-to-use editor means you can put your design together in no time, and with the company constantly running discount offers, it won't break the bank either.

If you want a photo book in a hurry, you always run the risk of sacrificing quality. And while other services on this list undoubtedly offer a superior finish, Walgreen's still offers a very decent service in terms of print production and value for money.  

7. Mimeo Photos

Mimeo Photos offers both a third-party Photos app extension for MacOS, allowing you to create and edit an Apple Photo project to be printed, and a web-based builder. There are over 50 theme options, including well-known Apple favorites and you can customize layouts and backgrounds for your own personal touch. You can also apply edits, adjustments and filters to any photo directly within the app's design page. 

We created our photo book using the Mimeo Photos app. Once we'd downloaded the app extension, the software itself was relatively easy to use. However, where Mimeo Photos really shone was in the quality of the book we received. We ordered a hard cover book, which arrived with an attractive dust jacket (although the cover image was also printed on the actual cover of the book as well). 

The only gripe we have about this book was that the saturation seems to have been pushed up for the front cover image, as the skin tones on both the dust jacket and the hard cover itself became a luminescent orange. However, the photos inside the book were beautifully printed. They were nice and sharp, with none of the fuzziness experienced in cheaper options. Unlike the front cover, the colors also printed accurately. 

8. My Social Book

My Social Book offers something slightly different from the rest – allowing you to create books from your Instagram or Facebook pictures, providing you a hardcopy of your favorite social media memories. 

The software is easy to use – as you simply link your chosen social media source to  My Social Book, and then choose the time frame you want your book to cover. Fortunately you can exclude those embarrassing posts and out-of-focus images, so that you only print the images you want. And you can also choose the image you want on the cover. However, we found the whole compilation process is rather slow - and the printing and delivery takes its time too.

However, the quality of the printing is much better than an average photo book printer – and this is a great way of ensuring that you have your camera phone pictures backed up in a physical form.

9. Vistaprint

Vistaprint is another experienced personalized photo printer with a lot of customizable options. For photo books, there are three different cover options to choose from including linen, leather and photo. You can also opt for either glossy r standard matte paper. There are two ways to design your book, either using the web-based builder or you can download the offline editor from the Vistaprint website. 

Both are fairly intuitive to use, but Vistaprint's downside is there aren't as many options to choose from as other manufacturers. It does have several options for backgrounds, clip art and frames you can use but they're not the most stylish. 

The web-based builder gives users the opportunity to design their own book from scratch, or have the builder fill in the pages for them. Most other manufacturers offer this service and Vistaprint's isn't much different than the rest – it's a little hit-and-miss. Some pages will look nicely put-together, while others might seem clunky. 

Overall, Vistaprint offers some affordable options for photo books. But if you're looking for more sophisticated design choices, you might want to go for a different manufacturer, such as Mixbook.

Blurb might not have a web-based photo book builder but it does have a lot of other things going for it. For example, unlike any other service on the list, once you create your book with Blurb you can then sell it to other people. This is great if you're a photographer as you can easily self-publish your work and sell it through the Blurb bookstore. There's no need for a traditional publisher and you'll keep more of what you earn. 

Blurb isn't the cheapest by any means but it's still pretty reasonable. Prices start at $21.99 for a 20-page book with each additional page costing $0.25. Blurb offers a range of finishing options including a softcover, hardcover or just jacket plus six different paper choices. If you're unsure what to pick, you can order a swatch kit to make sure you're happy with your choice. 

There are a variety of ways you can create your photobook masterpiece including a plug-in for Adobe InDesign and BookWright, Blurb's unique desktop software. There isn't an online web-builder but Blurb does have an intuitive app for iPhone and iPad that works pretty well. The design templates seemed a little limited so if you wanted to create a super personalized book, one of the other services will probably suit your needs better.

How to choose the best photo book service

If you've made it to the bottom of the list of best photo book services and you're still not sure which one to pick, don't worry! With so many different providers offering so many different book sizes, designs and paper options, it's natural to feel a bit overwhelmed at all of the choice. However, to figure out which service to go with, we'd recommend figuring out exactly what it is you want.

Are you after a super affordable service with speedy shipping? Then Mixbook might just be the provider for you. Alternatively, perhaps you just want the best quality possible? If so, Printique offers excellent print quality with a professional service. 

However, there are features beyond image quality and great shipping to be aware of. User functionality is a key part of creating a good photo book, as you need to be able to navigate the photo book creator tool with ease. Here are some tips to help you make the most of whichever service you end up using:

• You don't need to prepare your pictures in any particular way. Regular JPEGs are fine.

• Some photo book services offer book design tools in your own web browser, others offer free apps you download and run on your computer.

• Your pictures may be cropped. This may apply if you're using multi-photo page templates or printing a picture right up to the edges of the page (borderless).

• Some books come with a lay-flat binding, which makes them easier to leave open.

• You will usually get a choice of paper finish. Glossy paper is good for contrast and color, matte paper is better at hiding fingerprints and reflections, soft-sheen lustre papers offer a good middle-ground compromise.

• We have listed our choice of the best US photobook services – however many of these will ship worldwide.

How to create a good photo book

1. Select your photos  

To make the photo book design process as smooth as possible, we'd recommend selecting all of the images you want to include beforehand. If some of your desired photos are on your phone, it'll definitely make your life easier transferring them to your computer ahead of time!

2. Choose your design

The majority of the best photo book websites have hundreds of potential designs for you to choose from. This might seem overwhelming at first, but you can usually narrow the selection down into different sections, such as weddings, travel, family and more. When choosing your template, we would recommend thinking about what your own photos look like – if they're super busy and colorful, you might want to go for a simpler design to help your images pop.

3. Arrange your photos

What do your favorite books all have in common? They all have a narrative – and so should your photo book. While we're not asking you to construct Macbeth-level storylines, a beginning, middle and end will help your photo book feel coherent and more enjoyable. The simplest way to do this is often construct the photo book in a generally chronological order.

4. Make bold design choices

If you're a fan of scrapbooking, you'll love the stickers and text functionality that many photo book services provide. However, we would caution against overuse, as you don't want to overshadow your photos! 

Best photo frames Best digital photo frames Best gifts for photographers Best photo calendars The best photo printing online Best photo albums Best photo gifts

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Having studied Journalism and Public Relations at the University of the West of England Hannah developed a love for photography through a module on photojournalism. She specializes in Portrait, Fashion and lifestyle photography but has more recently branched out in the world of stylized product photography. For the last 3 years Hannah has worked at Wex Photo Video as a Senior Sales Assistant using her experience and knowledge of cameras to help people buy the equipment that is right for them. With 5 years experience working with studio lighting, Hannah has run many successful workshops teaching people how to use different lighting setups.

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Our user-friendly editor gives you the creative freedom to fully customize your design — free, fun and works seamlessly on any device.

Elevate Your Photo Books & Albums

Safeguard and display your photos in a well-built, handcrafted accessory. Made to match your photobook's material and colour. Complete with exquisite foil-stamped typography on the cover for a truly stunning finish.

Photo Books & Photo Albums for Your Beautiful Memories

Every second of every day is a moment worth reliving. Take some time out to reflect on the fun adventures and unique experience shared together with loved ones. While reminiscing your memories on a coffee break is pleasant, why not bring them to life in a custom photo book instead? Just like a biography, a stylish personalised photo book can effortlessly narrate your life story with you as the author. Display pictures of your significant other, family and friends, pets, travel holidays, wedding, anniversary and even those little life moments that never fail to warm your heart. Our assorted photo book types are created and handcrafted with love to give your wonderful memories a splendid appearance. At Photobook New Zealand , we have prepared a selection of photo books to help start off your own photo book so you don 't have to worry about feeling stuck. Beautifully designed themes, layouts and style are divided into various categories for a simpler search or at the very least, to give you some inspiration such as:

• Highlighting the thrills of your trip in a Travel Photo Book • Documenting your little one' s milestones with a Baby & Kids Photo Book • Recreating the romance and joy of your big day through a  Wedding Photo Book or Wedding Guest Book

We want to make preserving your most-prized moments easy with just a few clicks. Our online editor allows you to Customize your photo book down to every detail, From resizing your photos to personalizing fonts and colours, you're free to arrange and modify every page to your liking. We've also added a new Autofill feature to automatically organize your pictures in a photo book with a clean layout. Whether it 's for your personal keeping or as a gift, a personalised album is not complete without a finishing touch. Present the photo books in a sophisticated slipcase or presentation box made of leather, buckram or cambric material. How about ending your photo bookmaking process with a blind or foil custom stamping on the cover? The first impression is everything, after all.

Planning to order your photo books & photo albums online and have them shipped to a different country? Don't worry, we offer international shipping. Whether you're in Singapore ,  Thailand ,  Malaysia , Australia ,  Canada ,  the USA , or any other country, we'll make sure your prints reach you. We understand the value of your memories and strive to ensure they are accessible to you no matter where you are in the world.

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Buy One Get One Half Price! Enter code CYD1 at the checkout to receive discount. Excludes photobooks & extra pages. Conditions apply. Ends midnight 18th May.

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Mixbook photo book review: A user-friendly service from start to finish

Mixbook is an almost-perfect all-rounder for those that want a photo book with minimal hassle..

TechRadar Verdict

Mixbook offers a great user experience in all aspects, from choosing the type of product you want to the snappy delivery times. With almost constant sales and discounts available, users can expect to get good value for money on their photo book. While other services might offer better quality books, Mixbook is a great overall performer.

Well priced

Great user experience

Lots of designs to choose from

Some small glitchy moments

Constant discounts make pricing confusing

Middling quality

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

• Two-minute review
• Should you buy it?

Also consider...

• How I tested

Mixbook photo book: Two-minute review

If you want a slick and seamless process, then Mixbook is a great option and is one of the best photo books available in the US and UK. There are loads of different designs to choose from, handily split into separate categories (including Weddings, Pets, Adoption, Travel, and more). 

I enjoyed scrolling through the wide variety of designs, which included anything from stylish minimalism to more wacky, colorful designs. Usefully, when you hover over each design, you get a preview of what’s inside the book. When you select a design to use, you can then easily choose between landscape, square, and portrait orientations at the top of the page. 

While most aspects of Mixbook’s service are pretty effortless, I did find its pricing a little confusing. With constant discounts available, Mixbook’s ordinary pricing becomes fairly arbitrary and meaningless. The base price for an 11 x 8.5” landscape book is $49.99 / £41.94, but was only $33.49 / £29.36 at the time of writing – obviously, this is ostensibly a great discount, but I’ve never actually seen a Mixbook photo book available at full price! 

One of the most likely areas for a potential hiccup when building a photo book is when it comes time to upload photos. This is because the builder has to sift through and process a large amount of images. However, Mixbook’s image uploader was pleasantly hiccup-free. 

You can add photos from your phone or desktop, or you can import them from Facebook, Instagram, Google Photos, or Smugmug. I uploaded my images from my desktop, which did take a little while but it wasn’t overly painful. One of my favorite aspects of Mixbook is that you’re able to start putting your photo book together as soon as the first photo uploads, which is a great timesaver. 

I found dragging and dropping the photos to be nice and easy. Each page is customizable, with different templates to explore. You can also move either the frame of the photo or enlarge and adjust the photo itself, which means you can get the perfect framing for each image. 

I did have a few glitchy moments where photos didn’t show up properly for a few seconds, but these weren’t overly disruptive to the process as a whole. I particularly liked a feature where you can copy and paste a page design elsewhere into the book, which is another great potential timesaver. 

When I was done with building my photo book, I used the handy Preview function to double-check for mistakes. I found the payment process to be just as seamless as every other part of Mixbook’s service, with options to pay via card, gift card or PayPal. 

After paying, Mixbook gives you the option to email your fully designed book to other people so that they can order it for themselves. I love this feature and can see it being really useful for those creating photo books for weddings, new babies, and other big life events. 

My Mixbook photo book came promptly and in suitably sturdy cardboard packaging. There wasn’t any scuffing or damage to the photo book and there weren’t any printing errors either.  I found the photos to be pretty true to color, albeit a little bit less vibrant than I would have liked. 

When inspected up close (as in, within 25cm of the page), the images are slightly fuzzy – especially the darker photos. However, you wouldn’t notice this at a normal viewing distance. 

Should you buy the Mixbook photo book?

Buy it if....

You want a seamless user experience

Mixbook’s photo book builder is super easy to use, with my favorite feature being the ability to start designing the book while the photos are uploading. 

You love a good deal

With Mixbook’s almost-constant discounted prices and sales periods, you’re always sure to get a photo book at a great price.

You want to share your creation with others

Many people like to order multiple copies of photo books for their extended family, but you don’t need to wait for people to pay you back with Mixbook’s useful feature that enables you to email your creation to as many people as you’d like. 

Don't buy it if...

You want the best quality photo book

Mixbook’s quality is fairly middling, with some images’ vibrancy being lost on the page. 

You get overwhelmed by choice

While Mixbook’s expansive selection of designs is excellent, they can be overwhelming if you’re unsure what to pick.

Snapfish photo book 

Snapfish is a very competitive option for photobook fans due to its large variety of great designs and materials to choose from. It also has a slightly tricky photo book builder, but compensates with wonderfully low prices.

You might not get the bells and whistles of other photo book services, but Mimeo is pleasantly reliable.  It's got a better user experience than other photobooks, too.

How I tested the Mixbook photo book

• I built a photo book on Mixbook’s website using my own photos
• I standardized the tests across different websites by choosing products at a similar price point with similar designs and features. 

In my testing process, I used Mixbook’s website and photo book builder to create a photo book with my own photographs. As I was testing multiple photo books at the same time, I made sure to choose books that were at a similar price point so that I could test how much value for money each product gave. I also chose similar designs, shapes, and sizes and used the same batch of photos for each test. 

I compared each book side by side to check for image quality and any color variations. I also inspected the covers and pages of each book to ensure that there were no scuffs, creases, or scratches

First reviewed May 2023

With over a decade of photographic experience, Louise arms Digital Camera World with a wealth of knowledge on photographic technique and know-how – something she is so adept at that she's delivered workshops for the likes of ITV and Sue Ryder. Before joining the site, her formidable hands-on abilities served her well as features editor for  Practical Photography . A freelance photographer in her own right, she is a proud Nikon DSLR shooter.

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Momento Photo Books   Reviews

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Reviews 4.5.

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We were delighted with the Memory book…

We were delighted with the Memory book that arrived in time for my Mum's 96th Birthday. The quality was superb and the photos will bring her much pleasure. This is the first book I have made. Jackie's help and guidance were amazing and this has given me the confidence to make more books for the family.

Date of experience : April 22, 2024

Holiday 2023

This is our 3rd book experience and Jackie has always made it easier with her helpful suggestions and artistic flair..we do appreciate her help. It is a high quality product.

Date of experience : April 25, 2024

Fantastic experience.

Fantastic experience. We have recently compiled a photo record spanning 50 years to celebrate our son's birthday. Today the completed album from Momento arrived in the post and we are absolutely delighted with the end result. It is not just the completed album that has inthralled us but the journey getting there in reliving forgotten memories. Many thanks to Jackie from Momento. Nigel and Liz Wilson . Devonport Auckland

Date of experience : July 18, 2023

Reply from Momento Photo Books

THANK YOU Nigel and Liz for the lovely review. How lucky your son is that you created such a priceless gift. I'm sure he'll love it. If you/he are keen we'd LOVE you to email a photo of him with his book + a few words of what it means to him, to [email protected] for us to share on social and our Reviews page (https://www.momento.com.au/reviews). Enjoy the celebration and may he enjoy the book many, many times. Libby ( Co-founder + Marketing Manager)

Love Momento

I have been using Momento for a few years now and have created over 30 books. I love the quality of the product; the pages are good quality and the colour of the photos great. Creating the books is easy, lots of layout ideas, frames and embellishments etc, its easy to use. My only issue is it can shut down without warning and doesn't always save the work, however I will continue to use Momento as I cannot find another company that produces the same output - and that's what counts. It's worth paying a little bit more for a great product.

Date of experience : May 27, 2023

Thanks Annie. Glad you like your books, and congrats, 30 is quite a haul 👏 Pls contact Jackie about the software issue. Sounds lik we can fix it. Have you installed the latest software? Send reply to [email protected].

Fantastic product. Fantastic support.

I have been using Momento books for 15-20 years. I love the software, the ease of use, the quality of the books and the fabulous service. Nothing is ever too much for the Momento Team. I have just submitted another 6 books for printing and needed to get them done within two weeks. The process as always was as smooth and streamlined as possible. I cannot recommend the product and the team (in NZ and in Australia) highly enough.

Date of experience : July 05, 2023

Christina! 6 books in 2 weeks is phenomenal! I hope you enjoyed it and your eyes didn't get too dry in front of the computer :) We so appreciate our long-term loyal community members too. Enjoy all your books often, and if you feel inspired, we'd love a photo of you with your photo book collection to share (landscape orientation is best if possible) THANKS again

Now have 70 photobooks

Now have 70 photobooks! Tried other products, but this meets my needs in terms of flexibility and finish. Most important to me is the longevity of the company. I dipped my toe in back in 2009 and am still able to produce a quality photobook that matches every other one I have produced. Thank you.

Date of experience : May 05, 2023

Wow! 70 photo books is very impressive! Good on you. So glad you're happy with your collection. Enjoy the books often :)

The absolute best service! 10/10 recommend!

The absolute best service!! Obsessed with the book, I got a ‘letters to the bride’ book made in a rush and I honestly couldn’t rate the service I received high enough especially with Jackie, she was amazing!! and the quality of the book was just WOW!! 10/10 would recommend :)

Date of experience : October 11, 2023

Hey Anna - sounds like you're happy with the book and your Momento experience :) THANK YOU, that makes us very happy. And YES, you can't get higher level customer service than Jackie. We're very lucky to have her.

I have now made 4 Momento Photo books…

I have now made 4 Momento Photo books to preserve for my children 60 years of pictorial memories and am now more relaxed that the many hard copy photo albums made over time may not survive! Once mastered the program provides for the setting up of attractive pages from your selected images and if needed there is plenty of support offered by Jackie Harris the Momento Customer Support Officer. While the books are not cheap the finished article is of a very high standard and a pleasure to revisit again and again. I would recommend Momento to anyone one wishing to preserve memories in a very attractive way or to create a special interest book of your choice.

Date of experience : May 04, 2023

Thank you Charles! We share the same concern as you, that photos not printed may not survive for future viewing, so CONGRATULATIONS on your achievement. Your children and future descendants are very lucky you've taken the time to produce these books. And yes, Jackie is superb and very generous with her time and support. We're lucky to have her. Enjoy your books often :)

I have been using Momento NZ for over 13 years and have always found their finished products to be of the highest quality. The customer support provided by Jackie Harris is wonderful, a friendly voice on the end of the phone who always offers support and suggestions. The software is easy to follow and the range of finishing options is exceptional, something for every type of album presentation. I would totally recommend Momento as a professional company to deal with, always producing a high end product.

Date of experience : May 20, 2023

Momento wins for quality and support

Momento is top of the list for two main reasons. The first is the outstanding customer service. I have called for assistance and advice on a few occasions over the years and every single time the advice is accurate, effective and delivered with warmth and interest. This personal connection is extremely rare in the business world today. There is a real, live, superbly knowledgeable person at the end of the phone! Wow! For me this means I can tackle a new project with confidence, knowing that any time I will be able to get help. The second is the quality of the work. My Momento books take pride of place in our house as the quality of both the images and the book-making are exceptional. And, going back to the customer service, if there is ever an error (very rare indeed!) that error is remedied immediately. New Zealand does have other good photo book companies but Momento leads the field and I have no hesitation in recommending their services to anyone who values quality and service.

John, thank you and sorry for the tardy reply! Your review is equally appreciated for its "warmth" and it's so lovely to hear that your photo books have "pride of place in your home". May you and your family enjoy them often.

Love Momento books…

I must have done over 20 Momento books now and love them. They are perfect for travel, weddings and family. They are high quality and the software easy to use. It is easy to do a book over a period of time ie pick it up and put it down as time permits. The support team are fantastic and delivered promptly. I would highly recommend and will use time and time again in the future.

Date of experience : April 13, 2023

Thanks so much Sarah - your review is appreciated :) Enjoy your books!

A quality company

Having used this company over many years I have found their services always prompt and helpful. The software is easy to use and their end product is of the highest quality.

Date of experience : May 08, 2023

Much appreciated Don. Enjoy your books again and again.

Quality service and product

Momento Pro provides the most amazing customer service. So impressed with the quality paper, printing, binding, and embossing - and there are multiple choices, but from many discussions and Jackie's trusty knowledge and recommendations after listening and knowing what I wanted in my end product, it was clear which winning combo to choose to create the perfect print folio.

Date of experience : June 08, 2023

Thanks for the kind words Virginia ;) we’re lucky to have Jackie care so much about everyone receiving the best book possible. I’ll pass this on to her too. Enjoy your book many times :)

Magnificent Momento Photo Books

In my opinion, these are the best photo books on the market. The quality of the paper, the covers, the clarity of the prints is fantastic. But better than the outcome is the process of putting the book together - it is so much fun publishing a finished work with my pictures. Whether its a simple calendar, a photo book of the latest trip or family wedding or the more complex recipe books of old family favourites, this system caters for the lot. From simple to complex - you choose. Better still, because the system is so flexible, you can be as artistic as you want. I created the Empire State building out of the words NEWYORK - it took sometime to work out how to do it - but the final result was stunning. And if you can't be bothered being creative, don't worry, Momento can do it for you. It has so many very cool options to choose from plus easy to follow tutorials on how to use the system. The cost is slightly more than other versions - but the quality is far superior. Some tips. 1) choose only the best photos from your phone - not all of them. 2) Start with a small project - like a calendar of pics from one event. 3) Don't worry if it's not perfect - sometimes good enough is just that - good enough. 4) Make sure you finish the project. 5) make sure people see your finished product. Its such a cool thing to 'unlock' those special moments from your phone and share them with others. Momento photo books are the perfect way to do that.

Date of experience : May 11, 2023

Hi John We’ve just given your five star review five stars! We also think you should join our marketing team for your outline of top tips to design a Photobook and for identifying all the things we care about and aim for. Thank you and may you continue to enjoy creating your photo books again and again. Libby (Marketing manager)

I'm very impressed with the quality and…

I'm very impressed with the quality and care I received making a book through Momento Pro.

Date of experience : May 23, 2023

Thanks for your review Oliver. Enjoy your book :)

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We are always aiming to create real and long lasting value for all of our customers. If you’re not fully satisfied with your products – let’s talk about it! We’ll do our very best to help you, while always keeping the planet in mind.

Delivery, 5-7 business days

Your photo book will be printed as close to you as possible. As of now, we have print shops in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, UK and the US. Read more about our delivery times.

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We need to take responsibility for our children and ensure that they can live on a healthy planet for generations to come. In other words: If we have started a company, we need to take full responsibility for it.

3 ways to make a recipe book

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How to make a year book | A simple five tip guide

Our vision is simple: to celebrate life and make the world a little bit happier, let once upon do all the work for you.

Just one last step left! With Once Upon close to hand it is easier and more fun than ever to make photo books with all the photos in your phone! Yup, it's true! Making photo books can be fun. Give us a whirl, we promise, you'll love it!

We wish we could speak every language in the world by heart, but unfortunately we can’t. So, our blog is only translated to English, Swedish, Dutch and German. For now. Pick the language you prefer below. Happy story reading!

ps. After you pick a language our entire website will be translated to that language, but you can easily change it back when you’re done reading our stories – you’ll find the language selector at the bottom of the page.

Eviscerating Honesty: US writer Leslie Jamison’s Splinters bares all

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Splinters by Leslie Jamison. Photo / Supplied

US writer Leslie Jamison anatomises her broken marriage in candid new memoir - but who or what was really to blame?

Historically, memoirs have typically been end-of-life recollections of an individual’s place in the tide of world events. Many contemporary international writers of autobiographical fiction carry on that tradition, braiding the intimate details of their lives with the revolutionary arcs of their times.

But there are some memoirists whose gaze faces solipsistically inwards, leading to a naked evisceration of the self. These writers are often quite young and their stories frequently concern recovery from addictions, eating disorders, dysfunctional families, lack of privilege or too much privilege, bigotry, abuse, bouts of severe depression and grappling with incurable illness. Their wars are not experienced on the battlefield but within themselves. There is no shame, no detail too graphic nor too personal to excavate as they struggle with their own Scylla and Charybdis until their personal demons are wrestled to defeat.

In the past, these struggles were often documented in such fictional explorations as Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Joanne Greenberg’s I Never Promised You a Rose Garden . Today, such interior odysseys have emerged from the veil of fiction to be written as memoirs. Unlike autobiographies, which are usually written in chronological order and emphasise facts and historical events, memoirs cover specific episodes or situations, emphasising emotional experience and interiority. They are much more impressionistic and employ time in creative ways. This free lyricism allows authors the freedom of speculation and emotional elasticity, giving their accounts an air of novelistic invention.

Leslie Jamison’s third book, the “critical” memoir The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath , falls into this memoir category. Published in 2018, it was termed an “unsparing and luminous autobiographical study of alcoholism”, combining Jamison’s own experience of drinking and sobriety with a survey of others struggling with similar demons. A gorgeous writer, her first publication and only novel was The Gin Closet , a heavy tale of two deeply hurt women. Jamison’s second book, The Empathy Exams , brought her to national attention as it utilised her experience of empathy with a keen journalistic investigation of the empathetic impulses of others. She followed that with another essay collection, Make it Scream, Make it Burn .

In Splinters , she employs a similar eviscerating self-exploration. As the New Yorker put it, a single-line pitch to the book might be: “The birth of my daughter and the death of my marriage”. Divided into three sections: Milk/Smoke/Fever, Splinters recounts Jamison’s heady romance with a renowned novelist she calls “C”, a tattooed widower and solo parent in his mid-40s, 15 years her senior, whose first wife died after a protracted, brave battle with leukemia. They marry after six ecstatic months, eloping at a Las Vegas wedding chapel as the city is C’s hometown, the pair picking out wedding rings at his mother’s pawn shop. The marriage lasted five years, four of which were spent in couples therapy.

C’s first novel was a hit, but his second, a semi-autobiographical account of his first marriage, was not. Meanwhile, Jamison’s essay collection, The Empathy Exams, was a breakout success; her books prompted multi-city tours. C attempted to handle his wife’s success graciously but she also repeats him saying before a party, “I’ll be damned if I’m going to stand there holding your purse!”

The spectre of C’s dead wife “nestled into every moment between us”. Like Princess Diana’s famous quip, “there were three of us in this marriage”, Jamison insinuates that there were three in hers – C, herself and the ghost of his first wife. ‘’It was the house we lived in.”

Ultimately, it is Jamison who leaves the marriage, their 13-month-old child in tow, moving into a dark apartment in Brooklyn beside a fire station. Her mother comes from California to live with her, and “our three bodies composed a single hydraulic system”.

A child of divorce, Jamison was the youngest of three and the only girl. Although her parents remained married for 22 years, they lived on opposite coasts, her father engaging in numerous affairs. But they stayed together because her mother “loved his mind, his wit, his commitment to work they both believed in … and with her father, her mother was never bored”. Jamison says that “when I was a kid, I liked to write fairy tales with unhappy endings”. It seems inevitable that she would leave her marriage to recreate the female hydraulic system that marked her own childhood. The world at home was her and her mother alone. And so Splinters is the fairy tale with an unhappy ending.

But, for me, it was not the loss of love that led to the collapse of the marital union, but the war between the pair’s competing desires and fiery ambitions. Jamison’s ambition is so powerful, it seems to be its own addiction. She reflects: “If I failed at happiness, success seemed like a consolation prize. And if writing was my great love, and I was starting to believe it was, perhaps more than any man could be – I often wondered if it was ultimately a form of self-love, a kind of poison – becoming a wife and then a mother, was precisely the antivenom needed.”

Her selfless love for her daughter thus balances her desire for fame, acclaim and recognition.

The narrative is underscored by tremors of guilt. “After leaving my marriage, I felt for the first time such deep shame,” she writes. Yet she seems to crave that pain as a form of self-punishment. She declares she could no longer live with her husband’s anger, his way of concealing his grief, yet she admires C “seeing through the performances of mine that impressed everyone else … there was something electrifying, even erotic, about the experience of being seen through, like an X-ray … Where others looked at me and saw kindness, he saw the elaborate puppetry of a woman desperate for everyone to find her kind.”

One can understand why Jamison could no longer live with her husband’s taunting anger, but there is little acknowledgement of the unconscious provocations that led to C’s mean outbursts. Successful marriages demand uncomfortable compromises, and Jamison seems unwilling and unable to mediate her swelling ambition in deference to her husband’s aching sense of failure after the disappointing performance of his second book.

Splinters goes on to tell the story of Jamison’s post-marital love affair with a musician she calls the “tumbleweed” because he can never stay in one place, which is then followed by a lover who is a sleek financier and former academic who lives in a literal glass tower and has the audacity to dump her. Jamison has never been dumped.

And so the fairy tale resolves with another unhappy ending: her alone with her daughter and her unrivalled ambition – although in reality she is not alone, rather she has a new partner and is still travelling the world, publicising her lauded writing.

In the end, with whom does our empathy lie? Are our sympathies forever splintered? Is Jamison liberated by her divorce or tethered by guilt? This memoir, like most memoirs, is her story, not their story. Given he is a successful writer, it might be fascinating to read C’s side of the saga.

Splinters by Leslie Jamison (Granta, $39.99) is out now.

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Brittney Griner, in Her Own Words

News stories have chronicled the basketball star’s detention in a Russian prison. Here’s her version.

Brittney Griner listening to the verdict in her trial while standing in a cage in a Russian courtroom. Credit... Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool Photo, via Associated Press

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COMING HOME , by Brittney Griner with Michelle Burford

If you weren’t following women’s basketball, you probably hadn’t heard of Brittney Griner when she was arrested at a Moscow-area airport in February 2022. But she was a bona fide superstar — an Olympic gold medalist, a W.N.B.A. All-Star and the linchpin of her team, the Phoenix Mercury.

When she was detained, she was traveling to her $1 million off-season job with UMMC Yekaterinburg, a top team in the wildly popular Russian women’s basketball league where she had played for seven years, in part to supplement her $220,000 salary with the Mercury. Her crime: possessing 0.7 grams of medicinal marijuana oil — legally prescribed in the United States — that she had forgotten to remove from her bag.

“Fear is one thing,” Griner writes in “Coming Home,” her new memoir, describing the stomach-curdling moment when an inspector seized her passport and told her to wait. “But uncertainty, the unknown, a free fall into mystery — that’s much stronger than fear; it’s terror.”

At first, Griner naïvely thought she would be fined and sentenced to house arrest. But possession of even a small amount of drugs is a serious offense in Russia, and she was eventually charged with narcotics smuggling. Days later, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Griner found herself a high-profile pawn in a vicious geopolitical battle.

“Coming Home” is a visceral, harrowing account of what it’s like to be trapped inside Russia’s infamous criminal justice system, with its merciless judges and vast labor camps.

It’s also the harrowing-in-a-different-way story of what it’s like to grow up Black, female, gay and startlingly tall in Texas. Griner’s mother, Sandra, is loving and religious; her father, Raymond, is a Vietnam War veteran and a traffic cop. Racism has always shadowed the family. James Byrd Jr. — the Texas man who was murdered in 1998 by three white men who beat him, spray-painted his face and dragged him by his heels behind a pickup truck until his head was severed from his body — was Raymond’s third cousin.

As she grew (and grew and grew), people teased Griner for her height, her deep voice and her flat chest. “When you’re born in a body like mine, a part of you dies every day, with every mean comment and lingering stare,” she writes. “You’re the biggest person in the room, but you’re also the loneliest.”

The taunting didn’t stop when she became an adult. Once, when ordered to leave a women’s bathroom by two airport employees who had addressed her as “Sir,” she pulled down her sweatpants to show them that she belonged there. “I get mistaken for male so frequently I’ve learned to just keep it moving,” she writes. “My heart, however, can’t always.”

As a girl, she followed her father around, joyfully doing yard work and learning how to fix cars while he taught her his philosophy of living. But when she came out during her senior year of high school, he ordered her out of the house, yelling, “I ain’t raising no gay bitch!” (He never formally apologized, but they gradually worked it out. “I’m proud of Pops, he’s proud of me, and we’re finally at peace,” she writes.)

Griner, ably assisted by her co-writer, Michelle Burford , describes the Russian penal system — the filth, the interrogations by prison psychiatrists about her sexuality and her supposed drug addiction, the guards’ casual cruelty — in vivid, conversational language. After months in detention, she was sent to Corrective Colony No. 2 in Mordovia, more than 300 miles from Moscow. There she was assigned to “a military uniform sweatshop” and forced to toil for 10 or more hours a day — with no bathroom breaks and only 20 minutes for lunch — slicing pieces of fabric with a rusty blade that had already claimed some of her fellow prisoners’ fingers.

Once, the power shut off for three days in winter and the temperature plummeted; she fell ill and her dreadlocks froze. She slept on a bed that was too short for her 6-foot-9 frame, her legs dangling over the end. Several prisoners befriended her, translating what the guards were saying and buoying her spirits, but often she felt defeated and despairing.

In the end, she was lucky. An army of supporters, including her wife, Cherelle; her agent; her teammates; the W.N.B.A.; and finally President Biden himself worked for her release. Sentenced to nine years in prison, she was incarcerated for 10 months before being released, swapped for the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout , who was serving a 25-year sentence in the United States. Re-entry has been hard, and Griner movingly describes the lingering effects of her ordeal, now tempered by the news that Cherelle is expecting the couple’s first child.

Reading this sobering account, you can’t help but think about Aleksei Navalny, the Russian dissident who recently died in prison there — and about the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and other Americans still being held there and in other countries. Their names appear in a list at the end of the book.

Coming Home | Brittney Griner | with Michelle Burford | Knopf | 320 pp. | $30

Sarah Lyall is a writer at large for The Times, writing news, features and analysis across a wide range of sections. More about Sarah Lyall

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In-situ polymerization of solid-state polymer electrolytes for lithium metal batteries: a review.

The practical application of commercialized lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) currently faces challenges due to using liquid electrolytes (LEs), including limited energy density and insufficient safety performance. The combined application of solid-state polymer electrolytes (SPEs) and lithium metal anode (LMA) can address these challenges and has received extensive attention from researchers recently. There are various strategies for assembling SPEs into lithium metal batteries (LMBs), but the most promising application is the in-situ polymerization strategy. The in-situ polymerization strategy can achieve good interfacial contact between SPEs and electrodes, significantly reducing the interfacial resistance. This paper comprehensively reviews the latest in-situ polymerization strategies for polymer solid-state lithium metal batteries (PSSLMBs), including the polymer system's design, the polymerization strategy's innovation, and the characterization of the whole cell. We summarize the components of the in-situ polymerization system, such as monomers, initiators, lithium salts, and backbone materials, and focus on the methods to improve the ionic conductivity and further enhance the safety performance of SPEs, including strategies such as the addition of inorganic nanoparticles, inorganic-polymer hybridization, and the construction of artificial SEIs. The polymer solid-state lithium-metal batteries prepared by the in-situ polymerization strategy have good application prospects and potential to become the next generation of commercialized lithium batteries.

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