If you’ve missed Parts One, Two, or Three of this series on Creating Family Photobooks, make sure to catch up before starting Part Four!
Want to create beautiful family photobooks, but not sure where to start? This blog series from The Simply Craftde Life will guide you every step of the way!
Welcome back to part four of the series on creating these beautiful family photobooks. When we left off last week, you were starting to create your pages. If you aren’t done creating all of your pages yet, that’s okay – just take your time and come back to this part when you are ready to put your book together.
How to Upload Pages for Printing
The first thing you will want to do is open the Project Life app, and choose the yellow (My Library) tab. In this tab, click on “more options” next to the My Pages section. This will bring up the following screen of all completed pages.
In order to upload your pages to a printing company, you will want to export each of your pages as an image to your device. For this tutorial, I will be showing you how to print your photobook through Shutterfly (affiliate link), because that’s what I always use. I love how fast they are and they always have great specials on their photobooks. There are other great options like printing the pages through the Project Life app – their printing company is the same one my sister uses for her photography clients, so it is great quality – you can then place them in the album of your choice. You can also use the photobook printing company of your choice.
To export your photos, click on each page, then choose “View/Edit Page”. Then, choose the sharing icon in the bottom right hand corner. Then, choose Export from the pop up menu.
How to Export Pages from Project Life App
The next pop up will give the option of 12″ or 8″ sizes. I always choose 12″, since I create 10″ books, and the 12″ option will create the highest resolution image. Even if you create 8″ books, I would suggest exporting them as 12″ images, that way you have the highest resolution possible.
The screen above will appear while the photo is exporting.
Once the photo has exported, you will be asked what you want to do with the image. For our purposes, you will want to choose “Save Image”, so that it is saved to your device as a photo.
How to Upload Pages for Printing
The next step is to open the Shutterfly Photo Story App. When I made my first photobook, I uploaded the photos to my computer and then uploaded them through the Shutterfly website. This app makes the process so much quicker and easier!
When you open the app, choose “Make a new photo book”. Next, you will be asked to choose a style. We won’t need any page options, because we have already created our pages – and you can change the style at any time.
I choose the modern white – it’s just plain and simple.
Next is the option to choose your size. The Project Life designs need a square page option, and I always choose the 10″ size. (The 12″ size hangs over the edge of my shelves, so I went with the 10″ size, which I absolutely love.)
Next, it’s time to upload those photos that you exported from the Project Life app.
Choose your photo library, and select the album that holds your Project Life pages. If you haven’t moved them, they will be in the folder called “Project Life”.
Next, select the pages that you want included in the book.
How to Organize Your Pages
After the photos are uploaded, the app will automatically place them into the book for you. To undo this, choose the Project Tab and select Clear All Pages. This will place all of your photos back down in the strip at the bottom.
The default option on each page may not be a full photo, so click on the Layouts tab and select the full photo option. This will make your photo take up the whole page, with no other text or photo box options.
To add more pages to your book, select the plus sign in the bottom right hand corner.
At the top of the screen, you can select how many pages you want to include, and then select the plus sign on the book to choose where you want to place them (before or after your current page).
And that’s all there is to it! You upload and arrange all of your photos into the book, and you have the inside completed! If you want to view or edit your book on a bigger screen, choose “Sync” at the top of the photobook app to sync the book with your Shutterfly account. Then you can view it on your computer through the Shutterfly website.
Next week, I’ll share how to create your cover, and add video pages if you want, which will be the end of the series! I can’t wait to see how your photobooks come together!
Part 5: Customizing Your Photobook Covers
Part 6: Adding Video to Your Photobook
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