A Review of Lulu's Photo Books

A couple week's ago I wrote about Lulu's photo books- how you can create them with your wedding memories.

Well I decided to give them a try and make my own photo book. I created a memory book for my oldest son who graduated high school this year and starts college next month. I think a nice keepsake book of photos of him from his first 19 years would be a great (late) graduation gift for him. Plus I can always order extra copies for me, grandma and anyone else who may want a copy.

I've used a couple of other photo book design programs before- Snapfish and Shutterfly. I have found Shutterfly to be the most versatile and user friendly. Their software lets you easily design each individual page from layout to background color and style. That I really like.

Lulu's current program allows you to pick a theme then you can only change pages around within the theme- there are a certain number of page layouts that you can choose from but the color scheme and backgrounds stay on theme.

However the result is a beautiful uniform book where everything matches up perfectly- which I truly appreciate. Having a nice uniform look without thinking too hard or scrolling through hundreds of pages and layouts made the book easier and quicker to complete.

I can't wait to see the printed- finished product.

A couple great features of the Lulu photo books:

* The ability to easily add photos from your Flickr, Facebook, or Photobucket accounts

* You can sell the finished product and make a couple bucks off friends and family who may also like copies of the book

* If you don't want to design the book from cover to cover it has an autofill feature that takes all your uploaded photos and puts them in the book for you. Me I'm too controlling to let the program do that but for someone who wants a quick and easy book its the way to go.

* Several sizes to choose from along with many themes to pick from (I love the seasonal autumn backgrounds- I am going to have to make a Fall memories book next)

One downside I had with the Lulu program was several times the program froze and I couldn't upload photos- but that could be because of my internet. I have DSL- high speed but not super high speed so some programs do run slow. So I don't think it was a Lulu issue more of a connection issue.

Overall I am very pleased with my finished book. I'll let you know how it looks once I get my print copy.