Create a professionally printed custom Photo Book with Nations Photo Lab to preserve your favorite memories, milestones, and stories. This tutorial walks you through designing your Photo Book using our online design interface.
🎥 Video Tutorial
Click HERE for a video on how to order a Photo Book.
⚠️ Before You Begin
Once you begin designing your Photo Book, the following selections cannot be changed without starting over:
- Photo Book size
- Cover type
- Book style (Lay-Flat or Classic)
- Paper type
Please review these selections carefully before clicking Customize Now.
Looking for full cover material and color options?
👉 View our Photo Book product guide HERE
📄 Photo Book Types & Page Limits
All Photo Books begin with a minimum of 10 pages (20 sides).
Page limits vary by book type:
- Minimum: 10 pages (20 sides)
- Maximum: 30 pages (60 sides)
- Minimum: 10 pages (20 sides)
- Maximum: 60 pages (120 sides)
Additional pages may be added or removed individually during the design process.
Pricing will update automatically as pages are added.
📘 Choose Your Photo Book Specifications
Select between the Lay Flat or Classic Photo Book.
Once selected, on the Photo Book product page, select your preferred:
- Book size
- Orientation
- Cover type
- Paper type (if applicable)
🎨 Choose Your Theme
Click Customize Now to begin designing and select your preferred theme.
Theme Options:
Blank Themes
These provide full manual design control.
- Blank Theme – Two-Sided
- Blank Theme – Panoramic
Full Page Photo Themes
Designed to automatically place images across your pages.
- Full Page Photos – Two-Sided
- Full Page Photos – Panoramic
Additional Designed Themes
Pre-designed themes offer coordinated layouts, backgrounds, and styling.
Examples include:
- Classic Black
- Classic White
- Elegant White
- Classic Taupe
- Avant-Garde
- Modern
- My One and Only You
- Snapshots
- Gallery
- Classic Black Spread
- Front and Center
Theme availability may vary based on product selection.
✨ Autofill (Theme Dependent)
Autofill is available for all themes except Blank Themes.
Supported:
✅ Full Page Photos themes
✅ Designed themes
Not supported:
🚫 Blank Theme – Two-Sided
🚫 Blank Theme – Panoramic
Blank themes are intentionally designed to provide full creative control for manual placement.
If your selected theme supports Autofill, you can:
- Autofill when starting your project
- Autofill later at any time from the Photos panel
📤 Upload & Manage Your Photos
The Photos panel gives you access to your image galleries and upload options.
You can upload additional images at any time during the design phase.
Select the gallery you'd like to upload into. Then, click Manage to upload photos from:
- Your computer
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
- Google Photos
Photos are uploaded directly into your selected gallery.
The Filter icon allows you to change the view of your gallery. You can view all images within your gallery, the images you haven't used, or the images you have used.
⚠️Your image may appear blurry or pixelated, even if it meets our recommended print dimensions. This is because the image is scaled down to deliver the fastest experience possible to you, but we use your high-resolution file when it's time to print. Please don't worry; there's no reason for concern unless you're receiving a resolution warning.
🔍 Preview Images Before Selecting
When viewing your image gallery, hover over an image thumbnail.
A magnifying glass icon will appear in the top-right corner.
Clicking this icon will:
- Open a larger preview of the image
- Display the full file name at the bottom of the preview window
📖 Begin Designing Your Photo Book
Your Photo Book opens in the design workspace, where you can begin customizing your pages.
Your template includes a 1/8" bleed/trim area.
⚠️ Important:
Avoid placing important text, faces, or design elements too close to page edges.
For Lay-Flat books, avoid placing critical content directly across the center gutter.
Helpful resources:
👉 Bleed & trim information: Click HERE
👉 Photoshop templates: Click HERE
👉 Low-resolution image guide: Click HERE
🛠 Design Tools
When designing your Photo Book, you will have a range of design tools at your disposal.
📐 Layouts
Choose from a variety of page layout arrangements.
Layouts allow you to control:
- Number of photos per page
- Placement structure
- Design style
Image boxes remain adjustable after placement.
Keep important image details inside the safe zone.
🎨 Styles & Backgrounds
Apply preset background styles or customize the background color of your spread.
You can:
- Choose from preset colors and designs
- Use the Pick a Colour tool to select a custom color visually
🔤 Add Text
Add custom text anywhere in your Photo Book.
Customize:
- Font style
- Text color
- Text size
- Text alignment
- Text adjustments: bold, italicize, or underline
Text color options include:
- Preset colors
- Pick a Colour custom color selection
🎭 Clipart
Add decorative design elements using the Clipart tool.
Clipart includes a variety of categorized graphics you can use to personalize your Photo Book design.
To use Clipart:
- Open the Clipart panel
- Browse available categories
- Select your desired graphic
- Drag it into your page layout
🖼 Image Editing Tools
When selecting an image, additional editing tools become available.
✋ Pan / Zoom
Move the image within its frame or zoom in/out for better positioning.
↔ Transform
Resize or reposition image boxes.
You can:
- Adjust image box dimensions
- Move image boxes around the page
- Fine-tune layout positioning
⟳ Rotate
Rotate your selected image.
🖼 Set as Background
Apply an image as the full page background.
You may also revert the background if needed by clicking Minimize.
⬛ Add Borders
Add a colored or designer border to image boxes for added styling.
🗑 Remove Images
Remove an image by:
-
Selecting the image and clicking the Trash icon
OR - Dragging the image off the spread until it turns red
🔀 Reorganize Pages
Click Reorganize to open the full-screen page management view.
From here, you can:
Move Full Pages
Use the black 4-way arrow icon to drag an entire page to a new location.
Move Individual Page Sides
Hover over one side of a page.
A blue 4-way arrow icon will appear, allowing you to move a single side independently.
When finished, click Spread View at the bottom of the screen to return to the main editor.
➕ Add / Remove Pages
You may add or remove pages at any time during the design process.
Rules:
- Minimum: 10 pages (20 sides)
- Lay-Flat maximum: 30 pages (60 sides)
- Classic maximum: 60 pages (120 sides)
Pages can be added individually.
Pricing updates automatically.
👀 Preview Your Photo Book
📖 Full-Screen Preview
Use Preview to check:
Cropping
Alignment
Spelling
Duplicate images
Empty photo boxes
💾 Save for Later
Need to come back later?
Click the Save icon in the upper-right corner of the design workspace to save your project and return later.
✨ Review Your Selections: Add-Ons & Personalization
Once your Photo Book design is complete, click Add to Cart.
Before proceeding to the cart, a Review Your Selections window will appear where you can review and choose available add-ons for your Photo Book.
Available options include:
Apply professional color correction adjustments to your images.
Click the info icon beside this option to learn what color correction includes and preview a sample comparison image.
Add an extra protective coating (glossy) for enhanced durability and finish.
Click the info icon beside this option for additional details.
✅ Embossing (Leather and Cloth covers only)
Embossing allows you to personalize your Photo Book cover with custom text.
Available embossing options include:
- Bottom-right embossing
- Center embossing
If selected, customization options expand so you can choose:
- Embossing text
- Font style
- Embossing color
Click the info icon beside each embossing location to learn more about:
- Embossing placement options
- Available embossing colors
- Available font styles
- Eligible cover materials
- Example embossing preview
Important Notes:
- Up to 3 lines
- Up to 20 characters per line
- No live embossing preview
- Unsupported characters: | , / { } ( )
🛒 Add to Cart
Once you’ve reviewed your Photo Book design and add-on options, your book will be added to your shopping cart.
❓ Need Help?
If you have questions or need guidance while designing your Photo Book, our Customer Support Team is happy to help.
👉 Please submit a request through our Contact Form.
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