Here's How Chatbooks Work And Why You Should Buy a Photo Book ASAP
Improve your marriage, strengthen family bonds, increase your children's emotional intelligence and have customer satisfaction with Chatbooks photo books. Read on to find out how.
Odds are you have roughly 1 million photos living on your phone. And in between the screenshots of memes and pictures of your Wi-Fi router number, you'll find your most precious memories (weddings, vacations, family birthdays, silly moments with the kids and more). And if you cherish that snapshot of your daughter's first steps, then you might feel a little bad that you usually find it when you scroll to look at that takeout menu you snapped a pic of a few months back.
There's a good chance you haven't gotten around to printing your photo books because they're just so annoying to make, and that's where Chatbooks come in. Chatbooks are super easy to make, affordable, and durable enough that the kids can actually play with them unsupervised. You might find yourself with some questions like: How does Chatbooks work? And how big are Chatbooks when they come in the mail? Read on to get all of your photo book questions answered.
Let us count the ways! According to a study from Chatbooks and HP:
- Printed photos strengthen your family: 76% of families say printed photos help their family members connect in ways they wouldn’t with digital photos.
- Printed photos improve your marriage: 73% of adults say printed photos help them feel a stronger connection to their spouse.
- Printed photos help you remember: 91% of adults believe printed photos help them recall events and details that they wouldn’t otherwise.
- Printed photos encourage open play: 68% of parents say printed photos enhance their children’s imaginations and storytelling abilities.
- Printed photos increase emotional intelligence: 67% of parents say that looking at printed photos with their children prompts them to talk about emotions.
- Printed photos help you chill out: 53% of parents say they feel more relaxed after looking at printed photos with their children; 55% say a photo browsing session leads them to feel more forgiving toward their children.
Not convinced yet? How about this: Their software will never go out of date, they’ll never be corrupted, and you’ll never forget their password. Printed photos serve as a backup system to your digital photos—one that’s a lot more entertaining than a bunch of files on your hard drive.
Any printed photo book can be fun for kids—80% of parents say their children feel happy when looking at printed photos, according to a study from Chatbooks and HP. But which photo books are best for kids depends on their durability—a book that makes kids happy is a book that’s gotta be tough!
Monthly Minis are printed on a durable paper that won’t show every fingerprint. Each book measures 5x5", making them perfect for tiny hands. And it has a Toddler Guarantee: If your kids play with your books so much that they destroy it, we’ll replace it for free. Just email hello@chatbooks.com, or send us a DM on Instagram.
Monthbooks are also a great for kids! With hardcover and softcover options, these 5x7" photo books (perfect for phone photos) come in a variety of colors and designer cover options. You can also opt for 4 books, 6 books or 12 books per year. (They make amazing and easy baby books, too!)
Adults are busy! Asking which photo books are best for adults is really asking which photo book takes the least time. If you make a photo book from an app, you’re making a photo book from where your photos live—your phone—saving you time and effort.
Plenty of online services let you make photo books. However, for the easiest way to print photos, try Chatbooks! Chatbooks offers high-quality photo books that are easy to make, and they start at the affordable price you're looking for. You can create from your desktop or phone. And when you use the Chatbooks app, you can add photos right from your camera roll and customize your photo book, all in a matter of minutes.
The Chatbooks app makes easy photo books possible: If your camera roll includes photo albums—either ones you’ve set up yourself or ones that your phone has automatically identified as belonging together—Chatbooks can pull in an entire album for you. Just download the app, choose your photos, and you’re done in under five minutes. You can also use your social media accounts as photo sources, too.
It can take as little as five minutes to make a photo book. Once you’ve submitted your order, it takes three to five business days to print, followed by one to six business days to ship in the United States, Canada and Australia, based on the shipping option you choose at checkout. Other international orders may take longer to ship, so Chatbookers outside the United States can start looking for their photo books 10 to 14 days after ordering.
The best way to print photos is whatever way will get you to print them instead of just thinking about printing them! Easy photo books are the best photo books. Print services through places like drugstores allow you to submit digital photos for pickup, but using an app that’s built from the ground up as a way to print your photos straight from your phone creates a streamlined experience.
Different photo book services offer different kinds of paper. Most papers are glossy, matte, or lustre. Glossy photo paper makes it easier to see details and is known for being particularly vibrant, but it tends to collect fingerprints (particularly when the tiny fingers are coated with peanut butter). Matte photo papers are good for display, since they won’t give off a glare. Lustre photo paper falls somewhere between the two, making it the Goldilocks of photos that will be handled heavily: less glare and fewer fingerprints than glossy photos, but able to carry brilliant colors.
Chatbooks photo books are printed on lustre paper. Photo prints are on matte. The paper is manufactured by Lecta, a mill committed to following sustainable practices. Here’s more information about the paper used in Chatbooks products.
Assuming you don’t have a high-quality photo printer (and photo paper … and photo-quality ink) at the ready, using an app-based photo printing service is the most seamless process. A well-designed photo printing app is built for intuitive use and will guide you through the printing process with just a few taps.
Yes! That’s just one reason to make photo books online (you can make multiple copies without running out of photo corners painstakingly placed in old-school photo albums). At most photo book services, you can just select the quantity you want when checking out.
Most services that offer ways to make a photo book online have a collage option. Collages are great for packing in more photos per page, but they don’t allow the photos to be seen in the kind of detail that many people want from their printed books.
If you use the Chatbooks collage option in a custom book, pay attention to the order in which you place photos in your album. Photos in collage pages are loaded in the order they were uploaded, going from left to right, then top to bottom. To add a collage page, tap on the plus icon to create a new page, then select “Add Photo Collage.”
There’s no right answer to how many photos you should include, and which photo book sizes are best for you depends on your needs. Coffee table-style books meant for display are usually large; these photo books look impressive on shelves or laid out for display. Thick photo books of more than 200 pages can showcase specific events like vacations with panache. But for everyday use, books of more than 150 pages or so can become unwieldy—particularly if you expect children to be handling your photo books.
Chatbooks photo books range from 30 to 366 pages (a photo for every day of the year—including leap day!). The average range is 70 to 90 pages.
It’s a matter of personal preference. Some users prefer that their photo books reflect the original orientation of the photo; both portrait and landscape print well. Other users prefer their photo books to have a uniform look and have all their photos printed as squares. The square setting is best for Instagram photos and other images framed as a square when they were taken. Otherwise, changing photos to a square setting will mean that the image will be cropped.
If you’ve taken a photo from a smartphone that’s less than a few years old and select photos that look good on screen, chances are that your photos will print pretty well. Printing photos from the original source will result in the highest-quality photos. Most of the time, that means printing photos from your camera roll. Chatbooks custom books and prints can be printed from your social media feeds and cloud storage as well, with good results. But for photos of questionable quality from social media feeds, finding the original photo will result in the best picture.
Most photo printing problems result from photos that are too dark. Photos taken in natural light tend to look the best. As long as your image is around at least 450 dpi, its resolution will print well. Here's how to check your photo resolution.
When looking at where to make photo books, consider using a service like Chatbooks that has a built-in image quality warning. The Chatbooks app has a gauge that will warn you when photos are of poor quality. Sometimes you’ll want to print a photo even if you’re aware that it won’t turn out well, and Chatbooks won’t prevent you from doing so—you’ll just know what you’re getting upfront.
For visual consistency (and simplicity), consider choosing a standard size for all your photo books. Like we said, easy photo books are the best photo books. Chatbooks offers photo books in four sizes. Monthly Minis are 5x5", Monthbooks are 5x7" and Classic Photo Books come in 6x6", 8x8", and 10x10" options. The mini books are ideal for children or quick, fun series; for memento photo books, go with a larger size!
Maybe you're new to Chatbooks and would love a little discount to get you started on your photo book journey? Learn more about our new customer discount code!
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