Google Photo is the minimalist’s choice when it comes to photo book creation. The interface is very simple, but doesn’t provide a lot of customization options. It’s also relatively inexpensive, and the book quality is very good.
This service doesn’t offer 8 x 8 photo books, but there is a 9 x 9 hardcover book. For 20 pages, this book only costs $19.99, which is much cheaper than other services. Google does charge for standard shipping and tax so the price will go up a little bit. To add more pages to the book it only costs $0.65 per page. Pages can be added individually so you don’t need to add two pages at a time.
This book is a quality coffee table book. Our testers loved the look and feel of the cover and felt like it was more professionally made than many of the others we received. It features a cardstock-like flyleaf, which adds to the books overall elegance. The front cover printed a bit darker than we would have liked and it is a tad grainy but it doesn’t look bad. The inner images printed well, overall. Our experts stated that some images came out a bit grainy but others looked wonderful. The quality of your images will partially depend on your phone’s camera since that’s where the images come from. You can also upload photos from your computer, but there are no links to upload directly from social media.
This service defaults to placing one image per page. To add more than one image to a page you will need to click on the “Add Collage Page” link and choose the images you specifically want to use on that page. For single image spreads, there are three layout options: centered on the page or zoomed into either taking up the whole page or zooming into a square window.
The software lets you add captions to each page so you can label them as you see fit. There are no backgrounds and no stickers or embellishments to customize your books with. If you’d prefer a minimalist, white-page book that is simple to create this is the service for you. However, if you want to be able to customize each and every page, you’ll be disappointed with this service. You’ll likely be happier with Shutterfly.
There are only two book sizes: a soft cover 7 x 7 photo book and a hard cover 9 x 9 photo book. You won’t find any landscape or portrait covers as square is the only option. Additionally, Google Photo doesn’t offer premium book options like lay-flat or leather covers.
This service is very easy to use but can be a bit frustrating due to its limitations. The number of photos you select from your album will determine how many pages your book will have. You must have a minimum of 20 pages to place an order. The images automatically fill the book and can be rearranged with just a few button clicks. Google Photo allows you to share albums with others, so it’s easy to make a collaborative photo book for family reunions or sports teams or other groups.
Google Photo only offers standard shipping so you won’t be able to get your books to arrive any faster. Fortunately, the service does ship to other countries, do feel free to ship gifts to friends or family outside the U.S. If there are any printing errors, Google Photo will replace your book for free. Should you have questions, you can contact a representative via email or find helpful information on the FAQs page or user forum.
Google Photo offers minimalist photo books that only take a few minutes to make. They don’t offer any backgrounds, stickers or other customization options and you can only have one photo per image. The print quality of our book was decent and the binding of the book was excellent. We recommend this service to anyone who wants a photo book in a hurry and doesn’t particularly care for the scrapbooking aspect offered by other companies.
