It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Facebook is everywhere. It’s the best way to stay in touch with family, friends and acquaintances either by posting updates or having a quick chat. And don’t forget that this is one of the first platforms to which most of us upload our photos, waiting to be rewarded with Likes and receiving complimentary comments. These Facebook albums are ideal for being included into a photo book. Thankfully most photo book builders allow users to use virtually any picture uploaded to Facebook as the base for their new photo books, sometimes even including the original captions and comments to be featured under or next to each photo as well. There’s typically two choices available, either to upload pictures from your Facebook albums manually or have the service import them all for you. The amount of work you want to put in really comes down to you, but a photo book really is the ultimate way of literally materializing your Facebook timeline in an extremely stylish manner.
How to Make a Facebook Photo Book
Creating a photo book from Facebook photos is extremely easy since there are two very convenient methods for fetching the relevant pictures. Granted, Facebook compresses every picture uploaded to its servers and that might result in slight distortions when compared with the original pictures. However, since many photo book editors allow users to adjust photos later on – either by cropping or by adding advanced adjustments – this compression issue likely won’t be bothersome at all.
The simplest and most direct method of using Facebook pictures as the foundation for your future photo book is by authorizing your Facebook account within the editor. Once the permission to fetch your Facebook albums has been granted, the photo book builder gathers all albums found on your profile and allows you to either use an entire album or just select certain pictures. Keep in mind, though, that typically no other data is imported from your profile, unless you choose a social media centric builder like My Social Book or Chatbooks. However, the photo feed is constantly refreshed once a profile has been connected with the editor, so the process can be repeated any number of times, even in new projects, without having to go through the importation all over again. There’s no need to worry about your privacy here, though, as photo book builders only gain access to the most essential data needed for your photo albums, meaning that companies won’t be able to bombard you with spam or ads.
The other method of fetching Facebook pictures is by simply downloading them from your profile one by one or as an entire album in ZIP format. Unfortunately this method will therefore lose any comments, captions, dates and locations in the process, so they still cannot be imported. And as you might tell, this adds an unnecessary second step to the photo upload process during editing. However, not all builders offer social media importing, so this might be your only chance to create a Facebook photo book in this case.
Best Photo Books of 2024
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Including Comments and Captions
With the exception of photo book companies specializing in social media albums, comments and photo captions are never imported into your would-be photo book. In other words the only option is to type them in one by one should you want to include them into the book, which could be a tedious process but at the same time opens up endless possibilities.
Although it is possible to use the traditional approach, using a variety of layouts will add some spice to the book. Maybe there’s a long but particularly funny or interesting comment you definitely want added into the book, and in these cases having some extra space certainly comes in handy. There is also the option to play around with different fonts, their color and size – things that not even Facebook can pull off. And of course it can be appealing to emphasize certain captions or comments in other ways, too, even going as far as replacing certain words with word-type embellishments. Either way, remember that whether you leave the text as it is or give it a creative twist, captions and comments are always one of the best opportunities to make the photo book unique.
Facebook Group Photo Books
Creating a photo book using Facebook group photos is a bit more complicated than using your own albums. While individual albums can be imported into the photo book or the editor’s photo storage without major hassle, the group album download option is only available for those who either have admin roles in the group or possess the necessary permission from the group’s admin. If that’s you, then the photo import features are basically the same as if you were uploading your own Facebook albums. If you lack the permission then the only option is to get those photos by going into the album and downloading them one by one or by using a browser add-on.
However, don’t fret too much about these limited import options, since this just means it can be turned into a group project for everyone involved. By assigning an admin of the Facebook group to upload the pictures who can then start the creation process of the photo book, the group can then get involved too so long as you choose to use services such as Mixbook, where collaboration is a key feature of the photo book builder. This way everyone can add photos to the albums to the editor’s storage while suggestions and instructions can be shared in person or via Messenger chat.
Facebook Photo Book Makers
Chatbooks
Chatbooks is one of the many photo book companies that fully embrace social media, which is not only proven by its versatile availability across various platforms (browser editor and app) but also by the many sources that can be used to directly import your photos, including Facebook. A huge advantage of Chatbooks is not only does it fetch your Facebook albums, but it also imports the respective date, location and caption of each picture. Another advantage is the company’s $8 per month subscription service (shipping included), Photo Book Series. With this, every time a photo is added to your Facebook account it also appears in a photo book that is automatically ordered and dispatched every time 60 new photos are added to your account. Slight modifications are still allowed via this method, however, if you prefer more editing options or want a book in a bigger 8×8 size then you should opt for Custom Book.
My Social Book
Without a doubt My Social Book is the Facebook photo book editor, since it exclusively allows Facebook and Instagram photos to be imported into the service. To make things even better, this builder imports everything from your Facebook account, including comments, captions, and even the number of Likes on each photo too. Aside from the automatically generated My Best-of Photo Book – a 50-page collection of your best photos – My Social Book offers plenty of options to collect images for your photo book, whether from your own Facebook account, the profile of a friend or family member, your Facebook albums or just a page you like. Thanks to the oversimplified editor all you need to do is determine the time period your photos should be imported from, which posts you’d like to keep or discard and how the cover should look for a 10×8 portrait softcover photo book for as low as $12.
Blurb
Although Facebook photos can be imported into Blurb using the regular building tools – the online editor, Bookify, or the downloadable software, BookWright – the service also includes the option to create a Facebook- or Instagram-built photo book in 7×7 size for as low as $14.99 with an even simpler editor. Choosing this option means you can import any photo from any selected album – even including captions and comments that can be edited with different fonts, colors and size. Text can also be hidden on each page or all pages, and can be applied to the customizable front cover as well. The best thing of all, however, is that it is possible to switch to the more advanced Bookify editor at any time, where you will find more layouts and more photo upload options.