The difference between photo books and photo albums

Ensuring you create what's best for you

Picking the right format is the first and most important step in creating your precious keepsake. At MILK Books, we provide a variety of customizable print keepsakes, and we'd like to ensure you create the perfect one for you and your story. We've put together some simple shorthand to help you clarify the difference between our product ranges. But first, what is the difference between photo books and photo albums?

So, now you know the difference between photo books and albums. What's next?

Next you need to determine which features will help your story shine! We've put together four common questions for you to answer that will help you discern which features and therefore which product will best serve your story.

1. How many photos do you have?

If you have a curated selection of special photos (e.g. professional wedding portraits or family portraits), we recommend creating a photo album. Our Photo Albums have smaller page counts as we use a thicker board material to ensure your photos will be best preserved for years to come. You have the freedom to choose from our photo album paper options so you can select the material that will compliment your photos best. Our lay-flat binding is perfect for giving your moments that matter the perfect space to breathe, across a double-page spread.

If you have hundreds of photos or even thousands (e.g. photos from your recent travels or family photos on your camera roll), we recommend creating a photo book. Our Photo Books are crafted using a selection of high quality papers, which you can choose between to best suit your photos. As these are thinner than our albums range, MILK Photo Books can have up to 200 pages, which is perfect for giving space to many moments.

For those with lots of wedding photos, we recommend the MILK Wedding Magazine. Like photo books, the MILK Wedding Magazine has up to 200 pages, and the large portrait format (designed in the image of a traditional magazine) is a beautiful way to showcase your wedding day.

A shorthand would be: lots of photos = photo book, less photos = photo album.

2. What occasion are you creating for?

Traditionally, wedding days are celebrated in wedding photo albums. The weighty board pages and luxury lay-flat binding perfectly suit the importance of such an occasion. But if you're looking for something less traditional for your wedding day, we recommend the MILK Wedding Magazine. With a card cover (softcover) and art paper pages, it's the modern way to celebrate your day.

Family heirloom projects deserve the high quality and prestige that our photo albums offer. They're perfect for projects filled with precious old photos that you'd want to pass down to the next generation.

Family yearbooks and travel mementos are typically created with products from our photo book range. All the memories that fit into a year or a trip abroad need a high page count. Plus, it's the type of project that will be flicked through often and enjoyed, which suits the paper pages of a photo book.

Professional newborn photos are often celebrated in our medium sized landscape photo albums. For a casual brag book style memento (popular for grandparents), we would recommend a small Classic Photo Book.

3. What are the quality of your photos?

We recommend printing photos of at least 300dpi but we understand that some of our favorite photos aren't necessarily the best quality. If you have a collection of photographs that aren't high quality but have high sentimental value, we recommend printing them in our smaller formats - we offer small and medium sizes across our range.

If you have high resolution photos, then unfortunately that doesn't narrow down your selection!

4. Finally, is this a project you'll enjoy often?

Will this keepsake sit on display in your home for guests to flick through? Or is it a treasure you're creating for posterity?

If it's going to be on your coffee table, we recommend photo books. Softcover Photo Books are great for travel photos that will be enjoyed often and their water varnished card cover adds an extra layer of protection. Classic Photo Books are similarly great for family photos that will be flicked through with children.

If it's a precious keepsake that will be enjoyed for lifetimes, we recommend our Premium Photo Albums.

If you ask yourselves these four questions, we're sure you can find the perfect product for you. But if you're still unsure, we've got another helpful table below which outlines the differences between our two most popular product ranges: Classic and Premium.

Visit the Compare Our Range page on our site to get a comprehensive list of the options available to each product within our book and album ranges. For specific information regarding our selection of materials, visit the Papers and Fabrics pages.

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