Best Web sites for turning digital pics into photo books

Best Web sites for turning digital pics into photo books

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Story Published: Jan 2, 2009 at 5:23 PM PDT

Story Updated: Jan 5, 2009 at 9:05 AM PDT

By Good Housekeeping

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How will you organize all those digital photos you took during the holidays? Maybe you want a custom-made photo book.

These days it's easy to turn your holiday digital photos into a good-looking, 20-page hardcover book without spending a lot.

The folks at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute tested a number of Web sites that let you make these memory albums.

Todd Kent, the institute's test engineer, said the team tested14 photo-book Web sites to see how easy it was to upload the photos, and how easy it was to actually design a book.

"We then ordered them, and scored each final book that arrived to us," he said.

Shutterfly.com created the best photo book in just a few clicks.

"It offers some convenient options with a lot of creativity, such as backgrounds and layouts," Kent said.

With a price tag of $25 per photo book, the CVSPhotoenter.com got Good Housekeeping's "best value" pick.

"The Web site was very easy to use, but was a little limited in creative options, but when the final product arrived, our art department scored it top marks for photo quality," Kent said.

And if you'd rather display your photos in a digital frame, Good Housekeeping says be sure the frame can read the memory card you have.

In Good Housekeeping's tests, the CVS and Apple photo books were the fastest ones to create.

The editors says if you have an Apple computer and want to make a photo book, consider using Apple's iPhoto program. It lets you organize and design layouts on your hard drive, so you don't need to upload pictures to a Web site.

People who tested the iPhoto program gave it high marks for style. You get a 20-page book for about $40.


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