Baby books
A baby’s first year photo book
A baby’s first year photo book is a printed book of the first twelve months, made from the photos already on your phone. With Photouria you upload the year’s photos, choose your baby, and it finds every photo of them and lays out a linen hardcover book you can change before printing. It costs from NZ$149 with shipping included, and delivery usually takes 4 to 13 business days.
Building the book is free and needs no account. You do not have to sort the photos first.
In New Zealand? There is a version of this page for New Zealand parents.
Nobody is short of photos after a first year. The usual problem is the opposite: a thousand or two, spread over two phones, most of them nearly the same as the one before. The book does not get made because the first step is going through all of them. This is a way to skip that step.
How do you make a baby's first year photo book?
1. Upload the whole year
Upload from your phone or computer, and add your partner’s photos to the same library. Photos that grandparents and friends took can go in too. Leave the blurry ones and the near duplicates in; choosing comes later and is done for you.
2. Choose your baby and add their birthday
Photouria automatically organises your photos and groups the people in them. Pick your baby, start a first year book, and add their birthday when it asks. With the birthday, the book keeps to the first twelve months. Without one, it is not limited by age.
3. Read the book and change what you like
The book arrives laid out in the order the photos were taken, so the year reads from the first days to the first birthday. A baby changes quickly, so look through it once: swap in anything it missed, remove a page, and add captions for dates and milestones.
4. Order it
You pay only at this point. Put a name and a year on the spine before you do.
How does it choose from thousands of photos?
You tell it roughly how many photos you want, and it picks that many from everything you uploaded. It looks for photos that are sharp and well lit, favours the ones with your baby clearly in them, and when you took a burst of the same moment it aims to keep the strongest one rather than print the whole burst.
The choice is a starting point, not a verdict. Every photo it picked can be swapped for one it did not, and the whole library stays available while you edit.
What should a first year book include?
- The first days. Hospital or home, and the people who came to meet them.
- The firsts. First smile, first food, first time sitting, crawling, standing. A caption with the date is worth adding here.
- The people. Grandparents, siblings, the friends who held them. Photos with other people in them usually make the best pages.
- Ordinary days. The bath, the pram, the high chair. These are the ones that are hardest to remember later.
- The first birthday. A natural last page.
How many photos does it take, and what does it cost?
Photouria asks for a range rather than an exact number: 24 to 30, 31 to 40, 41 to 60, 61 to 80, or 81 to 100 photos, or a custom number up to 180. A first year usually wants the upper end.
The count sets the price. NZ$149 covers up to 30 photos, then NZ$10 for every 10 more, capped at NZ$219 from 91 photos up. Prices are in New Zealand dollars wherever the book is going, and shipping is included.
What are the options for a first year book?
| A Photouria book | A design it yourself photo book | A fill in baby journal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Choosing the photos | You upload the year and the photos of your baby are gathered and chosen for you | You go through the camera roll and pick each one | You print a few photos and stick them in |
| Laying out the pages | Laid out for you, then you change whatever you want | You place every photo on every page | The pages are printed already. You write in the gaps |
| Best when | There are a thousand photos and no spare evenings | You want to design every page and have the time | You want handwriting and keepsakes more than photographs |
| The book | Linen hardcover, foil stamped spine, printed dust jacket | Depends on the supplier | Depends on the journal |
| Price | From NZ$149, shipping included | Varies | Varies |
When is the best time to make it?
Around the first birthday, while the year is still clear in your mind. If you want the book on the table at the party, allow for delivery, which usually takes 4 to 13 business days from the day you order, so allow three weeks to be safe. We cannot promise an arrival date.
If the first birthday was a while ago, nothing is lost. The photos carry their own dates, so a first year book made at two or at five comes out the same.
What is the printed book like?
Every Photouria book is the same object: a Lulu linen hardcover, woven linen over hardcover boards, your title foil stamped on the spine, and a printed dust jacket over the top. There are six sizes, from 14 × 22 cm up to A4 at 21 × 30 cm, and six linen colours. Inside, photos print on 80lb coated paper with a matte finish, and a book can run from 24 pages up to 800.
Questions parents ask
How much does a baby's first year photo book cost?
NZ$149 covers up to 30 photos, then NZ$10 for every 10 more, capped at NZ$219 from 91 photos up. Prices are in New Zealand dollars wherever the book is going, and shipping is included. Building the book is free, so you pay only if you order it.
Do I have to give my baby's birthday?
No, but it helps. With a birthday the book keeps to the first twelve months. Without one it draws on every photo of your baby, whatever their age.
Can I include photos from my partner's phone and from grandparents?
Yes. Upload them into the same library. Photos from different phones are sorted together by the date they were taken.
Can I add dates, milestones and captions?
Yes. You can add captions and your own text before you order, and the title on the spine is foil stamped.
Do I need an account to start?
No. You can build and preview the whole book without an account, and nothing is charged until you order.
Where do you ship?
To New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and most of Europe.