Photo book from Google Photos or iCloud: the fastest route to print

Most people's photos are not on their phone any more. They are in Google Photos or iCloud Photos, with the phone holding a smaller copy to save space. That changes the first step of making a photo book: before you can upload anything, you need the originals back in a form a browser can hand over. This article covers both services, what each export does to the files, and the shortest path from there to a printed book.

Where the originals actually are

Both services work the same way. The full-resolution file lives in the cloud; the phone keeps a reduced version and fetches the original when you open a photo, edit it or share it. Google Photos calls the option "free up space" and iCloud calls it "optimise iPhone storage", and on a phone that has been in use for a couple of years it is almost always on.

The practical consequence is that any export has to pull the originals down first. On a large set that takes time and a Wi-Fi connection. Plan for it rather than starting the night before you want to order.

Exporting from iCloud Photos

From the iPhone itself. For MakeAlbum you do not need to export at all. Open the upload page in Safari, tap to choose files, and the Photos picker appears. Select as many photos as you like; iOS fetches each original from iCloud as it uploads. The files arrive as HEIC with their EXIF intact. This is the fastest route if the set is under a few hundred photos and you are on Wi-Fi. The iPhone photo book page describes it step by step.

From a Mac. Open Photos, select the photos or an album, then File, Export, Export Unmodified Originals. That writes the HEIC or JPEG the camera produced, with the full EXIF block: capture time, GPS, camera and lens. The alternative, Export Photos as JPEG at a chosen size, re-encodes the file, and there is no reason to shrink a photo you are about to print. Choose originals.

From iCloud.com. Sign in, open Photos, select, and use the download button. Downloads come as the original format, with EXIF. Selecting hundreds of photos in a browser is slower than on a Mac, and large selections arrive as a zip you unpack first.

From Windows. iCloud for Windows syncs the library to a folder, and the files in that folder are originals. Upload from there.

Exporting from Google Photos

From photos.google.com. Select a run of photos (click the first, shift-click the last), then the three-dot menu and Download. Selections over a handful of files arrive as a zip. The files inside are what you uploaded: HEIC if the phone shot HEIC, JPEG if it shot JPEG. EXIF is preserved.

One caveat about quality. Google Photos has two upload settings. "Original quality" stores the file as it came from the camera. "Storage saver", which used to be called "High quality", recompresses photos on upload and caps their resolution at 16 megapixels. Anything stored under Storage saver has already lost some detail; it is still well above what a 300 mm page needs, but there is no original to recover, so do not expect the file to be identical to the one on the phone.

Google Takeout. For a whole library, Takeout produces an archive with the photos plus a small JSON file next to each one holding the album name, description and Google's copy of the timestamp. The photos themselves keep their EXIF. Skip the JSON files when uploading; the upload accepts image types only and reads the date from the file.

From the Android phone. As with iOS, the browser's file picker on Android can open Google Photos directly, and the app fetches the original for each selection. On a phone set to Storage saver, the file it hands over is the stored copy.

What survives, and what does not

The three pieces of metadata that matter for a curated book are capture time, GPS position and orientation. Capture time orders the book; GPS splits a trip into chapters by place; orientation decides whether a photo is treated as portrait or landscape.

• iCloud originals, iCloud for Windows, the iOS file picker: all three survive.
• Google Photos download and Takeout: all three survive; Storage saver files are recompressed but keep their EXIF.
• Photos that went through a chat app before reaching your library: usually none. WhatsApp strips EXIF and downscales; the wedding guest photos article covers how the ordering copes with that.
• Screenshots: no EXIF and no GPS. They are set aside automatically on upload.

Edited photos deserve a mention. In iCloud, Export Unmodified Originals gives you the frame as shot, without your crop or filter; the ordinary export gives you the edited version. Google Photos downloads the edited version. Decide which you want to print before exporting.

Shared albums are not originals

Both services have shared albums, and both treat them differently from the main library.

An iCloud Shared Album reduces photos to 2048 pixels on the long edge when they are added. That is enough for a small slot on a page and short of what a full 300 mm page wants. If family members contributed to a Shared Album and you want their photos full-page, ask them to send the originals by AirDrop, an iCloud link or as a file rather than pulling them from the Shared Album. The newer iCloud Shared Photo Library, the family library, is different: it holds full originals for everyone in it.

Google Photos shared albums and partner sharing keep whatever the contributor uploaded. If they use Original quality, you get originals; if they use Storage saver, you get the recompressed copy. Save the photos to your own library, then download from there.

HEIC: leave it alone

Both exports will give you HEIC files from any iPhone shot after 2017. There is no need to convert them. MakeAlbum accepts JPEG, HEIC and HEIF, PNG, WebP and AVIF up to 50 MB per file. HEIC is converted on the server, and the EXIF block is read from the untouched original before conversion, so the capture time and GPS come through. Converting to JPEG yourself is a step that takes time and, depending on the tool, can discard the same metadata. The preparation guide goes through the rest of what not to bother with.

From the export to the book

Once the files are in a folder, or on a phone that can hand them over, the rest is short.

1. Start an album and upload the whole set. Do not pre-select; between 50 and 300 photos per album works best, and the filter is built for bursts, screenshots and near-duplicates. Uploads run in the background and each photo is processed as it arrives.
2. Write a brief: who is in the photos, where they were taken, the dates. The brief grounds the chapter titles and captions.
3. Review the chapters. The set is ordered by capture time, clustered by time, place and content, and each chapter gets a hero frame and a draft title. Rename, move photos, ask for more or fewer chapters.
4. Edit the spreads and approve. Nothing is printed until you do.

The result is a 300 × 300 mm layflat hardcover of 26 to 130 pages, from €179 with shipping included. How it works has the full sequence, the examples show the spreads, and pricing has the page-count table.

The fastest route, in one line

iPhone with iCloud: upload from Safari on the phone over Wi-Fi, HEIC and all. Android with Google Photos: the same from Chrome. Anything larger, or from a computer: Export Unmodified Originals on a Mac, or Download from photos.google.com, then upload the folder. Skip the conversion and the pruning, and spend the time on the brief.