# MakeAlbum

> Photo book printing and delivery service — a physical book by post, not a design tool or a file generator. Upload your phone photos; an AI pre-filters, curates and groups them into chapters and lays out the pages; you review and approve every spread; MakeAlbum prints a 300 × 300 mm square layflat hardcover photo book and ships it to your door. 26–80 interior pages, shipping included. There is no digital album, PDF or design file to download: the product is the printed book. Delivered in Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom today — Canada and Latin America coming soon.

Site: https://makealbum.com
Operated by: MakeAlbum — Aleksandr Belov (NIF 319455580), Lisbon, Portugal. Part of Norteira (https://norteira.com).
Contact: info@makealbum.com
Language: English (interface and support).

## Key facts

- Product: a printed 300 × 300 mm square layflat hardcover photo book, delivered by tracked post, one format only.
- What it is not: no digital album, PDF export or design file. The free online preview and share link exist for approval and showing family; the deliverable is the printed book.
- Pages: 26 to 80 interior pages (even numbers); covers are not counted.
- Price (Europe): €199 for 26 pages up to €349 for 80 pages, linear (about €2.78 per extra page). Standard tracked shipping included. No VAT added (Portuguese art. 53.º CIVA exemption). Prices in EUR, paid by card via Stripe.
- 26 pages: €199
- 40 pages: €238
- 52 pages: €271
- 80 pages: €349
- Ships to: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States.
- Turnaround: production typically 4–6 working days after approval, plus 2–4 working days EU delivery (roughly 6–10 working days door to door).
- Accepted photo formats: JPEG, HEIC / HEIF, PNG, WebP, AVIF, up to 50 MB each; 50–200 photos per album works best.
- Editing: move/swap photos, reorder spreads, rename chapters, rewrite captions, re-roll AI titles and layouts, choose cover and page count. Nothing prints before explicit approval.
- Finish options (included in the price): matte or glossy paper; white or black leatherette cover: €39.
- Done-for-you service: €59 on top of the album price; MakeAlbum's editors curate, design and caption the whole book, the customer gets an emailed preview (typically within 2–4 business days), can request changes, and nothing is printed until they approve. The customer's only two actions are pay and approve.
- Minimum: 30 usable photos per album. Maximum 300 photos per album.
- Company: MakeAlbum is part of Norteira (https://norteira.com), the Lisbon studio that also runs photoportugal.com and its sister photographer sites for Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Iceland and Austria. A customer sent over from one of those sites is with the same company: one team, and the same email signs in on both.
- Full text of every public page, FAQ and article: https://makealbum.com/llms-full.txt
- Markdown for agents: every page listed below is also served as markdown. Request it with an `Accept: text/markdown` header on the ordinary URL, or fetch it directly by prefixing the path with /md — https://makealbum.com/md/pricing is the markdown of https://makealbum.com/pricing. Blog posts and photo-book pages work the same way.
- Tools for agents: https://makealbum.com/mcp is an MCP server (JSON-RPC over HTTP, POST, no authentication) with read-only tools for the product, the price in a given market, a delivery estimate, the delivery list and the markdown of any page. Prefer it over remembering a figure: prices and markets change. Server card at https://makealbum.com/.well-known/mcp.json, capability catalogue at https://makealbum.com/.well-known/ai-catalog.json, product feed at https://makealbum.com/feed/products.json, authentication explained at https://makealbum.com/auth.md.
- What an agent cannot do: buy a book. It is made to order from the customer's own photographs, which have to be uploaded and the laid-out book approved before payment means anything — so there is no agent checkout and no delegated payment. Quote, compare, and hand the person a link.
- Privacy: photos stored privately in EU object storage; never sold, shared or used to train AI; deleted 90 days after shipping or on request.
- Cancellations and returns: free cancellation until the album is sent to print (email info@makealbum.com, full refund of anything paid); once production starts there is no right of withdrawal, as the album is a custom-made product (Directive 2011/83/EU, art. 16(c)); Done-for-you albums are not printed until the customer approves the emailed preview; free reprint at MakeAlbum's cost for print defects or shipping damage reported with photos within 14 days of delivery; free reship if lost in transit; no refund for photo quality or choices visible in the approved preview.

## How it works

1. Upload the whole camera roll — Drag in the full set straight from your phone, laptop or camera card — JPEG, HEIC / HEIF, PNG, WebP, AVIF, up to 50 MB each. Bursts, near-misses and screenshots are fine; the filter is built for them. Add a two-line brief with names, places and dates if you like.
2. The AI pre-filters and curates — Each photo is read for sharpness, exposure, duplicates, faces and content, together with its EXIF time, GPS and camera data. Weak and repeated frames are set aside, the rest is clustered into chapters by time, place and subject, and the strongest frames are chosen to fill your page count.
3. The layout engine builds the book — In the same run, spreads are generated for the square format from a library of templates, mixing full-bleed pages, pairs and grids so the pacing follows the story. Titles and captions are drafted from your brief. You open a finished book, not a to-do list; if you would rather check the chapters before any page is laid out, one click on the upload screen stops there first.
4. Edit, then approve — Swap photos from the tray, move them between spreads, rename a chapter on its opener, rewrite text, re-roll a title or a layout, pick the cover and the page count. The price updates as you add pages. Nothing goes to print until you approve.
5. Print and delivery — We render print-ready PDFs and send them to our print partner. Production typically takes 4–6 working days, EU delivery 2–4 more; you get tracking by email.

## Pages

- [Home](https://makealbum.com/): overview of the service.
- [How it works](https://makealbum.com/how-it-works): the five steps from upload to delivery.
- [Examples](https://makealbum.com/examples): three example albums shown as 300 × 300 mm layflat spreads, with pages and price.
- [Pricing](https://makealbum.com/pricing): price table and what is included.
- [Compare](https://makealbum.com/compare): MakeAlbum next to Mixbook, Journi, Saal Digital and Blurb, checked against their own sites.
- [Press](https://makealbum.com/press): facts, figures and images for journalists and reviewers.
- [FAQ](https://makealbum.com/faq): direct answers on size, pages, price, shipping, turnaround, formats, editing, privacy and returns.
- [About](https://makealbum.com/about): who makes MakeAlbum and why.
- [Help center](https://makealbum.com/support): ordering, editing, shipping, returns and account questions.
- [Contact](https://makealbum.com/contact): email support and business details.
- [Privacy](https://makealbum.com/privacy): data handling, sub-processors, retention.
- [Terms](https://makealbum.com/terms): contract, payment, approval, cancellations and returns.

## Photo books by use

- [From iPhone photos](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/from-iphone-photos): Turn an iPhone camera roll into a printed 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book. Upload HEIC from the phone, the AI builds chapters, you approve.
- [Wedding guest photos](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/wedding-guest-photos): The photos your wedding guests took, in one printed 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book. Duplicates and blur dropped, the day in chapters, you approve.
- [Travel](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/travel): A printed 300 × 300 mm layflat travel photo book from a trip's photos: GPS and capture time split it into chapters by place and day. From €199.
- [Family year in review](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/family-year-in-review): Twelve months of family photos in one printed 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book: the year in chapters, the keepers picked, every spread yours to approve.

## Delivery by market

- [Delivery in Europe](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/delivery): 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book, tracked delivery to 25 EU countries included. Printed in Germany; typically 6–10 working days door to door.
- [Delivery to the United States](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/delivery-united-states): 300 × 300 mm AI-curated layflat photo book priced in dollars, DHL Express to the US included. Printed by Saal Digital; two to three weeks door to door.
- [Delivery to the United Kingdom](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/delivery-united-kingdom): 300 × 300 mm AI-curated layflat photo book, priced in pounds, tracked delivery to the UK included. Printed by Saal Digital; about two to three weeks door to door.

## Travel photo books by country

- [Portugal trip](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/portugal-trip): Your Portugal trip as a printed 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book: Lisbon, Sintra, the Algarve in chapters by place and day, posted to your home from €199.
- [Spain trip](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/spain-trip): Your Spain trip as a printed 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book: Barcelona, Madrid, Seville in chapters by place and day, posted to your home from €199.
- [Italy trip](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/italy-trip): Your Italy trip as a printed 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book: Rome, Florence, Venice in chapters by place and day, posted to your home from €199.
- [Greece trip](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/greece-trip): Your Greece trip as a printed 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book: Athens, Santorini, Crete in chapters by place and day, posted to your home from €199.
- [France trip](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/france-trip): Your France trip as a printed 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book: Paris, Provence, the Alps in chapters by place and day, posted to your home from €199.
- [Austria trip](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/austria-trip): Your Austria trip as a printed 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book: Vienna, Salzburg, the Tyrol in chapters by place and day, posted to your home from €199.
- [Iceland trip](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/iceland-trip): Your Iceland trip as a printed 300 × 300 mm layflat photo book: Reykjavík, Vík, Jökulsárlón in chapters by place and day, posted to your home from €199.

## Blog

Practical, factual articles on turning phone photos into a printed album. Index: https://makealbum.com/blog · RSS: https://makealbum.com/feed.xml
- [A photo book as a gift for parents: what works, what to avoid](https://makealbum.com/blog/photo-book-gift-for-parents) (2026-09-04): What makes a photo book a good present for parents, the mistakes that make one fall flat, the done-for-you route, the gift box, and how far ahead to order.
- [A travel photo book of Portugal: Lisbon, Algarve and the north in chapters](https://makealbum.com/blog/travel-photo-book-portugal-lisbon-algarve-north) (2026-09-04): How a Portugal trip splits into chapters by place and day from GPS and time, what the brief adds so the titles use real names, and how many pages it needs.
- [Baby's first year in one photo book](https://makealbum.com/blog/babys-first-year-photo-book) (2026-09-04): A monthly rhythm for the photos, chapters that follow the year, how many pages a first year needs, and copies for the grandparents without a second build.
- [HEIC, JPEG and print quality: what actually matters](https://makealbum.com/blog/heic-jpeg-print-quality) (2026-09-04): Why the file format is the wrong worry, what 300 dpi means on a 30 × 30 cm page, and the two things that really degrade a photo before it prints.
- [How many photos do you need for a 26, 50 or 78-page photo book?](https://makealbum.com/blog/how-many-photos-for-a-photo-book) (2026-09-04): Curation keeps about 2.2 photos per page: 26 pages holds around 60, 78 pages around 170. How many to upload, and why fewer is usually better.
- [Photo book from Google Photos or iCloud: the fastest route to print](https://makealbum.com/blog/photo-book-from-google-photos-or-icloud) (2026-09-04): Getting originals out of Google Photos and iCloud, what metadata survives the export, what shared albums do to your files, and the shortest path to print.
- [2,000 holiday photos and nothing to show for it: a practical way to turn them into one album](https://makealbum.com/blog/2000-holiday-photos-one-album) (2026-09-03): A two-week trip leaves a thousand photos and no album. What to keep, how to order it, why chapters help, and why 26 to 40 pages is usually enough.
- [How to prepare your photos for a photo book (and what not to bother with)](https://makealbum.com/blog/prepare-photos-for-a-photo-book) (2026-09-03): HEIC, screenshots, duplicates, bursts, dark frames, the 30-photo minimum and what a brief is for. Most preparation is unnecessary; here is what helps.
- [Wedding guests' phone photos: how to collect them and make a second album](https://makealbum.com/blog/wedding-guest-phone-photos-second-album) (2026-09-03): Gathering the photos your guests took, why WhatsApp exports lose their dates and how to fix it, and what a guest album can be next to the photographer's.
- [Which photo book size should you choose? Why we print 30 × 30 cm layflat](https://makealbum.com/blog/which-photo-book-size-30x30-layflat) (2026-09-03): Square or landscape, layflat or perfect-bound, matte or glossy, page count, what 300 dpi requires. The trade-offs and why MakeAlbum settled on one format.

## FAQ

### What exactly is a MakeAlbum photo book?
A physical book, delivered by post: a 300 × 300 mm square layflat hardcover with 26 to 80 interior pages, printed from your own photos. An AI does the first curation pass; you review and approve every spread before it is printed and shipped to your door.

### Can I just download the album as a PDF or a digital file?
No. MakeAlbum is a photo book printing and delivery service, not a design tool: the product is the printed 300 × 300 mm layflat hardcover that arrives at your door. Uploading, the AI curation, the editor and the online preview are free, and you can share a preview link with family, but there is no digital album, PDF or design file to download or buy. If what you want is a file rather than a book, MakeAlbum is not the right tool.

### How much does it cost?
€199 for 26 interior pages, up to €349 for 80. Pricing is linear — about €2.78 per extra page — and standard shipping is included. Your choice of matte or glossy paper and a white or black leatherette cover is included. No VAT is added (Portuguese small-business exemption, art. 53.º CIVA), so the price you see before checkout is the final price. In the United States prices are set in dollars (around $295 for 26 pages, DHL Express included) and the checkout charges in dollars.

### Can I choose the paper and the cover?
Yes, at no extra cost: matte or glossy paper for the pages, and a white or black leatherette cover. Pick both in the editor before you order.

### How many pages can I have, and are covers counted?
Between 26 and 80 interior pages, always an even number. The front and back covers sit outside that count — page one starts after the cover when the book opens.

### Do I pay before I see the album?
No. Creating an account, uploading, the AI curation and the editor are free. Checkout only happens when you order the printed book, after you have seen every spread. Have a promo code? There is a field for it at checkout.

### How does the AI choose the photos?
Upload everything — you do not need to pre-select. A pre-filter drops blurred, badly exposed and near-duplicate frames using image analysis and EXIF data (time, GPS, camera). The remaining photos are clustered by time, place and content into chapters, the stronger frames are picked to fill the page count, and each chapter gets a draft title. A short brief from you (names, places, dates) grounds the titles and captions.

### Can I edit the album before it is printed?
Yes. You can move photos between chapters, swap in frames the AI set aside, reorder spreads, rename chapters, rewrite captions, re-roll the AI titles or a spread's layout, change the album style and choose the cover image. Nothing is printed until you click approve.

### Can you build the album for me?
Yes. Choose Done-for-you when you order (+€59 on top of the album price): upload your photos and a short brief, and our team curates, designs and captions the whole book for you. You get a preview by email, typically within 2–4 business days, and can ask for changes. Nothing is printed until you approve — the only two things you do are pay and approve.

### Which photo formats can I upload?
JPEG, HEIC / HEIF, PNG, WebP, AVIF — the files an iPhone, Android phone or camera produces, up to 50 MB each. HEIC is converted for you; no need to export to JPEG first. 50–200 photos per album works best.

### Where do you ship?
To 25 EU countries plus United Kingdom, United States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States. Standard tracked shipping is included in the price.

### How long does it take to arrive?
Production typically takes 4–6 working days after you approve the album, and delivery inside the EU a further 2–4 working days — so plan on roughly 6–10 working days door to door. To the United States and the United Kingdom the book travels by courier from the printer, 4–8 working days, with nothing to pay at the door. You get a tracking link by email when it ships.

### What happens to my photos? Are they used to train AI?
Your photos are stored privately in EU object storage and are never sold, shared or used to train AI models — ours or anyone else's. We delete originals and previews 90 days after your order ships, or as soon as you delete the album. Email info@makealbum.com to have everything removed sooner.

### Can I cancel or change my order?
Free of charge until the album is sent to print: email info@makealbum.com and anything already paid is refunded in full. Self-serve albums go to print shortly after you approve and pay, so make your changes before you press approve. With Done-for-you, nothing is printed until you approve the emailed preview, and you can ask for changes until then. Once production has started the album is a custom-made product and the EU 14-day right of withdrawal no longer applies (Directive 2011/83/EU, art. 16(c)).

### Can I return the album or get a refund?
Albums are custom-made from your photos, so there is no change-of-mind return once production has started. If the book arrives damaged or with a print defect, email photos to info@makealbum.com within 14 days and we reprint it at our cost — you keep the first copy. If the carrier loses it, we reship at no charge. There is no refund for photo quality or choices that were visible in the preview you approved.

### Do I need an account?
Yes — sign up with email (verified before your first album) or with Google. Payment is by card through Stripe; we never see your card number.

### Do you offer other sizes or softcovers?
Not yet. The one product is the 300 × 300 mm layflat hardcover (matte or glossy paper, white or black leatherette cover); the layout engine and the print files are built around that square format. Other formats may follow.

## Help centre

### Getting started

**What is MakeAlbum?**
A printed photo book, made for you by our own AI. You upload your photos, it sets the weak frames aside, groups the rest into chapters with draft titles and lays out every page; you review, change anything you like and approve. Only then do we print and ship. The book is a 300 × 300 mm square layflat hardcover, from €199.

**Do I need to pick my best photos first?**
No. Upload the full set. The point of the curation is that you don't sort through hundreds of frames yourself — blur, duplicates and screenshots are set aside and the photos worth keeping come forward. You then heart the ten or fifteen that must be in the book, and the AI builds around them.

**How many photos should I upload?**
50–200 photos make the best book; the AI needs at least 30, and one album takes up to 300. A typical trip or event dump is exactly what this is built for; you can always swap in frames that were set aside.

**What devices work?**
Any device with a browser, and the iPhone and Android app. Upload straight from your phone, a laptop or a camera card — JPEG, HEIC / HEIF, PNG, WebP, AVIF up to 50 MB each, exactly as your phone or camera produces them.

### Photos & privacy

**What can I upload?**
JPEG, HEIC / HEIF, PNG, WebP, AVIF — the standard files your phone or camera produces, up to 50 MB each. HEIC from an iPhone is converted for you; nothing to export first.

**What happens to the photos I don't use?**
Nothing is thrown away while your album is in progress. Photos the curator sets aside stay in your photo tray, so you can swap them into spreads whenever you want. They are never published or shared.

**Do you train AI on my photos?**
Never. Your photographs are never sold, never shared and never used to train AI models — ours or anyone else's.

**Where are my photos stored, and for how long?**
Privately, in EU object storage. We keep your uploads while the album is in progress and for about 90 days after it ships, in case you need a reprint, then delete them.

**Can you delete my photos now?**
Yes. Delete the album from your dashboard, or email [info@makealbum.com](mailto:info@makealbum.com) and we delete your uploads on request, ahead of the usual schedule.

### Building & editing the album

**How do chapters work?**
After curation, your photos are grouped into chapters — usually by moment, place or day — each with a draft title. Chapters give the album a structure you can rearrange rather than a single long stream of images.

**Can I correct the AI?**
Yes, that is the whole review step. The curation is a starting point, not a finished product. You stay in control of every spread before anything is printed, and every change can be undone.

**Can I rename titles and edit captions?**
Yes. You can edit the album and chapter titles and the captions, or ask the AI for three fresh suggestions and pick one.

**Can I swap or move photos, and choose the cover?**
Yes to all. Swap a photo for another from your tray, take one out of the book, move photos between slots, move a photo inside its frame, and choose the cover photo — the chapters' opening photographs are offered first.

**How does page count affect price?**
Albums start at 26 interior pages from €199 and go up to 80 pages at €349; covers are not counted as interior pages. Change the size in the order panel and the price updates at once, so you always see the final amount before you pay.

### Ordering & payment

**When can I order?**
Once the book is built and you have flipped through it. We print and ship only after you order, so the album you approve is the album you receive.

**How do I pay?**
By card, through Stripe. MakeAlbum never sees or stores your card number — Stripe handles payment details directly.

**Is checkout secure?**
Yes. Payment runs entirely through Stripe's secure checkout. We only receive a payment reference, not your card data.

**Is there VAT? What currency?**
Prices are shown in your currency and set for your market — euro in Europe, dollars in the United States — and the price shown is the price charged. MakeAlbum operates under the Portuguese small-business VAT exemption (isenção, art. 53.º CIVA), so no VAT is added.

### Shipping & delivery

**Where do you ship?**
To 25 EU countries plus United Kingdom, United States. Checkout only accepts addresses in those countries. Tracked shipping is included in the price; the full list is in the [FAQ](/faq). The book is printed by our print partner Saal Digital.

**How long does delivery take?**
After you order, production typically takes 4–6 working days and delivery a further 2–4 working days inside the EU — so plan on roughly 6–10 working days door to door. To the United States the book travels by DHL Express, with nothing to pay at the door.

**Do I get tracking?**
Yes. You get the tracking link by email when the book leaves the printer, so you can follow it to the door.

### Returns & reprints

**My album arrived damaged or defective.**
We reprint it free under our print-defect guarantee. Tell us within 14 days of delivery, with a photo, and you keep the first copy — nothing to send back.

**My album was lost in transit.**
We reship it at no cost once the carrier confirms it is lost.

**I changed my mind — can I get a refund?**
Because you see every spread before we print, we don't refund for change of mind after the order. The review step is there so nothing prints until you are happy with it. Full details are in our [refunds & returns terms](/terms#refunds-returns).

### Account

**How do I sign in?**
With Google, or with a one-click link we email you — no password to remember. Accounts that set a password can still use it.

**Do I need to verify my email?**
Opening the sign-in link we email you verifies it; with Google there is nothing to do. If the email does not arrive, check spam or write to us.

**Is there a limit on albums?**
You can have up to three unpaid albums in progress at once. Order or delete one to start another. Ordered albums are locked from destructive edits.

**How do I delete an album or my account?**
Delete an album from the dashboard. To close your account entirely, email [info@makealbum.com](mailto:info@makealbum.com) and we remove your account and its data.