# MakeAlbum blog > Guides on choosing, preparing and printing photos for a photo book. Source: https://makealbum.com/blog · MakeAlbum, Lisbon, Portugal 12 articles. Each one is available as markdown at the same address under `/md`. - [How much does a photo book cost, and what are you paying for?](https://makealbum.com/blog/how-much-does-a-photo-book-cost) — Where the price of a printed photo book goes: paper, binding, cover, page count, shipping and the work of making it. What is included at MakeAlbum, what is not, and how to compare quotes. (2026-09-23, 5 min) - [Layflat vs standard binding: what changes when a photo book opens flat](https://makealbum.com/blog/layflat-vs-standard-photo-book-binding) — What a layflat photo book is, how it is made, what it costs, and when the standard perfect-bound book is the better choice. Written by a company that prints only layflat. (2026-09-23, 5 min) - [A photo book as a gift for parents: what works, what to avoid](https://makealbum.com/blog/photo-book-gift-for-parents) — 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. (2026-09-04, 6 min) - [A travel photo book of Portugal: Lisbon, the Algarve and the north, in order](https://makealbum.com/blog/travel-photo-book-portugal-lisbon-algarve-north) — How a Portugal trip stays in the order you travelled from GPS and time, what the brief adds so the album title uses real names, and how many pages it needs. (2026-09-04, 6 min) - [Baby's first year in one photo book](https://makealbum.com/blog/babys-first-year-photo-book) — A monthly rhythm for the photos, a book that follows the year in order, how many pages a first year needs, and copies for the grandparents without a second build. (2026-09-04, 6 min) - [HEIC, JPEG and print quality: what actually matters](https://makealbum.com/blog/heic-jpeg-print-quality) — 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. (2026-09-04, 6 min) - [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) — 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. (2026-09-04, 6 min) - [Photo book from Google Photos or iCloud: the fastest route to print](https://makealbum.com/blog/photo-book-from-google-photos-or-icloud) — 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. (2026-09-04, 6 min) - [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) — A two-week trip leaves a thousand photos and no album. What to keep, how to order it, why each moment should stay together, and why 26 to 40 pages is usually enough. (2026-09-03, 6 min) - [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) — HEIC, screenshots, duplicates, bursts, dark frames, the 30-photo minimum and what a brief is for. Most preparation is unnecessary; here is what helps. (2026-09-03, 5 min) - [Wedding guests' phone photos: how to collect them and make a second album](https://makealbum.com/blog/wedding-guest-phone-photos-second-album) — 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. (2026-09-03, 6 min) - [Which photo book size should you choose? Why we print 30 × 30 cm layflat](https://makealbum.com/blog/which-photo-book-size-30x30-layflat) — 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. (2026-09-03, 6 min)