5 Top tips for an eye-catching photo book cover

Photo books are a unique and special way to preserve your most heartfelt memories. Whether you want to tell a compelling story with your images or showcase your photography skills, creating your own photo book gives your photos the platform they deserve. 

As well as being a great addition to any home or coffee table, they're versatile, customisable, and make for thoughtful gifts for loved ones. However, amidst all the focus on the images between the pages, it's easy to overlook the importance of the photo book cover. 

After all, your photo book cover is the first impression others will get. To make the most out of your photo book cover, let’s take a look at these five top tips so you can entice and captivate your audience.

1. Get your cover image right

Your photo book cover is the moment where your loved ones will do what we’ve always been taught not to do: judge a book by its cover. Unfortunately, judging a photo book by its cover doesn’t quite have the same ring to it…

Either way, it's vital to select an image that encapsulates the essence of your photo book, so we have a few tips to bear in mind.

Make sure your images are of a high resolution

The quality of your photo book cover is integral, so you should always ensure that your cover photo is of the highest resolution possible. If your image has a low resolution, then it could end up looking pixelated or blurry, distracting viewers from your wonderful photo book.

Choose a relevant photo

The cover of your photo book should represent the overall theme or story of your photo book. If you’d like to use your photo book as a travel diary from a holiday that you never want to forget, choose an iconic destination shot. 

For a family album, opt for a heartwarming family portrait, or a funny picture to encapsulate your unique personalities. Don’t worry, we’ll give you some more ideas later on in this blog, too.

Select a balanced image

When we say a well-balanced image, we mean a picture that has a clear focal point. Ensure that there is a level of symmetry as this is visually pleasing to the eye. It’s also always best to avoid cluttered compositions to make your cover as charming as possible.

2. Don’t forget about typography

When you create a photo book with myFUJIFILM, you can use our simple editor to personalise and customise your photo book to your exact vision. In fact, you can even add text and captions to your images, and add a title to your photo book’s cover.

The text on your photo book cover should be both visually appealing and easily readable, and it’s important to hit that balance sooner rather than later when designing your photo book.

Take your time when choosing your font

Select a font that complements both the style and the theme of your book. Elegant scripts work well for wedding albums, while bold sans-serif fonts are great for more contemporary designs such as heart-warming family photo books, or fun birthday photo book gifts.

Get the size and placement on point

Make sure the title, subtitle, captions, or any other text you include on your front cover is appropriately sized and placed. Most importantly, try to position the text so that it doesn't obstruct the view of your cover photo.

Thankfully, with the help of our photo book design preview, you’ll be able to check how your photo book looks before ordering. 

Get the contrast right

It’s always a good idea to use a font colour that contrasts with the main colour scheme of your background image. This ensures readability, so people can actually see what your photo book is all about. For instance, a white font works well on a dark background and vice versa.

3. Will you choose a soft or hard-cover photo book?

The choice between a soft or hard cover largely depends on the nature of your photo book and your own personal preferences.

Soft-cover photo books tend to be more lightweight and flexible, making them an excellent choice for travel diaries or casual family albums. They are also equally as high in quality as hardcover photo books. It truly does just come down to preference and what you think works best with your chosen photo book topic.

On the other hand, hardcover photo books offer durability and a more professional look and feel. They are ideal for showcasing a work portfolio, or for creating special occasion albums including images from graduations, parties, and other nostalgic memories.

4. Photo book cover ideas

The most fun part about creating a photo book is tailoring your cover design to your photo book’s chosen occasion or theme.

Weddings

For a wedding photo book, opt for elegant and romantic designs with a focus on a couple's photo or portrait. For a personalised touch, you could incorporate the chosen wedding colours, flower icons, and motifs.

Travel adventures

To showcase your travels with a holiday photo book, why not add a map of your route, or a globe-themed background with travel-inspired fonts to highlight your journeys? Or, add your favourite photo from the trip so you’re only a glance away from your perfect destination.

Family albums

For special family albums, incorporate candid family shots to show all sides of your family, crazy, serious and everything in between. Or, add a collage of all your extended family members to convey a sense of warmth and togetherness.

Special events 

If you’re creating a photo book for a work portfolio or to showcase a work event, why not customise your cover with event-specific details, such as the date, your business’s colour scheme, or your logo?

5. Look, read, check…then check again!

Before finalising your photo book cover, it's essential to review and test it — and this couldn’t be more simple with our preview tool.

When proofreading your photo book, check all text for spelling and grammatical errors. After all, mistakes on the cover can be glaring and distracting from the wonderful images inside.

If you have friends and family around while you’re making your photo book, why not ask them for their opinions? They may have a design idea that you hadn’t thought of before, and fresh eyes might catch small typos or errors that you've missed.

Create your own photo book today

At myFUJIFILM, we offer a range of customisable photo books to help you create something you’re proud of — all from the cover to the final page. Start putting together your photo book design today, and turn your memories into a beautiful, tangible storybook that will last a lifetime.

Visit myFUJIFILM today and create a photo book worth sharing.