The linen-covered books on her coffee table are custom-made, featuring her own photos and writing.
They aren't your usual picture albums, with photos tucked in pockets, or your usual scrapbook, with photos glued on. These are professionally bound, hardcover books.
Ambrogio gave her husband two of them for Christmas, and another, featuring photos of their baby girl, to him for Father's Day.
 Courtesy of Snapfish.com |
"This is the one gift my husband remembers," she said. "He shows them to everybody who comes to the house."
Ambrogio is among a growing number of amateur photographers who are having their photos professionally bound instead of storing them in shoe boxes.
It's not as expensive as it sounds. A 20-page book costs $30 or less at most online photo book companies. And an increasing number of companies are offering them.
"In a very real way, it's like scrapbooking," said Rajil Kapoor, president and co-founder of Snapfish.com, an online photo finisher that offers custom photo books."Pictures are all about sharing, and sharing is all about telling a story," Kapoor said.
This new variation of the coffee-table book is fueled by the mainstream use of digital photography and technological advances in book-making.
Custom coffee-table books started in 1992, when Carl Navarre, then chief executive officer and publisher of Atlantic Monthly Press, decided to make a custom photo book for his mother.
It cost him $1,200 to print five copies, and that was a bargain because he was in the business.
Publishing a traditional coffee-table book costs $5,000 and more, Navarre said. The more books that are printed, the lower the cost per book.
"You have to run 5,000 to 10,000 copies to get the price down," he said.
But by using color photocopiers and scanners, Navarre was able to produce a rendition of a coffee-table book at a reasonable cost....
A growing number of online companies are producing custom photo books....
In general, custom books offered online are about 12 inches by 9 inches. Covers are made of linen or leather and are available in an array of colors.
All of the companies offer computer templates for laying out photos and designing a book online....
"There is every indication that photo books are very appealing to consumers, and volumes have been ramping up due to (word-of-mouth) marketing and falling prices," said analyst Kristy Holch with Infotrends, a market research firm.
"Since photo albums are currently the leading use for digital photo prints, it is easy to imagine that photo books could take over an increasing amount of that business over time," she said.
When Snapfish began offering photo books last year, sales increased six times more than company projections, said Kapoor, the company's president. Weddings, babies and travel are popular themes....
Kathryn Balint: (619) 293-2848; kathryn.balint@uniontrib.com
