How to Make a Baby Photo Book: FAQs, Ideas & Tips

Photos you might include are:

• Ultrasound pictures and pregnancy announcements
• Baby shower photos
• Nursery details
• Newborn portraits
• The first days at home
• Monthly milestone pictures
• First smiles and laughs
• Tummy time, crawling, standing, and first steps
• First foods and mealtime messes
• Photos with parents, siblings, grandparents, and friends
• Favorite toys, books, outfits, and routines
• Holidays and family trips
• First birthday photos
• Quiet moments at home

You don’t need all 27 versions of the same expression. Choose the picture that best captures the moment, then use the extra space for photos that add another part of the story.

Common first-year milestones include:

• Birth and hospital photos
• Coming home
• Meeting family members
• First bath
• First smile
• First laugh
• Rolling over
• Sitting up
• First tooth
• Crawling
• Standing
• First steps
• First word
• First holiday
• First haircut
• First birthday

Leave room for memories that were specific to your baby, too. Maybe there was a toy they carried everywhere, a song that always made them laugh, or a phase when they refused to wear socks. Those details can say more about the year than another posed milestone picture.

Start by gathering the pictures you’re most excited to see in print. If sorting an entire camera roll sounds miserable, work month by month and choose a handful of favorites from each one. You can always add more once the basic book starts taking shape.

Shutterfly lets you add photos from your computer, mobile device, Shutterfly account, Google Photos, Amazon Photos, or Facebook. Once you’ve selected your pictures, you can place them yourself or use autofill to create page layouts more quickly.

You’ve got a few ways to build the book:

• Use AI-powered autofill to place photos into suggested layouts in seconds.
• Choose a baby photo book design and personalize the pages with your own pictures, text, colors, and decorative details.
• Build each page yourself when you want more control over the layout.
• Use Shutterfly’s free 24-hour Photo Book Designer Service and have a professional designer put the book together for you. You’ll get a preview and can make changes before ordering. Timing restrictions may apply. 

Autofill works well when you want a quick starting point. The designer service is helpful when you’ve already chosen the photos but keep putting off the actual layout.

Why Parents Choose Shutterfly for Baby Photo Books

Use the original photo file whenever you can. Screenshots and images saved from social media may have lower resolution, which can affect how they look in print. 

Before adding a picture to a large layout, check that:

• Your baby’s face is in focus
• The photo isn’t extremely dark or blurry
• Important details aren’t too close to the edge
• You haven’t accidentally selected a screenshot or compressed copy
• The editor isn’t showing a low-resolution warning

A photo doesn’t have to look professionally shot to earn a place in the book. If it captures something you’d hate to forget, keep it.

You can also build sections around themes such as:

• Monthly milestones
• Family and friends
• Favorite things
• Holidays and celebrations
• Everyday routines
• Adventures and outings
• First experiences

A mix of both styles can make the album feel less predictable. Keep the main pages chronological, then add a few themed spreads such as “People Who Love You,” “Tiny Details,” or “Your Favorite Things.”

A mix of layouts usually works better than placing the same number of pictures on every page. Give a favorite newborn portrait or family photo a full page, then use collages for bath time, birthdays, or a series of expressions taken within a few minutes.

You can also make the selection process easier by cutting:

• Blurry photos that don’t hold a special memory
• Accidental screenshots
• Near-duplicates
• Pictures where the main subject is too small to see
• Extra photos that repeat a moment already represented

If your camera roll is packed with nearly identical photos, you don’t have to sort through every one before you start. Shutterfly can automatically remove duplicates and similar images, helping you narrow the selection without losing access to the rest of your photos. That means less time comparing six versions of the same smile and more time building the book.

A 10×10 photo book is one of the most popular choices for baby albums because it gives you plenty of space for milestone photos, family pictures, captions, and collages without feeling oversized. The square format also works well with the mix of portrait and landscape photos most parents take.

If you’re creating a smaller gift for grandparents or focusing on a specific milestone, an 8×8 book can be a great option. For first-year albums packed with photos, many parents prefer a larger 12×12 format that gives each moment more room on the page.

Popular sizes include:

• 8×8: Great for smaller albums, milestone books, and gifts
• 10×10: A favorite for first-year baby books, with plenty of space for photos and captions
• 12×12: Ideal for larger collections of photos, detailed layouts, and keepsake albums
• 11×8: Works especially well for landscape photos and two-page milestone spreads

If you’re not sure where to start, a 10×10 baby photo book is a versatile choice that works beautifully for everything from newborn photos to first birthday memories.

Should You Choose a Hardcover, Softcover, or Layflat Baby Photo Book?

A hardcover photo book is a sturdy choice for an album that’ll be handled often. It has the classic look of a family photo album and works well for everything from a short newborn book to a full first-year recap.

Can You Customize a Baby Photo Book?

Yes. Whether you want to make a few quick edits or create every page from scratch, Shutterfly gives you plenty of ways to personalize your baby photo book. Start with a professionally designed baby photo book template, use AI-powered tools to speed up the process, or customize each page with your own layouts, colors, text, and finishing touches.

You can personalize:

• Photo placement and page layouts
• Fonts, captions, and longer stories
• Background colors and page designs
• Stickers and decorative elements
• Cover type and finish
• Standard or layflat pages
• Spine text
• Printing options
• A memorabilia pocket
• A coordinating gift box

You can also choose from a variety of baby and kids photo book designs created to showcase milestones, newborn photos, family memories, and first-year moments. Once your book is built, preview every page before ordering and continue adjusting the size, cover, pages, and binding until it looks exactly how you want.

How Can You Make a Baby Photo Book Feel More Personal?

Captions are most useful when they tell you something the picture can’t. Instead of labeling a photo “First Bath,” add the detail your family still laughs about, like how your baby screamed through the entire thing and fell asleep two minutes later.

Personal details can include:

• Full name, birth date, time, weight, and length
• Nicknames
• Monthly favorites
• Funny habits and expressions
• First words
• Notes from parents or siblings
• Messages from grandparents
• A letter to your child
• Stories from the day they were born
• Details about your family’s routines
• People, places, and objects pictured in the photos

You don’t need text on every page. Add it when it preserves a detail you might otherwise forget.

Eligible Shutterfly Photo Books can also include a memorabilia pocket for small keepsakes you’d like to store with the album.

Baby photo books make especially thoughtful gifts for grandparents who live far away or missed parts of the first year. Instead of sending another handful of pictures through a group text, you can give them a complete album they can keep nearby and look through whenever they want.

You can create a baby photo album for:

• Grandparents Day
• Mother’s Day
• Father’s Day
• A birthday
• The holidays
• Your baby’s first birthday
• A grandparent’s first year in their new role

Include plenty of photos showing the grandparent with the baby, then add a short dedication to the opening page. You can also make a smaller book centered entirely on their relationship.