A great site for storing photos and creating quirky gifts with your pics. (photobox.co.uk)

Member Name: col81

Product:	photobox.co.uk
Date:	20/08/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: User-friendly, great gift ideas, reasonable prices, swift service.

Disadvantages: None that I can see so far!

I first came across this website when my friends and I pooled photos of ourselves from the past ten years to make into a photo book when one of our close friends became terminally ill and sadly passed away. The website provides many services such as printing photos for a cheap price and making all kinds of items with your photos on but the only ones which I have had experience of are the photo books and making a notebook with my photos on the cover.

The photo books are digitally printed albums which can come in a variety of different styles or themes ranging from more playful themes suitable for photos of children or family to themes more suited to a Valentines theme. You can choose the layout of the photos on the page and you can write captions to go with some or all of the photographs as you wish. Once you have uploaded the photographs you would like in the photo book, you can apply different effects to the pictures, correct red-eye or change the colour saturation, brightness, etc.

There will be a smiley face icon to tell you that the photo will be of good quality in the finished product, a face with a straight mouth if the photo is going to be of reasonable quality and a frowny face if the photo is going to be of poor quality in the finished product. I think this is down to the size of the photograph file, the bigger the better (I think).

Once you are happy with your choices of design, photo and captions you can save and preview your product and if you wish, place an order to have it made and sent out to you! If not, you can save it and always order it another time if you want.

The next product I created and bought was a spiral bound notebook intended to be used as my wedding planning notebook so I chose a butterfly design in orange and red colours and it has 5 pictures of my fiance and me on the front and another (different) 5 on the back. Again you could choose the design on the covers of the book and the layout of the photographs as well as choosing whether the paper in the notebook was lined, squared or plain. Once you have created and saved your product you can go back to it and make changes as often as you like, until you are happy with it and place an order. The notebook cost £4.99. A bargain for something bespoke and so personal.

The products arrive in the post very promptly given that they have to be made to order. They arrived within two weeks of ordering and they are made to a good quality.

Another good quality of this website is that it can be used to store and share photos with your friends if they have a user account.

The website is easy to find your way around and offers a good range of quirky, personalised products at very reasonable prices. As I have only experienced two of the products available, I will definitely go back and look to see what else I can do with my photos as I have been so pleased with the products so far.

Summary: Great fun creating products with your photos on.