$15 for $40 Worth of Custom Photo Books from SmileBooks.com

Photographs provide a more concrete way of recording recollections than outdated methods of sketching portraits in sand or dictating memoirs to an empty jam jar. Preserve precious memories with today's Groupon: for $15, you get $40 worth of custom photo books from SmileBooks.com, an online design service.

SmileBooks provides a paper cut-free way to package photos in professionally bound books. Creative mavericks can craft their own album with downloadable software, mixing and matching multiple cover designs, seven book styles, and text options into a customized celluloid curry. Accessorize photos with helpful captions or let striking images speak for themselves; SmileBooks's 1,000-plus combinations help to avoid embarrassing album copycatting. Those hesitant to dip toes into the photo pool can opt for a professional design service for favored frames, with the option of reviewing the completed book before ordering. Whether built by digital digits or designer assembled from afar, all sturdily bound tomes display high-quality images to ensure lasting preservation and maximum displayability. Prices vary with each book, with soft-cover classic albums starting at $28.95 and hard-cover panorama styles starting at $39.95.

Reviews

Cameratown, Digital Photos 101, and About.com reviewed SmileBooks. More than 3,800 Facebookers are fans.

• While the software is key to the creation process, the final result is really what matters and this is another area where SmileBooks excelled. The pages are thick enough that you will actually try to separate them as if there were two pages stuck together. Page thickness, paper type, and binding type all help to determine the overall quality of a finished book and SmileBooks gets an A across the board. – Ron Risman, Cameratown