LifeChapters
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Why it's different How it works Compare See a book Pricing FAQ

Any year · Any child

The years you
meant to make.

Most of us documented the first few years and then got busy — and the second child never got started at all. Not love, time. The photos are all still there. Point LifeChapters at a year and get a book back for each child.

Make your first book — free See a real book

One free book per account · No card · Nothing to organise first

AvaBorn 2009 · five books, then nothing
NoahBorn 2015 · none at all

Every empty slot is a year your photos already cover

0 photos to sort 0 layouts to choose 1 book per child 12 chapters, in order up to 120 pages

Why it's different

Everyone else makes a book of your photos. We make a book about your child.

Only here

It knows which one is yours

Face matching pulls out the shots your kid is actually in — so the book is about one child, not the whole household.

Your mess is the input

A year's worth, however it's stored. Duplicates, screenshots, nothing in folders. No tagging, no tidying first.

A year you can read

January to December, each month opening on its own page. A story in order, not a grid of greatest hits.

You get the last word

See every page before anything is printed. Change what you want, then send it to print — or keep it as a digital keepsake and come back to it.

How it works

Three steps. One sitting. Then close the laptop.

Point it at a year’s worth of photos — from Google Photos, a Takeout zip, or your computer. It finds your kids, selects both the highlights and the everyday moments that tell the story of the year, and organizes them into a beautiful, ready-to-print book.

Every page is yours to change — swap a photo, rewrite a line, move the cover. But you don’t have to. That’s the point.

Start free

Where the work is

Finding them is the easy part. Choosing the 450 that tell the year isn't.

Your phone already knows their face. What it won't do is sit down with 2,500 photos and decide which ones add up to a year worth keeping — covering every month, one frame per moment, the ordinary weeks as well as the big days.

10,000photos from one year
One year, unsortedA whole year of it, however messy. Screenshots and duplicates included.
2,500have your child in them
Found by faceScanned twice, at two resolutions, so they're found even in the back of a wide shot — and their sibling's photos stay in their sibling's book.
900distinct moments
Bursts collapsedForty frames of the same birthday candle become one moment. Table stakes — but you still don't have to do it.
450in the finished book
The part nobody else doesThe ones that tell the yearNot simply the sharpest. Chosen for coverage across all twelve months, one frame per moment, and the expression that makes a photo worth printing.

The book fits the year

Bigger years get bigger books — the length follows how much actually happened, not a fixed page count.

Undated photos still land right

Old scans lose their date. They're placed by matching them to the photos around them.

Sideways photos get straightened

Rotation is detected and corrected before anything is laid out.

Crops never cut anyone in half

Head to feet, every time — no chopped-off legs to make a photo fit its box.

Every month gets a hero

One to three photos are pulled out and printed large to open each chapter.

Scene shots don't pad it out

Photos your kid isn't in don't go in their book. It's theirs, not the household's.

The second-child problem

One of them has albums. The other has a folder.

Because the books are built per child, it runs again for the next one in a click — and the second child gets a book of their own, not a supporting role in someone else's. Their own 450, from the same year, chosen the same way.

Now they both get one

What's inside

Twelve months. Twelve chapters.

Each month opens on its own page with a few words about it, then the photographs of that month — laid out to fit what actually happened, not poured into a template.

The cover
One child, one year Their name, the year, and the photograph the book decided was the one.
Every chapter opens
The month, in a few words Two photographs that stood out, and a short written summary of what that month was actually like.
Then the month itself
Eleven to a page, not four Each page is built around the photographs that landed in it — their number, their shapes. Not a grid with four slots waiting to be filled.
A range of sizes Layflat, hard or soft cover 190gsm Up to 120 pages

Compare

Why not just use a photo book app?

You can. They'll give you a book of your household's year, and none of them will give each child their own. Making it yourself is never one job either: thousands to sort, a few hundred to choose, every page to compose more than four at a time — and the stamina to still be at it in March. This one arrives done.

  LifeChapters Auto photo-book apps Design-it-yourself sites Making it yourself
A separate book for each child ✓ One per child, every time – One book from photos Build it twice, by hand Twice the evenings
Finds your child by face ✓ Scanned twice, at two resolutions – – You, scrolling 10,000 photos
Bursts collapsed to one frame ✓ Forty frames become one moment ✓ – By hand, forty at a time By hand, forty at a time
Balanced across all twelve months ✓ Every month, by design – Weighted to big events – You decide If you last past March
Chosen for context, not just sharpness ✓ Coverage, moment and expression – – ✓ You know best — if you get there
Works from an unsorted library ✓ That's the input, not the problem – Not really – You choose every photo That is the work
Structure of the book The year in order, with pages for artwork, milestones and messages Grouped by event or trip Whatever you lay out Whatever you have time for
Layouts Designed per page, done for you Simple grids of 3–4 photos You build every page Every page, by hand
What it costs you One sitting An evening, per book A weekend, per book 30–40 hours — or the six years it hasn’t happened in

Photo-book apps and design-it-yourself sites are compared in full on a wider screen.

Auto photo-book apps = LifeCache, Chatbooks, Journi and similar. Design-it-yourself = Mixbook, Shutterfly, Artifact Uprising and similar. Based on their published features, July 2026. “Making it yourself” = a scrapbook or family yearbook assembled by hand.

See it first

Don’t take our word for it. Read one.

A real book about a real child, built from a real messy library. Flip through the whole thing — every chapter, every page. No account, no email.

Open a finished book

Shared with permission · 96 pages · 2026

Why it's called LifeChapters

Every year of childhood is a chapter.

One book a year — and any year, not just this one. Start with last year, go back and fill in 2019, or begin the year they were born. Documenting childhood, one chapter at a time, until the shelf is the whole story.

“The days are long, but the years are short.”

Gretchen Rubin

The photographs for every one of those years are already sitting in the same library, waiting. You’re not behind. You’re just not started.

Pricing

Your first book is free. Genuinely.

Not a trial, not a sample, not watermarked. A whole finished book — then pay for a book, not a membership.

Your first book

Free
one per account
  • A full year, twelve chapters, in order
  • A private link that opens anywhere — send it to grandparents
  • Yours to keep and come back to
  • No card, no trial clock

One more year

$3999
per child, per year
  • Their whole year, in order
  • Swap any photo, edit any text
  • Each extra child, +$29.99
  • Yours to keep and come back to

The catch-up

$129
everything you missed, in one book
  • Every year already in your library
  • One decision instead of six
  • A second child's catch-up, +$79
  • The shelf, filled in one sitting

Print it optional

from $39
added on when you're ready
  • Layflat, 190gsm, hard or soft cover, in a range of sizes
  • Price follows the size and length you choose
  • See every page before it prints
  • Order it now, next month, or never

Your photographs

These are pictures of your kids.

You say yes first

Recognising your child's face needs your permission, in plain language, before anything runs.

Yours, not ours

Your photos are used for one thing — making the book — and nothing else.

Gone in 90 days

Your original photos are erased 90 days after your book is made — the book stays. Or erase everything sooner, any time. One button.

Never sold or shared

Stored encrypted. Not sold, not shared, not handed to anyone.

Questions

The honest answers.

Do I have to organise anything first?

No — and if you could, you probably would have by now. Send it all: duplicates, screenshots, forty shots of the same birthday candle. That's the normal input, not the hard one.

Is the first book really free?

Yes — one complete book per account. No card, no trial clock, no watermark, and you keep it whether or not you ever buy another. It costs us very little to make one, and it's the only honest way to show you what this is.

Both my kids are in most of the photos.

Then most photos appear in both books, which is right — they were both there. Each book is built around one child, so each one leads with the kid it belongs to.

My older photos have no dates on them.

Scans and forwarded photos often lose the date. They're placed as accurately as possible from what's around them, and you can move anything before it prints.

Can family overseas see it?

Yes. The digital book is a private link that opens anywhere in the world, with no account to create. Printing and shipping are US-only for now.

How much does printing cost?

It depends on the size and the number of pages, which depends on how much happened that year — a busy year makes a longer book. You'll see the exact price before you order, and the digital book is yours whether you print it or not.

What if I only have a few hundred photos?

Then you get a shorter book, not a padded one. The length follows the year rather than a fixed page count, so a quiet year reads like a quiet year instead of being filled out with photos that didn't deserve to be there.

How long does it take?

Your part is three steps and it's over in one sitting. After that the work happens without you — a tidy year is quick, a very large one takes a few hours. You don't sit and watch either way: start it, close the laptop, and you'll hear from us when the book is ready to look at.

What if I don't like what it picked?

Swap it. You see every page before anything is printed, and you can pull a photo out or put a different one in.

Any year, any child

That year is already in your photos.

Three steps to start it. Your first book is free, and you'll know within one sitting whether the shelf is worth filling.

Make your first book — free

Not this evening? Leave an email and we'll send you a finished book to look at, plus a nudge when you've got a few minutes.

One email, and a reminder. Nothing else.