Photo Book: Your Own Photos, Arranged and Exported as a PDF
A photo book from Pianyu starts with the photos you already have, not with a template you have to fill.
You pick the ones that matter — a trip, a year, a person — add a line about each if you want to, and the book is arranged. Margins, page breaks, captions, a contents page. Then it is exported as a PDF you can print at any print shop, or keep as a file.
What you get
- A print-ready PDF in US Letter, 300 DPI, with 3 mm bleed on every page.
- Every page composed from your own photos — no stock images, no filler art.
- Captions in your words. If you spoke them, they were transcribed; if you typed them, they were kept as typed.
- A one-time price of $8.99. No subscription, nothing auto-renews.
How many photos
A photo book is built from a set you choose: roughly two dozen to sixty photos, one or two per page, depending on how much you want each photograph to carry. Fewer photos means each one gets more room; more photos means a denser rhythm.
There is no minimum you have to hit before starting. You can begin with one photo and a sentence, and keep adding.
What the engine does, and what it does not
The layout engine measures before it places anything. It knows the trim size, how many photos are on the page, each photo's shape, and how many characters the caption runs. It works out how wide the text column must be to stay readable — at least 26 Chinese characters or 45 English characters per line — then gives the remaining area to the photographs, and checks that the images cover at least 45% of the page with under 15% left blank. If a given arrangement cannot meet that, it tries another: image above text, text beside image, a grid, or a crop.
This is arithmetic, not guessing. The same photos and the same words produce the same page every time, which is why it can be tested rather than judged by eye.
What it will not do: it does not invent a place, a date, a name, or a feeling. It does not rewrite your sentence into something that sounds better. Arranging is the whole job.
Where the files live
Your photos and text stay in your browser. We do not upload them, and there is no account. When you export, the PDF is generated on your device and saved where you save it.
Two exceptions, stated plainly: voice input sends audio to a transcription service that does not store it, and if you use the card library, the cards you send in are held until your yearly export.
Printing it
The PDF is sized for US Letter. Any print shop that accepts a PDF can print it; a hardcover or softcover binding is their decision, not ours. We do not sell physical books — the file is the product.