A4, square or layflat? Choosing the right photo book format

How do you choose a photo book format?

Choosing a book format feels like a technical decision and isn't. It's really a question about how the book will be used: passed around a table, kept on a shelf, given away, or opened on someone's knees while a child points at things.

RemiStories prints three formats. Here's what each is genuinely good at.

What is A4 landscape best for?

Wide, cinematic, and the most generous format for horizontal photographs. If your story is full of landscapes, group shots, beaches and long tables, this is the one that lets them breathe.

Best for travel stories and holidays, group photos where a wide page fits a whole family without shrinking anyone, and anything where the setting matters as much as the people.

Worth knowing: portrait photos sit awkwardly on a wide page — they either float small in the middle or get cropped. If most of your camera roll is vertical phone shots, this isn't your format.

Why is square the safest choice for most people?

The all-rounder, and the one most people should choose. A square page is the only shape that treats portrait and landscape photos equally, which matters enormously when your photos come from a phone.

Best for mixed camera rolls — the usual jumble of vertical and horizontal — everyday family stories, first years, seasons, and handing to someone: it's a comfortable size to hold and to post.

It's the most forgiving format and rarely the wrong answer. If you're torn, take the square and spend the decision-making energy on the photos instead.

What makes layflat worth the upgrade?

The one that feels like an object. Large, heavy, and — the part that actually matters — it opens completely flat.

In a normal bound book, the centre of a spread curves into the gutter. Anything printed across the fold is partly swallowed. So on A4 and square, photos stay on one side of the fold.

A layflat book has no gutter to speak of. A single photograph can run across both pages, uninterrupted, sixty centimetres wide. That's not a small upgrade — it's a different kind of page, and it's the reason wedding and portrait photographers use layflat almost exclusively.

Best for a milestone: a wedding, a first year, a once-in-a-decade trip. Gifts, especially to grandparents. Stories with a handful of genuinely beautiful photographs you want printed large.

What is a practical tip before you order any format?

Whichever format you pick, preview the book before ordering — you can swap layouts and regenerate as often as you like. It costs nothing to look, and you'll usually spot one spread you want to rearrange.

Then order it. A square book on the shelf beats a perfect layflat still sitting in a preview.