In this digital age we're all living in, photos tend to just vanish into the black hole that is your phone storage or some cloud account you forgot you even signed up for. They barely ever get printed off or stuck up round the house, let alone gifted to someone you love.

But there's actually a simple way to keep those memories close instead of buried in some folder you'll never open again, get yourself sorted and create a photo book.

Kicking things off

Deciding to make a photo book is the first proper step towards keeping your memories somewhere real and tangible, rather than just scrolling past them once a year on your ‘memories’ feed.

Start off by picking a theme for the thing. Could be a holiday, a big event like a wedding or birthday, or just a mixed bag of your favourite bits and bobs from the year.

Once you've sorted your theme, have a proper dig through your camera roll and pull out the snaps that fit what you're going for. Worth remembering here, the photos don't just need to look nice, they need to actually mean something and bring back the feelings tied to that moment, not just be a random nice-looking shot.

Picking the right photo book provider

There are loads of online platforms out there these days that'll help you knock together your photo book without much hassle.

When you're choosing which one to go with, have a think about stuff like print quality, how many templates they've got on offer, whether the design tool is easy to use or a proper faff, and obviously, what it's going to cost you.

Have a nosey at customer reviews and check out sample books if they've got them, just so you know what you're actually going to end up with before you commit your cash.

Designing your photo book

Once you've picked your snaps and settled on a provider, you can get stuck into designing the book itself.

Most platforms will chuck a load of templates your way that you can just use as they are. But if you fancy yourself to be a bit creative, you can always start from scratch and build the layout yourself.

When you're arranging your photos, think about how they're oriented, how big they are on the page, and what order they go in, you don't want it to look all over the shop.

Chuck in a few captions too, as this gives context and makes the whole thing feel way more personal, rather than just a pile of pictures with no story behind them.

Common mistakes to steer clear of

One mistake loads of people make when putting a photo book together is cramming way too many pics onto each page. It ends up looking cluttered and messy, and honestly it just takes away from the photos that deserve a bit of attention on their own.

Another one people mess up is not paying attention to photo quality. Low-res snaps come out looking blurry and pixelated once they're printed, which is a proper shame after all that effort. Always go for high-resolution photos when putting your book together, otherwise you'll end up gutted with the final result.

What's trending right now

One trend that's really taking off in the photo book world is augmented reality (AR). Using a smartphone app, you can scan certain pages in your book and watch the photos literally come to life as little video clips, which is a mad feature if you've got a few clips saved from a big event.

Another trend doing the rounds is minimalist design, think loads of white space and clean layouts, giving the whole book a much more modern, stripped-back look rather than pages rammed full of clashing colours and borders.

Beyond these, plenty of people are also getting into themed books now, like putting together one just for a specific mate or family member, filled with in-jokes and captions only they'd get.

Others are doing yearly ones, basically a proper wrap-up of the last twelve months instead of just special occasions.

It's becoming less about ticking a box and more about putting thought into how the memories get told, rather than just chucking photos on a page because they looked decent at the time.