Digital Scrapbooking Software: Do You Really Need One?
Traditional scrapbooks are created using real paper, photographs and embellishments such as stickers, buttons and ribbons. Just like any other form of art, if you aren’t skilled with scissors and glue it can quickly become a huge mess! One single mistake can jeopardize a whole layout.

Luckily, for those of us who are not very good at paper crafts, but would still like to put together a beautiful album to preserve our memories, there’s a new trend called digital scrapbooking.

With digital scrapbooking, you use the computer to create layouts you can later print at home or at a professional print shop. The greatest advantage is that you can freely experiment with lots of different elements, colors and composition without the fear of ruining your layout.


Some digital scrapbookers use professional graphics programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop Pro or even CorelDraw and Illustrator. But these programs can be really expensive (hundreds, if not thousands of dollars) and the learning curve can be very steep.

For those who are not computer-savvy, the best option is to go with one of those programs designed specifically for digital scrapbooking. These digital scrapbooking softwares are much more affordable (form $30 to $60) and user-friendly. They come bundled with dozens, if not hundreds, of themes, templates, backgrounds, embellishment, fonts and shapes you can use and re-use as often as you want.

You can usually fine-tune the designs to fit your needs, and the best ones also allow you to connect to your digital camera, printer or scanner directly from the program. Some of them also provide photo editing capabilities, such as red-eye and dust removal, as well as lots of image effects. When you’re done, you can not only print you layouts but also share them with your friends and family via email or web albums.

So you may be wondering if a digital scrapbooking software is the right choice for you. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ll tell you this: I have a background in graphic design and I always used Adobe Photoshop to create my layouts- it has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it it is awesome!

The Digital Scrapbooking programs, might be better for beginners. It’s so much easier and faster that it almost feels like cheating. But what I enjoy the most are the pre-loaded templates and themes. They save a lot of time and I no longer have to create everything from scratch.