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A photo on the page is not the same as a character that looks like them.
Some personalized books take a photo and drop it onto a drawn scene. The face is real. The body, the clothes, and the rest of the page are not. That is a photo insert. It is honest, and it is the right pick if you want their actual photograph in the book.
Storybook Studio (.io) does the other job: one photo becomes an illustrated character you approve, then that character is drawn through the whole story.
How they differ
Photo insert
The real photo sits on the page. Poses and outfits stay stuck to the original shot.
Illustrated likeness
We build a character from the photo, you approve it, then they can move through the story.
Price
We are free to start, $15 for the digital book, $35 softcover + digital or $45 hardcover + digital as totals. No subscription.
Privacy
We do not sell photos or use them to train our own AI models, and a landing-page photo expires after 24 hours if you do not save it.
Who can be in it
One photo can include more than one person, or a pet. You choose who is in the story.
Full detail on the pricing page and how one photo becomes a book.
Who photo-insert is for
You want the actual photograph on the page, not a drawing of them.
Who we are for
You want a storybook character that looks like them.
Making this for someone else's child?
If you are a grandparent or gift-giver: ask the parents before you upload. If they do not want a photo in any tool, do not use a photo-insert book or ours. Our consent checklist walks through how to ask.
Questions, answered
Will they look exactly like the photo?
They should be recognizable. You approve the likeness before we illustrate the book, and you can adjust it until it looks right.
Can I include the dog?
Yes. Pets can be the hero of the story or ride along with the rest of the family.
Is this storybookstudio.org?
No. We are Storybook Studio at storybookstudio.io. storybookstudio.org is an unrelated company. If you reached us from a link, check that the address ends in .io.