Photos are the heart of a memorial. Here's how to fix the two small things that trip people up most — a photo that appears rotated, and a photo that won't look its best in print.

Rotating a photo that's sideways or upside down

Occasionally a photo arrives rotated — sideways, or upside down. It's almost always a quirk of how a phone saved it, not anything you did wrong. It's easy to fix.

  • If you're adding a memory: when you choose a photo, you'll see a preview with rotate-left (⟲) and rotate-right (⟳) buttons beneath it. Tap until it looks right, then submit. The corrected photo is what uploads.
  • If you're the host: open your memorial's manage page, find the photo, and use the ⟲ / ⟳ buttons under it. One or two taps fixes the orientation everywhere it appears — the page, the slideshow, and the book.

New photos are also straightened automatically on upload, so this comes up less than it used to. If an older one still looks wrong, the rotate buttons will set it right.

Choosing photos that print well

A photo can look perfect on a phone and still print soft, because screens are far more forgiving than paper. A few tips for the keepsake book:

  • Use the original, not a screenshot. Screenshots and photos saved from a text or social media are often shrunk down. The original file from the camera roll has far more detail.
  • Bigger is better for full-page photos. A small image stretched across a full page looks fuzzy. Higher-resolution photos give the book room to make them large and crisp.
  • Front-and-center beats zoomed-in. Cropping in tight throws away pixels. A photo taken close to the subject prints better than one zoomed in from far away.
  • Watch for blur and low light. Slightly dark is fixable; genuinely blurry or grainy is not. When in doubt, pick the sharper of two similar shots.

When you build the book, photos that don't have enough resolution for a full, edge-to-edge page are flagged, so you'll know before you order — they can still appear at a smaller, sharp size.

A gentle word about "imperfect" photos

Don't let any of this stop you from including a beloved photo just because it isn't high-resolution. A slightly grainy picture of a real moment is worth more than a crisp one that feels staged. These tips are for getting the best result — not a rule that keeps a treasured photo out.

Stuck on a particular photo? Write to [email protected] and we'll help.