Frequently asked questions

The whole story as text, plus the cover and the first pages with your child fully painted. We paint the remaining pages right after purchase. You can follow the progress live in your account, and we email you as soon as everything is done. No paywall up front: for the preview you just create a free account so your book is saved. You only pay when you order. The free three-page sample needs no account at all.

Yes. After you buy, we finish painting the remaining pages, and you see the complete book again. It only goes to print once you release it. Until then you can have individual pages repainted and change any text. If you don't respond at all, we release the book automatically 3 days after it is ready for you to check, so your order doesn't stall. We email you the exact day at least a day in advance.

The preview with the story, cover and first pages usually takes under 15 minutes. The waiting page shows you live how many pictures are done and how long is left. Afterwards you'll also find your book any time under “Your books”.

A single good photo is enough: well lit, face clearly visible, ideally your child alone in the picture.

Yes. You can have pages repainted for free and describe what should change: up to ten repaints per book, before and after purchase combined. Then you compare the new picture with the previous one and keep whichever you like better. Every repaint counts, even if you keep the previous picture.

Yes. In the preview you can edit the text of every story page, and the title on the cover and the dedication too, until you release the book for printing.

No. In your own story, siblings, grandparents, friends and the pet are included: up to six extra characters, at no surcharge. Your child, the hero, is drawn from the photo. You can upload a photo for each extra character too. We paint people only from a photo: without one they are in the words of the story, but not in the pictures. Animals and cuddly toys are painted with or without a photo, without one from your description.

Your book is printed at a print shop in the delivery country or inside the same customs area and ships from there straight to the delivery address. Books for EU countries are printed in Germany, Denmark or Spain, for example; books for Switzerland, the UK or the US are printed in that country itself. Because the book never crosses a customs border, no customs or import charges are added.

It depends on the delivery country. To Germany, Austria and Switzerland it takes about 7–9 working days after you release the finished book for printing, to other countries up to 19 working days. These are our print partner's estimates. Shipping to all 35 delivery countries is free.

See the estimate for each country →

To 35 countries, including every EU country, Switzerland, the UK, Norway, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Singapore. Free and with no customs charges everywhere. Swiss orders are printed by our partner in Switzerland. We can't deliver to areas outside their country's customs or VAT area (such as the Canary Islands or Heligoland), or to countries the book could only reach across a customs border, for example Australia or Liechtenstein. The digital book works everywhere.

See all delivery countries →

By card, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Depending on your country and currency, other methods are added: TWINT, for example, when you pay in Swiss francs in Switzerland. You'll see which ones apply to you when you pay; everything is processed securely by Stripe.

If the hardcover goes to Switzerland you pay in Swiss francs; to any other country, in euros. The digital book is charged in the currency you choose. Outside the euro area Stripe may offer to charge you in your own currency. It then converts the amount and adds a fee of about 2–4 %. Pay in euros and there is no such fee.

Printed books are made just for you, with your child's name and pictures. That is why, like all personalised products, they cannot be returned. In return you see exactly what will be printed: you check the finished book page by page, can still change the texts and pictures of the story pages, and only then send it to print. If it arrives damaged or with a printing fault, we reprint it free of charge. Just get in touch within 30 days with a photo, no need to send anything back. Digital book without a hardcover: the right of withdrawal ends with the download, because you explicitly agreed to immediate access at checkout.

They sit in the EU, in Cloudflare storage restricted to EU data centres. They are automatically deleted 30 days after upload, and you can delete them yourself at any time. For the image analysis and the illustrations we pass them to our service providers, including Google and Amazon Web Services, so part of that processing happens in the USA. Beyond those providers we don't share the photos. The full list is in our Privacy Policy.

No. Your photo is used solely as a visual reference for your book's illustrations. We don't train a lasting model of your child, and there is no cross-user face database.

From your photo we first draw a portrait of your child in the book's style. That portrait is the reference for every page, and every illustration is automatically compared with it. As in a real picture book, the view changes: a few pages may show a close-up of just your child's hands or feet. The portrait and a short description of your child's appearance (such as hair and eye colour) belong to the book: for books you bought they stay until you delete the book or your account; for books you did not order we delete them after 30 days. Your uploaded photo is deleted automatically after 30 days.