Somebody sees the book you made and wants one. A sibling asks for a copy. The original gets ruined, or lent to a relative and never returned. All three end at the same question, and the answer depends on a single date.
The window
Your photographs and the finished print files are kept for seven days after dispatch, and then permanently deleted.
Inside those seven days a second copy is a reprint: the same files, the same layout, nothing to send and nothing to approve again. After them it is a new order, because there is nothing here to reprint from. How long we keep your photographs →
| Inside seven days | After seven days | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A reprint | A new order |
| Photographs needed | None | All of them, again |
| Design stage | None | Two to four days |
| Proof to approve | No | Yes |
| Layout | Identical | Rebuilt, and it will differ |
Why we delete them rather than keeping them
It is a fair question, because keeping everything would obviously be more convenient at this exact moment.
A print service holding every customer’s family photographs indefinitely is a liability rather than a service. The longer that archive exists, the more people have touched it, the more systems it has been copied into, and the worse the day is when something goes wrong with it. Seven days covers the two things a customer actually needs — a transit reprint and a quick second copy — and then the risk goes away.
The deletion is the feature. The window is the compromise.
After the window: what makes it painless
A second order years later is only a project if you did not keep anything. Four things, none of which takes effort at the time:
| Keep | Why | Where |
|---|---|---|
| The folder of originals | It is the whole order | Wherever you already back up |
| The proof PDF we sent you | The sequence, the captions, the cover | Email, starred |
| The order and tracking code | Identifies exactly what you bought | The confirmation email |
| Names and spellings as printed | The detail nobody remembers | In the same folder |
The proof PDF is the one people throw away and the one that matters most. It is the entire editorial decision — which photograph opened it, what each caption said, the order of the whole thing — and with it in hand a rebuild is a short conversation rather than starting over. The design proof →
The second one is rarely identical anyway
Worth knowing before you set out to clone something.
The dedication usually changes. The first said for Ma. The one going to your aunt should not.
There is more archive now. A book made two years ago ends two years ago. Most people, offered the choice, would rather add the two years than reproduce the gap.
The recipient is different. A book made for a parent and a copy for a cousin are aimed at readers who know different amounts. Names that needed no explanation in the first one need a line in the second.
Specifications and prices move. Page counts, formats and rates are what they are today rather than what they were then; check the current range before you assume the old figure. All 11 keepsakes →
What a reprint cannot fix
A reprint inside the window is the same files printed again, which means it reproduces everything about the original — including the parts you would rather it did not.
A spelling you approved. The proof stage is where a name gets caught. Once it is printed it is printed, and a reprint prints it again unless you say so and it goes back through design.
Photographs that were low resolution to begin with. Printing is not a quality step; it is a faithful one. A picture that came off a chat thread at a tenth of its original size prints exactly as softly the second time. Sending photos without losing quality →
The point where the story stopped. A book ends where the archive ended on the day it was made, and that is usually the thing people most want changed.
Any of those turns a reprint back into a design job with a proof to approve — which is fine, and worth knowing before you assume a copy is a two-day errand.
If the original was lost or ruined
A printed object is a single point of failure. It gets water on it, a child gets to it, it goes to a relative and does not come back, or a move loses a box.
Inside the window it is a straight reprint from the files already here — a fresh order, without the design stage. Outside it, the answer is the same as any other rebuild: your folder of originals plus the proof PDF, and the second one will be close rather than identical. A replacement free of charge is a different thing entirely, and it applies to a parcel that arrived damaged rather than to one that was damaged later. Returns and replacements →
There is a cheap piece of insurance for anything you would genuinely mind losing. A print pack of the twenty photographs that carried the book costs a fraction of the book and lives somewhere else — a different house, usually the recipient’s. It is not a copy, and it means the images survive the object.
When a full second copy is the wrong answer
If somebody admired the book and you feel obliged, a copy is not automatically the right response.
A print pack of the same photographs is a fraction of the cost and often the better object for a person who was not in most of them. A card deck does the same job in a form that gets handled rather than shelved. Polaroid prints from ₹270 →
For an album specifically, the case for ordering two at the same time rather than one now and one later is a real one, and it has its own page. A second copy for another household →
Frequently asked
Can I get another copy of a book I ordered last year? Yes, as a new order. The files from the original are long deleted, so send the photographs again — keep the proof PDF and it is a quick rebuild rather than a fresh start.
How soon do I have to decide on a second copy? Within a week of dispatch it is a straight reprint. It is worth deciding before you order, because two copies printed together are one project rather than two.
Will the reprint look exactly like the original? Inside the window, yes — same files, same layout. Rebuilt later it will be close and not identical, because sequencing is a set of decisions made fresh each time.
Do you keep a copy of the design in case I come back? No. Everything goes at the end of the week after dispatch, which is deliberate rather than an oversight.
What if I lost the original photographs too? Then the book cannot be rebuilt from anything, which is the argument for keeping the folder somewhere you trust. The proof PDF at least preserves what the book said.
Part of our guide to ordering a personalised gift. See also: what we need before design starts and ordering several gifts at once.
Start again properly: Photo magazines from ₹499 · Hardcover albums from ₹1,299