DRY MOUNT photo albums have plain card or cardboard pages, usually also with interleaving, as shown in the image to the right. Depending on the size, these albums can accommodate a large number of photographs.

Dry-mount albums are a traditional style still popular today because of the flexibility they offer for photo sizes and layout, and the high presentation value of completed albums. These albums are a reasonably economical photo presentation option, especially for larger quantities of photographs when compared to self-adhesive, magnetic or matted-page photo albums.

Generally, there is no plastic or adhesive component in dry-mount pages; instead they require the use of mounting products such as photo corners, tabs, tape or paste to hold photos in place on the page.

Dry-mount albums allow for greater artistic control over the presentation of photos and other memorabilia. They are ideal for storing and presenting mixed sized photos, such as digital prints, inkjet or colour laser prints, old photographic collections, enlargements, etc.

Ideally, dry-mount photo albums should have interleaving between each page, as this plays an important role in preventing photographs on facing pages from scratching and chafing on each other, and from sticking together in humid conditions. If a dry-mount album does not have interleaving, consider mounting the photos on one side of the page only.

Another important consideration is that the paper used in these albums should be acid-free, to prevent deterioration of photographic images caused by the release of acidic compounds released from the paper as it ages.

Dry-mount albums can be either book-bound or post-bound. You will find this information in the sub-heading for each of our albums. These terms are explained below.

This page relates in particular to our general-purpose ready-made photo albums rather than our wedding albums. You can find more information on our matted-page wedding albums by following the links from those pages.

Click here to see our range of dry-mount photo albums

Book-bound photo albums have pages that are stitched or glue in. This means that the albums are not refillable; you cannot generally add or remove pages, or change the order of the pages.

Book-bound albums typically have a one-piece cover. The spine of the album is covered, which makes for a very neat presentation like a hard-cover book. book-bound albums tend to be either mass-produced albums (usually with machine-made glued page-blocks) or premium custom-made albums (usually with hand-finished stitched page blocks). With most book-bound albums, pages turn neatly and lie quite flat when the album is open.

Post-bound photo albums have pages that are held into the cover by a post-and-screw system. In most instances, refills can be added to extend the album (with extension posts), or pages can be removed or their order changed. This is very convenient for ongoing collections, when a chronological sequence might need to be maintained by inserting extra pages throughout the album as new material becomes available.

Post-bound albums may have exposed page-ends at the spine of the album, or they may have a separate spine-cover which conceals the page-ends. Usually the spine-cover can be adjusted to cover the page-ends even when refills are added to the album. Better post-bound albums have hinged and/or scored pages, allowing the pages to turn easily and lie flat when the album is open.