Frequently Asked Questions

All you need is an idea for a story and the images of the characters to star in the story - the images can be from photos or online product images. There is no need to pay until you love your story and want to keep it in form of PDF or a printed book.

You answer a few friendly questions about your child and their favorite things. We weave a custom story and paint the illustrations from your photos. You read every verse and see the first pages painted free, fine-tuning until you love them — then order the PDF or the printed copy and we paint the rest.

Setting up takes about ten minutes. The first pages and the cover are painted while you watch, usually within a few minutes. Once you order, the rest of the book is painted, usually ten to thirty minutes; you can step away and we email you when it is ready to review. Your digital PDF is released the moment you approve the finished book. Printed books are professionally produced in 3-5 business days after approval, then shipped by the method you choose at checkout.

Yes! You can upload photos of your child's favorite toys, stuffed animals, pets, or characters, and our AI will bring them to life as the heroes of the story. From beloved teddy bears to family dogs, any cherished companion can become a storybook character.

Each story has one quiet job — naming a big feeling, trying again after a stumble, staying safe near water. The lesson is woven into an adventure where your child is the hero, so it never feels like a lesson. Every story arc is CASEL-aligned and built on real child-development research.

Our personalized books are designed for children ages 2-99, with customizable themes and complexity levels to match your child's interests and reading level.

Absolutely! While we originally designed Enchantably for children, adults love creating personalized books for all kinds of occasions. Users have created books to capture the spirit of yoga retreats, document team-building experiences with colleagues, celebrate friendships, commemorate special events, or simply create unique gifts with a touch of comic relief. If you can imagine it, you can create it!

Your progress follows your account, not your device — so the key is being logged in. Make sure you were logged in on the original device, as that's what saves your work. Then, whenever you're ready to pick up on any other device, log in with the same account, click the user icon in the top-right corner, and go to "My Stories." Your book will be right there, waiting for you to continue.

Every book is free to start — you see the first pages painted before paying anything — and the digital PDF is $12.99 to download. Professionally printed hardcover books are $46.99 for regular binding and $74.99 for premium lay-flat binding. All printed books include a FREE digital PDF copy! Educators with .edu email addresses receive automatic volume discounts of up to 35% off.

Everything up to the moment you decide: the hero made from your photo, the whole story written and readable, the front cover and the first three pages fully painted. No card, no account needed beyond an email you can skip. The remaining pages show as readable sketches with their verses until you order.

The painters finish the rest of the book and the back cover, usually ten to thirty minutes. You can keep the tab open and watch, or leave; we email you when it is ready. Then you review every page, repaint anything you like, and approve the book. Approval releases your PDF to your inbox or sends the hardcover to our printer in the USA.

Nothing is lost. Your book waits with your payment attached. Come back through the email we send, or open it from My Stories, and the painting picks up where it left off.

Yes! When ordering a printed photobook, you can select the quantity you need (up to 100 copies per order). This is perfect for classroom sets, family gifts, or party favors. Volume discounts are available for educators with .edu email addresses.

Both go in the same place. At checkout, look for the box labeled "Gift certificate or promo code" and paste in whatever you have — we work out which kind it is. Gift certificate codes look like ENCHANT-XXXX-XXXX, and you should paste the whole thing, including the ENCHANT- part. If you came from a gift email, the link in it fills the code in for you. A gift certificate covers one book, so if you have several books in your cart, check them out one at a time.

Yes! Teachers, counselors, and school administrators with a .edu email address receive automatic discounts: 15% off for 1-4 books, 20% off for 5-9 books, 25% off for 10-24 books, and 35% off for 25+ books. These discounts are applied automatically at checkout when you enter your .edu email address. We also accept purchase orders and offer NET-30 invoicing for verified schools.

Yes! Every printed photobook purchase includes a FREE PDF download. You'll receive your digital copy immediately via email while your printed book is being produced and shipped. This way you can start reading the story right away or share it digitally with family members.

Standard binding uses traditional perfect binding where pages are glued together at the spine, creating a small gutter in the center of spreads. Lay-flat binding uses a special binding technique that allows the book to open completely flat with no gutter, so illustrations seamlessly span across both pages without any distortion or loss in the center. Lay-flat books are ideal if your story has full two-page spread illustrations and you want an uninterrupted viewing experience.

Yes, before and after you order. Every verse, the dedication and the layout can be edited, and any page can be repainted. After you order and the rest of the book is painted, you review every page and can keep tweaking until you approve it; approval is what releases the PDF or sends the book to print.

Repaint it. Every account starts with 20 credits (1 credit = 1 painted page), enough to see the first pages of a couple of stories and repaint a few. Once you order a book, painting the rest costs nothing, your balance is topped up to 30 for repaints, and any page you don't love we repaint free. Add a note like "make the background brighter" or "change the shirt to pink" and the next version follows it. Most pages look right on the first or second try.

You can include up to 8 characters in your personalized book — children, toys, and pets. Some story templates also let you add parent or grandparent characters. The AI uses reference photos to keep each character consistent across every illustration.

Each illustration is uniquely generated by AI — like a real illustrator, every spread has its own personality. Because each page is a brand-new creation (not a copy-paste), small artistic variations naturally occur. This is part of what makes every Enchantably book truly one-of-a-kind. If a particular page doesn't feel right, you can always use the regenerate button to get a fresh version.

AI illustration is magical but not flawless. Occasionally you may notice small quirks — an extra finger, a slightly different hairstyle, or a playful perspective shift. These are the nature of AI-generated art today. We give you generous credits and a regenerate tool so you can refresh any page until you love it. Most families find the overall charm and personalization far outweigh any minor imperfections, and kids absolutely love seeing their toys come to life!

Yes! Books can be written in 17 languages — including Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Ukrainian, Russian, Bulgarian, Vietnamese, Hindi, and more. Same price, any language.

While you can upload reference photos of copyrighted characters, our AI is designed to create original, legally-distinct characters inspired by your references rather than exact replicas. This protects both you and us from copyright infringement. The AI transforms trademarked characters into unique interpretations that capture the spirit of the original while being distinctly different. This approach ensures your book is a legal, original creation you can proudly own and share.

At this time we only ship inside the United States.

Printing and shipping are two separate steps. Your book is professionally produced in 3-5 business days, then handed to the carrier for the shipping method you chose at checkout. You'll receive tracking as soon as it ships. See the delivery estimates for each shipping method below.

Digital books are delivered as high-quality PDF files that you can view on any device, print at home, or take to a professional printer.

Continental US shipping starts at $6.99 for Standard (5-10 business days in transit), $8.99 for Priority (1-3 business days in transit), or $29.99 for Next Day Air (1 business day in transit). Those transit times start after your book is printed, which takes 3-5 business days, so plan on printing time plus shipping time. Orders of 2+ books get free standard shipping.

Every book starts free: you read every verse and see the first pages painted before paying anything. When you order, the rest of the book is painted and you review it page by page; any page you don't love, we repaint free. If the finished book is not what you hoped, you can request a full refund any time before you approve it, right from the review screen. Once you approve, your PDF is released or your hardcover goes to print and the order is final. Printed books that arrive with printing defects or damage are replaced if you contact us within 14 days at support@enchantably.com.

Any time between paying and approving the finished book, for any reason. Open the book, and at the bottom of the review card you will find the refund request; we refund the full amount to your card, usually visible within 5-10 business days. Once you approve the book, the PDF is released or the hardcover goes to print, and the order is final, except for printing defects or damage. If a book is never approved, we refund it automatically 30 days after payment.

We remind you at 1, 3, 7 and 14 days. If the book is still unapproved 30 days after payment, we refund it in full automatically and let you know. Nothing prints and no PDF is released without your approval.

An approved book. Approval is the moment we release the PDF or start printing, so it is final. Credit packs are not refundable. Printed books that arrive with printing defects or damage are replaced if you contact us within 14 days.

After the rest of the book is painted, you flip through every page on the review screen. When you are happy, you tap Approve and finish my book and confirm. That is your sign-off: it tells us the book is exactly as you want it, and it is the only thing that starts printing or releases the PDF.

No, photos are completely optional! You can simply type a description like "brown curly hair, blue eyes, freckles" and our AI will create illustrations based on your description. Many parents prefer this approach for privacy reasons. You also don't need to use your child's real name—nicknames like "Buddy", "Princess", or completely made-up names work perfectly.

Absolutely. We take privacy seriously and have implemented multiple layers of protection. All data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256). Your stories and images are stored in isolated, private storage that only you can access. We use Google Cloud Platform with enterprise-grade security certifications including SOC 1/2/3 and ISO 27001.

When you create a hero from a photo, the photo is used in a single processing pass to produce a short text description of your child's appearance and an illustrated avatar. The photo itself is never saved to our storage; only the description and the illustrated avatar are kept so your child looks the same on every page. Two flows work differently because they paint directly from the photo: in the Custom Story Flow and My Story My Way, reference photos you upload are stored with that story until you delete the story, and in Class Books an educator's student photos are stored with the class book until it is deleted. Full details are in our Privacy Policy.

No, absolutely not. We use Google's Vertex AI, which has explicit contractual guarantees that customer data is never used to train or improve AI models. Your photos, stories, and personal content remain completely private and are only used to generate your specific book. Your data is processed and immediately discarded by the AI—it's never retained for training purposes.

Purchased books stay in your account for as long as the account is active. Unfinished drafts that have not been touched for 180 days may be removed. Toy, pet and reference photos are kept with the story or hero they belong to so illustrations can be regenerated, and are deleted when you delete that story or hero. You can access, edit, or download your books at any time. To close your account, use "Delete my account" on your My Account page (or email support@enchantably.com): your stories, heroes, photos and account data are deleted after a 7-day grace period, always within 30 days, and backups are purged within a further 60 days; order records are kept as required for tax purposes.

Your books and photos are completely private. Only you can access them through your personal account. Our security rules ensure complete user isolation—not even other Enchantably users can access your content. We never share your content with other users or display it publicly without your explicit permission.

Yes. You can delete individual books from My Stories and individual heroes (with their avatars and any reference photos) from My Heroes at any time; deleting a book also deletes its illustrations and uploaded photos. To delete your entire account, use "Delete my account" on your My Account page: reminder emails stop immediately and everything is erased after a 7-day grace period (or email support@enchantably.com). Deleted content cannot be recovered.

Yes, your data is secure on multiple levels. All data is transmitted over encrypted HTTPS connections. We use Firebase Authentication (powered by Google) for secure sign-in, and we never store your passwords. For payments, we use Stripe—a PCI-DSS Level 1 certified payment processor. This means your credit card information never touches our servers at all. Stripe processes payments directly, and we only receive confirmation that payment was successful.

Yes! Enchantably is designed to be a family-friendly, collaborative experience. There is no inappropriate content, advertising, or social features. The AI is configured to only generate age-appropriate, positive content suitable for children. We recommend that parents create books together with their children as a fun bonding activity.