For the person you keep thinking about — a husband an ocean away, a grandchild three states over, a best friend since second grade. Not a list of reasons you love them: a real illustrated story with both of you in it, painted from your photos and built from your real places, your real days and the moments only the two of you know.
Free to start. See the cover and first three pages painted before you pay.
Most personalized books are for one child. These are for a pair — and the pair can be anyone. Two grown-ups. A grandparent and a toddler. Two kids writing letters across the world.
An anniversary, Valentine's Day, or a Tuesday when you just want them to know.
One of you is away for work, for school, or on the other side of an ocean.
Either direction: a book from Grandma, or one a grandchild sends back.
So the one at home has the two of you in a book while you're gone.
Since second grade, since college, since that one terrible summer job.
College, a move, a new job, a long hospital stay — a book that says "your place is kept."
Every book starts from something only you have: where each of you really is, what your days really look like, the moments you'd tell a stranger about and the ones you wouldn't.
Not one hero and a name in the dedication. Two real people, each painted to look like themselves on every page they're in.
Two adults. A grandparent and a three-year-old. Two eight-year-old penpals. The story fits who you actually are.
A bubble of love floats from your city to theirs, past six real places on the way — and you can add the ones that matter to you two.
Swap Day is built from the actual day each of you lives — the bus, the meetings, the snack, the nap you secretly need.
The Story of Us is told from the moments you choose: how it started, the hard bit, the joke nobody else gets.
Pompeii, Renaissance Venice, the Jazz Age — the two of you, finding each other somewhere else in time.
| Typical personalized love book | Pure Magic book | |
|---|---|---|
| Your names in the book | ||
| Both people painted to look like themselves | Pick-a-look | |
| A real story with a beginning, middle and end | Rarely | |
| Built from your real places, days and moments | ||
| Any two people, any age — not just couples | Rarely | |
| See the cover and first pages painted before you pay | Rarely | |
| Written natively in 17 languages | Rarely |
Five stories for partners, grandparents and grandkids, parents and kids, and friends — each one starring both of you.
Any two people, any age
Best for: Long distance, a trip apart, or "I miss you" from anywhere to anywhere
From your city to theirs — Vienna, Austria to Vienna, Virginia, say — a bubble of love drifts past six real places and picks up a little more love at each one. It arrives enormous. And on the last page, they blow one back.
What only you can add
Any two people, any age
Best for: Anniversaries, Valentine's Day, adoption days, best-friend birthdays
How two people became "us," told from the real moments you choose — the first one, the hard one, the ordinary one that turned out to matter most. Your one small thing hides in every picture, and the last page goes back to where you met.
What only you can add
Any two people, any age
Best for: Grandparents and grandkids, parents and kids, any two people who'd love to trade places
For one day they trade days. Grandpa goes to second grade; the kid runs Grandpa's Tuesday. Each finds the hard part harder than it looked, and the best part better — and the next morning, each quietly helps with the other's.
What only you can add
Any two people, any age
Best for: Couples, best friends, and anyone who loves a period drama
Pick a century and a place. The two of you find each other there — in its streets, its light and its clothes — and turn out to be exactly who you are now.
What only you can add
Any two people, any age
Best for: Deployment, long work trips, college, a hospital stay, a grandparent far away
While one of you is away, home keeps their place by doing their things — the bedtime story, the Saturday pancakes, the tomato plants — badly and lovingly, until the day they walk back in and find their place full.
What only you can add
Pick the one that fits the two of you right now — far apart, an anniversary, very different days, or one of you going away.
A photo of each person becomes their storybook self. Then the places, the days and the moments, in your own words.
We write the whole story and paint the cover and first three pages. Love it? Choose a PDF or a printed hardcover.
Each person's photo is read once to paint their storybook self and is not written to our storage. For grown-ups we may keep a small face crop so they look the same on every page; delete the character and it's gone. Only add someone's photo with their permission. Privacy details
Printed books ship to any US address you enter at checkout, so the hardcover can go straight to them. Outside the US, the PDF is ready the moment you finish — and the book can be written in any of 17 languages.
Start free and see the first pages before you choose.
$12.99
Instant download — send it anywhere in the world tonight, or print it at home.
$46.99
A real hardcover picture book to hold, with the PDF included free.
$74.99
Opens completely flat so every painting spans both pages. PDF included.
Want them to make it themselves? Send a gift certificate.
Yes. Pure Magic books are made for any two people of any age: two adults, a grandparent and a grandchild, a parent and a child, or two kids. Each person is painted from their own photo and looks like themselves on every page they are in.
For an anniversary or Valentine's Day, The Story of Us tells how the two of you became "us" from the real moments you choose. Us in Another Age sets the two of you in another century. If you are apart right now, All the Love Along the Way sends a bubble of love from where you are to where they are.
Yes. These books are for any two people who love each other. Each person is painted from their own photo, exactly as they look and present, and you choose how each person is described, including they/them. A couple is a couple in the story, whatever your genders, married or not.
Yes. In All the Love Along the Way you tell us where you are and where they are. We suggest six real places along the way between you, each with a small moment of love, and you can change any of them or add places that matter to the two of you.
Yes, several. Swap Day lets a grandparent and grandchild trade their real days for one day. All the Love Along the Way works beautifully from Grandma's house to a grandchild's, and I Kept Your Place is for a grandparent who lives far away. A book can go either direction: from the grandparent, or from the grandchild.
Yes. I Kept Your Place is for the time one person is away — a deployment, a long work trip, college, a hospital stay. Home keeps their place in every ordinary day until they come back. Both the child and the parent who is away are painted from their photos.
No. Those books list reasons. These are illustrated stories with a beginning, a middle and an end, built from your real places, days and moments, with both of you painted on the pages.
Each person's photo is read once to paint their storybook self and is not written to our storage; we keep the illustrated character and a short text description. For grown-ups we may also keep a small face crop so they look the same on every page, deleted when you delete that character. Only upload someone's photo with their permission.
Yes. It is free to start: we paint both of you, write the whole story, and paint the cover and the first three pages before you choose a PDF or a printed book.
Printed books ship to any address in the United States that you enter at checkout. If they live outside the US, the PDF is ready the moment you finish and can be sent anywhere.
Every book is printed to order in 3-5 business days, then shipped: standard 5-10 business days, or priority 1-3.
Any of 17 languages, written natively rather than translated — handy when the two of you grew up speaking different ones.
Making one for a child? See all our stories.
Pick the story that fits the two of you, and see both of you painted into it, free.