Your personal publisher

Your memories, made into books.

A few photos, your voice, a handful of questions: Pizan writes the book of your family, your life or your travels with you. As a book or a magazine. And it remembers everything, so you don’t have to.

Nine languages · printed in Europe · your originals never altered

Christine de Pizan writing a book The family book
Pizan’s brain
Pizan 1.244 · my memory“What does Pizan know about Grandma Jeanne?”
Your PDF checked by the printer before you payWhat you see on screen is what gets printedNothing made up: no names, no dates, no placesYour album stays private

Three ways to begin

A book for every story.

The family book open on a table: the chapter “The summer everyone was there” and the 1981 photo in front of the house by the sea
The family book · The Martin family

The other books, for real →

The holiday bookThe holiday bookThe children's bookThe children's bookThe wedding bookThe wedding bookThe year in a magazineThe year in a magazineAutobiographyAutobiographyBiographyBiographyThe baby bookThe baby bookThe recipe bookThe recipe bookThe group gift bookThe group gift bookThe tribute bookThe tribute book
01.The family book

A big family, a small one, or just yours. Everyone adds their photos and tells what they remember; the story takes shape, and the others fill it in.

Grandma JeanneAdditionIt was at the house by the sea, the summer everyone was there.
PaulCorrectionNo, it was 1981: I already had my red bike.
02.The autobiography

Each time you open it, a question is waiting. You answer out loud or in writing, and your life takes shape, chapter by chapter.

● REC 0:07
What happened today? How are you feeling? · Go back to a memory · Someone who mattered
03.The travel journal

A trip you took, told through your photos: the places, the addresses, the people you met. A little guide of your own, to reread or to give.

A page from the travel journalIn the mornings we walked up to the lookout, before the heat set in.

And more · every book has its own page

The Martin family, a cloth-bound family book with the 1981 photoThe family book Quiberon, our summers: a vacation bookThe vacation book Lisbon, our favorite spots: a little guideThe guidebookNot available yet Martin, the 2016 annual issue: a magazineThe year-in-review magazine The Piano in the Parlor, a memoir by Claire MartinThe autobiography Jeanne Martin, a biography told by her grandchildrenThe biography Paul and Anne, a wedding book, Quiberon 1998The wedding book Léon, a baby bookThe baby book Tom and the Big Jump, an illustrated children’s bookThe children’s book Grandma Jeanne’s recipesThe recipe book For Paul’s fiftieth birthday, a group gift bookThe group gift book Jeanne Martin 1931–2021, a tribute bookThe tribute book

Two formats

Book or magazine.

A beautiful book to keep for a lifetime, or a light magazine to slip into a mailbox. Or both, if you like.

A book: The Piano in the ParlorA book: The Martin Family

Inside the books

Novel, photo book, comic, manga: every page designed.

Pizan lays out your stories the way a publisher would: the text of a novel, the big photos of a coffee-table book, the columns of a magazine, the panels of a comic or a manga.

A two-page spread from a novel on cream paper: the end of one chapter and the opening of Chapter VII, “Rouen, in Winter”
The novelPure text on cream paper: justified, hyphenated for your language, dialogue set the proper way, chapters opening a third of the way down the page.

Pizan’s memory · a brain that learns

Ask a question of your memories.

We built a brain for every album. Each memory you tell becomes neurons: the people, the places, the objects, the years, all connected. You ask, the connections light up, and Pizan answers in your own words, showing you how it knows.

Versions

1.0Keeps and connects every memory
1.1Knows it’s you when you say “me”
1.1.1Finds the moments you shared with someone
1.2Knows your family, never asks twice
4levelskeeps · connects · understands · knows
11kinds of linksshows, takes place in, told by, corrected by, belonged to…
8sourcesevery link says where it came from: you, a relative, the photo, the map…
3levels of certaintycertain · likely · to be confirmed
1single readinganything written down is linked without AI; a story is read only once

Pizan TV · family night

Everyone around the TV, and the book writes itself.

The photos appear on the living-room TV. Everyone holds their own screen: their phone, iPhone or Android, no account needed, just a first name. Tap, tell, and Pizan writes the pages. At the end, everyone keeps the photos they want.

01.Turn on the TVPizan TV opens on the living-room screen.
02.Everyone on their phoneA code and a first name: that’s it.
03.Tap and tellOne photo, one question, everyone takes a turn.
04.Everything is sharedThe pages written, the photos kept, the book.
A family photo shown on the living-room TV
Pizan
Paul is speakingJPC 3 phones connected

Who took this photo, and who was missing that day?

20:41
TV · at Grandma’s
Grandma JeanneYour turn.The photo is on the TV. Tell us what you remember.
Tap to talk
20:41
TV · at Grandma’s
PaulPaul is speaking…
0:12
Done
20:42
TV · at Grandma’s
ClaireWhat Pizan heard “Claire wasn’t there, she was in Lisbon that summer.”Grandma Jeanne · just now
Keep this photoMy words in the book
The book, for the whole familyA private link: everyone orders their own copy, delivered to their door.
Read onlineThe real book to leaf through, page by page.
Family members add to itA detail, a correction, a photo: nothing is ever erased.
Christine de Pizan writing a book

Why Pizan?

Every life deserves its book.

Pizan is named after Christine de Pizan. Widowed at twenty-five, with three children to feed, she took up the pen and turned her life, and the lives of others, into books. In 1405, The Book of the City of Ladies built, out of words, a city for the women history had forgotten. Six centuries later, Pizan does the same for every family: it turns lives into books.

“One day, as I was sitting in my study, surrounded by books of every kind…”

What Pizan can do

A publisher, a photographer and a printer.

Artificial intelligence writes with you. Everything else is calculated by Pizan: nothing is invented in your photos, and the original is always kept.

The yellowed 1972 photo, exactly as it was uploaded
Before
The same 1972 photo, revived by Pizan
Revived
calculated · no AIBring a faded photo back to lifeA yellowed photo from 1972: its blacks, its whites and its true colors come back. A recent photo keeps its colors.
A map of Saint-Germain-des-Prés drawn by Pizan
300 dpi · OpenStreetMapPrint-ready mapsThe places in your memories, on our own base map, sharp on the page.
A photo that appears instantly
135 bytes · 6 msPhotos, instantlyA soft preview in the exact spot of each photo, then the real one fades in on top.

In the mornings we walked up to the lookout, before the heat set in. Below us, the river took on the color of the sky, and nobody felt like talking. Grandma Jeanne led the way, her straw hat in her hand, and stopped at every bend to wait for us.

Knuth-Plass · hyphenation in 9 languagesTypeset like a publisher wouldLine breaks are chosen across the whole paragraph, with no stray line left at the top of a page.

the-martin-family.pdfPrinter check

  • 64 pages · A5ok
  • Bleed 3.175 mmok
  • Fonts embeddedok
  • Photos 300 dpiok

Approved by the printer

before paymentThe verified PDFReviewed by Pizan, then checked by the printer: no book is ever rejected after you order.
4 handlesStraightenAn old print photographed at an angle: flattened out, nice and straight.
with a tapRed eyeTap the eye and the red is gone. Nothing is searched for without you.
printPrint sharpeningPaper softens things: every printed photo gets a slightly sharper copy.
GEDCOMThe family treeA tree from Geneanet, Ancestry or MyHeritage, imported in a minute.
same sceneThe best shotPhotos of the same scene are grouped together, the sharpest one in front.
9 languagesTalk with PizanA real spoken interview, in your language and with your accent.
togetherPizan TVAn evening around the TV: everyone tells their part from their phone, Pizan writes the page.
leaf throughRead onlineThe real book, page by page, for those who live far away.

The process · from the moment to the book, on our own machines

01 · photoInstant uploadsoft preview · WebP −30%
02 · voiceYou tell the storyone question at a time
03 · storyYour words, shaped into a storynothing made up
04 · memoryThe memory6 families of neurons
05 · pageLayoutKnuth-Plass · 300 dpi
06 · bookChecked, printedEurope · delivered to your door

How it works

You talk. Pizan writes.

Upload them straight from your phone.

01.Add your photosFrom your iPhone, or old prints photographed nice and flat. The original is kept exactly as it is, in high resolution.
02.Tell the story, one question at a timePizan has already looked at the photo: it asks you questions one by one, out loud or in writing.
03.The story writes itselfYour words turned into a story, without inventing a single name, date or place. Whatever isn’t known stays open as a question.
04.Family members add to itComment, add a detail, correct a passage. Nothing is ever erased.
05.The book takes shapeLayout, cover, book or magazine: to print, or to leaf through online.

Pricing

Free to start, simple after that.

Stories are unlimited on every plan. Switch plans or cancel anytime. Printed books are ordered separately.

To get startedFree$0
  • Unlimited stories written and photos read
  • One illustrated cover on us
  • 1 GB of space for your memories, videos and voices included
  • One loved one who adds their memories
Keep your memoriesMemory$3.90/month
  • 20 GB of space for your memories, videos and voices included
  • 5 loved ones who add their memories
  • 1 illustrated cover a month
  • 5% off your printed books
The whole familyFamily$8.90/month
  • 75 GB of space for your memories, videos and voices included
  • Your loved ones add their memories, no limit
  • 2 illustrated covers a month
  • 2 photo retouches
  • 10% off your printed books
Pass it onLegacy$17.90/month
  • 150 GB of space for your memories, videos and voices included
  • Your loved ones add their memories, no limit
  • 10 minutes of spoken conversation
  • 3 covers, 4 retouches
  • 15% off your printed books
Go furtherPlumefrom $33.90
  • $33.90, $56.90 or $112.90 a month
  • Up to 60 min of conversation
  • Publish: ISBN in your name, legal deposit, sales
What your books cost
FormatSizeBest forFrom
SmallA5 · 14.8 × 21 cmThe size of a novel$29.90
Medium17.8 × 25.4 cmA beautiful book, easy to hold$31.90
LargeA4 · 21 × 29.7 cmThe largest, for photos$33.90
Three formats, four paper qualities, from 32 pages. One copy delivered to your door; sales tax is added at checkout.

Pro versionPlume plans

Publish and sell your book.

With the Plume plans, your book reaches beyond the family. Your own ISBN in your name, legal deposit: you set your price, you sell wherever you like, and we print and ship every copy. No inventory, nothing to pay up front.

ISBN in your nameLegal depositYour pricePrint on demand
See the Plume plansfrom $33.90 a month

One sale, one copy

Your retail priceSet by you
Your author pricePizan price −30%
Your shareThe difference

Printed and shipped by Pizan, one copy at a time.

Trust

Private, on principle.

Private by defaultEvery album is closed. Nothing becomes public unless you choose, and access can be revoked at any time.
Hosted in EuropePhotos and stories are stored on servers located in the European Union.
Your originals, untouchedUploaded photos are never retouched: the original is kept exactly as it is, alongside the edited versions.
Your data, yoursDownload everything whenever you want, and a deleted account is truly deleted.

Waitlist

Start your book

Pizan is opening its doors a little at a time. Leave your email and we’ll write to you as soon as your spot is ready.