PHOTOBOOKS

by Andrea Mosley - Jan 2008

I have "published" 4 photobooks, all from different websites. I have used mypublisher.com, winkflash.com, shutterfly.com, and picaboo.com. This is my report on my experience on the books, how to find discounts, quality of prints, ease of use, etc.

Most all of the websites have a way to share the book with others online or email the book to others. All of my books I did 2 sided so there were no blank white pages on the back. The best suggestion I have for everyone is to log on and create an account with all of the sites you may be interested in. Once you have done that, they will send you specials, coupons, etc.

mypublisher.com

The size I did was 11.25in x 8.75in. The book originally was $30 plus .99 for additional pages. The cover had a window cover which was nicely done. They also have book jackets for an additional $5. I did not want captions, so I did not try them. They have a program that you download that has been improved since I did mine (which was 11 months ago). I did have a coupon emailed to me that would give the sender and recipient a $20 coupon….if anyone is interested, I can send them your email and we would both get $20 off if I can find the email. This was my first book and overall I was very pleased with the quality. It was easy to make and they have a full-bleed option to have the photo fill the entire page without a border (this was really nice). For those that saw my book, this was the soccer team with red/black jerseys. The colors really popped off the pages. They have a 20-40% discount going on now and in the off-seasons (not around Christmas).

winkflash.com

The size I did was 9x12. They had a deal for $19.99 for any amount of pagesI did 98 pages and cost me $24.94 including shipping. It was a great deal but the cover was just embossed, no photos on the cover. The captions had a 35 character limit which I did not like but worse, it would show more than that and will just cut off additional characters after the limit is met. I emailed them about that which brings me to another point, the customer service response was SLOW!!! The book was not as easy to make. It did not hide the used pictures. Once you try to make one, you will realize the importance of that little detail. There were not many layouts and very weak on backgrounds. The quality was not good either. It was very dull/grey/no punch to the colors at all. They have a deal on right now for a size 10x8in for a flat $19.95 up to 100 pages (use coupon code ADE493)!!!! I would save this site for a time you want a large book for little money. The price when they have this deal going on is hard to beat.

shutterfly.com

I wanted to try a new size, so I did an 8x8in. Shuttefly has a great cover, I put a photo on the front and a photo on the back and a title on the front, back and spine. They had great backgrounds and you can hide already used pictures. They have excellent service. I had a print problem that looked like a crease/line on all the back pages. I emailed them my problem and they resent a new book shipped to me within a week with no questions asked and they did not even ask for the old book either. For anyone who saw my book, it was the smallest book with the infrared photo on the cover. The quality was great, easy to use, good service, and probably the best cover I have seen.

picaboo.com

The layouts were awesome for their photobooks. I think the most I have seen! Picaboo had so many fonts for captions too. This site was different in that you don’t upload the photos first, you do the book on your computer with their software. This took less time to upload the photos in the end. That would be a matter of personal preference. If you work from 2 computers, then this would not be a bonus to you. You cannot use tiffs however, they have to be jpgs. You can hide used photos. I never needed the customer service so I could not tell you about that. The best part of this book is that you can use a photo as a background and put photos on top of it. For anyone who saw my book, this is the one that had the footprints and dinosaur bones in the background, with photos on the sides of the image. For those that want to have one or 2 photos per page, may not find that intriguing. I thought it was very cool! They did not have a cover photo option when I did my book only a window, only a window. They have a great cover option now. They also have several different sizes, but you make the book first, then you chose what size you want. I would imagine they are in the same aspect ratio, I have not looked into that. I loved their book too. I would say the downside was the cover, but now they have the great covers for a price of course.

A few other sites that I did not use...

dotphoto, viovio, photoworks, tabblo, mpix or blurb.

Andrea Mosley