Website for making a nice Photobook?

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YYV_146

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I'm thinking about making a photobook as a present for my girlfriend. Nothing fancy - just a few dozen portraits and travel shots.

What are some US-based services you've had positive experiences with? Ideally it would allow some customization, nice quality paper and reasonable turnaround time. I checked a few local shops, but didn't like their samples :(
 
YYV_146 said:
I'm thinking about making a photobook as a present for my girlfriend. Nothing fancy - just a few dozen portraits and travel shots.

What are some US-based services you've had positive experiences with? Ideally it would allow some customization, nice quality paper and reasonable turnaround time. I checked a few local shops, but didn't like their samples :(
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Blurb.com

If you use Lightroom, you can build Blurb books directly from Lightroom 4 and later.

G
 
c.poulton said:
Yes, I can second Blurb. I have had 3 photo books published via Blurb and never had any problems with them. Quality is good too, although I doubt that they are the cheapest out there though?
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Pricing does seem to be on the steep side...everything looks great about their website, though.
 
YYV_146 said:
Pricing does seem to be on the steep side...everything looks great about their website, though.
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+1 with blurb
also if you are patient and dont need it right away, wait as usually, very often actually blurb releases 25% (iirc) discount codes
 
+1 for Blurb.

That said, most services use the same printers (HP Indigo, originally developed for printing mass-customized junk mail). The only differences are in the paper stock and the kind of binding they offer. Blurb has premium paper stocks, but like Apple they charge a pretty penny for the privilege compared to companies like MyPublisher or Costco. I've read good things about Adorama's book printing service as well (which uses Fuji Crystal Archive photo paper, not digital halftone printing).

Blurb seems to be the only service supported directly in Lightroom. I've made mine using InDesign because I am a glutton for punishment and I wanted fine control over the layout and typography. Supposedly LR5 allows you to edit your page templates, but I haven't tried it yet. Web-based publishing systems usually suck.

On the high-end, there are companies like AsukaBooks that specialize in wedding album books, and Edition One in fine art editions. They are also significantly more expensive, and require using InDesign or similar DTP software.
 
-1 for Blurb

I have published six different 70+ pages books with Blurb, MyPublisher, Picaboo, and Shutterfly.

Blurb has some of the lowest prices, and a pretty decent interface --better if used directly rather than through LR (though it might be a tad better with LR5) where you are confined to rather ugly preset layouts.

I sometimes am forced to use Blurb because it allows books greater than 100 pages, and I've occasionally exceeded that page count. However, the quality of the images is much better with MyPublisher.

MyPublisher has slightly higher prices (though they offer many special deals and sales) a pretty clunky interface (Blurb is much better here), and it restricts you to books under 100 pages. Still, most of the time, I put up with this because the quality has clearly been the best out of all the consumer grade photo services I've used. Images are crisper, more vibrant, with more vivid colors. Blurb has been the worst in terms of IQ, though the first Blurb book I did looks the worse, and the one I did a few months back is somewhat better, so they probably are working on improving the image quality.


I want to try a premium service next, with top notch paper and binding, to redo my wedding album, but I'm still researching publishers... if you have any suggestions, send them my way!
 
froyd said:
-MyPublisher has slightly higher prices (though they offer many special deals and sales) a pretty clunky interface (Blurb is much better here), and it restricts you to books under 100 pages. Still, most of the time, I put up with this because the quality has clearly been the best out of all the consumer grade photo services I've used. Images are crisper, more vibrant, with more vivid colors. Blurb has been the worst in terms of IQ, though the first Blurb book I did looks the worse, and the one I did a few months back is somewhat better, so they probably are working on improving the image quality.
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I use MyPublisher as well. The 100-page restriction is not an issue for me. If you're a Costco member, download the MyPublisher software via the Costco website and you get a built-in discount for each order. Also, if possible, wait for the "sale" offers from MyPublisher - some are quite good, e.g., free pages.
 
+1 for adoramapix.

The advantage over blurb is that they offer books made with c-prints, which I much prefer over blurb's CMYK process. Even more so for B&W, where it is hard to get good results with blurb.

- N.
 
froyd said:
-1 for Blurb

I have published six different 70+ pages books with Blurb, MyPublisher, Picaboo, and Shutterfly.

Blurb has some of the lowest prices, and a pretty decent interface --better if used directly rather than through LR (though it might be a tad better with LR5) where you are confined to rather ugly preset layouts.

I sometimes am forced to use Blurb because it allows books greater than 100 pages, and I've occasionally exceeded that page count. However, the quality of the images is much better with MyPublisher.

MyPublisher has slightly higher prices (though they offer many special deals and sales) a pretty clunky interface (Blurb is much better here), and it restricts you to books under 100 pages. Still, most of the time, I put up with this because the quality has clearly been the best out of all the consumer grade photo services I've used. Images are crisper, more vibrant, with more vivid colors. Blurb has been the worst in terms of IQ, though the first Blurb book I did looks the worse, and the one I did a few months back is somewhat better, so they probably are working on improving the image quality.


I want to try a premium service next, with top notch paper and binding, to redo my wedding album, but I'm still researching publishers... if you have any suggestions, send them my way!
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There are easy ways around the Blurb template restrictions for most cases if you get clever with LR and your pixel editor of choice (eg: PS, PS Elements, etc). You can also do your design in anything that can output to PDF for Blurb.

For higher volume and lower cost, take a look at Mag Cloud (http://www.magcloud.com/). More magazine grade quality, but with cleverness you can get great results from it.

G
 
Anyone find a service that offers matte finish paper? Or other finishes other than the usual glossy stuff I see in Blurb and similar books? And variety in choices of book binding styles and qualities?
 
I have only used Blurb and been somewhat satisfied. But if you do B&W, you can get very small registration problems that cause a moire pattern in color within your B&W image. B&W books are printed on full color presses, there is a dot screen so it's tricky.
 
Jamie Pillers said:
Anyone find a service that offers matte finish paper? Or other finishes other than the usual glossy stuff I see in Blurb and similar books? And variety in choices of book binding styles and qualities?
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Blurb offers a matte finish paper as well as others. They have Trade Books (simple softcover binding, inexpensive paper) and higher-end perfect bound hardcover and softcover.

G
 
Hosermage said:
I have used various services and here are my rankings:

Apple (through iPhoto) > Blurb > Shutterfly

Unfortunately, I think the prices rank the same way :)

I'm currently waiting for my books from YorkPhoto from this deal: http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/100202/living-social-20page-custom-hardbound-8x11-photo-book

Shutterfly has a current deal: http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/100302/shutterfly-20page-8x8-shutterfly-photo-book
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I would go with iPhoto if I own a Mac...trying to deal wit Apple as little as possible these days.
 
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