Phylinpagosa

I have made many photo books and I do this thru Shutterfly. I have been most pleased. And often then have a 50% off special.
I also make calendars for friends using Shutterfly
Phyl in Colorado

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I used mainly Apple printing for my photo books until the recent "upgrade" from iPhoto to Photos. The print options I preferred for books are no longer available. I switched to Shutterfly and didn't like it as well but it was OK, and reasonably priced/user friendly. I've tried Blurb and won't again. Next up on the list: Adorama, which has done a good job on some canvas and metal prints I've used them for. We'll see. Following this thread with interest.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Yes, it's a way of advertising for them....
OTOH, I found the logo quite discrete, it's there and not overpowering.
Let's face it, if you purchase a book in a bookstore, somewhere it will say who printed it, sometimes even in multiple places.
In comparison with that, I'm quite happy to accept Blurb's logo.

JoBarg Loc: Pennsylvania

So glad you asked this question. My wife has selected about 100 pix of grandchildren over the years and wants me to incorporate them into an album. I'll be following your replies. Thanks

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

I have not compared prices, but I did read some of the commentary right here in the 'Hog for photobooks, then looked at several, and landed on Mixbook. I also use a Mac (20" 2007 iMac). I am a deliriously happy Mixbooker. I haven't done many because yes, they are spendy, but the quality is absolutely first class. I have my monitor carefully calibrated (I eyeball it using Mac's onboard color profiler and check it frequently) and what I get back from Mixbook matches what I see on my monitor, color and density. I make up the pages right on their site with jpegs (until very recently I only shot jpegs PP'd in PSE-11). You upload all your pictures to the site and pull them from a bin. You can set it up so every already-used picture no longer shows in the bin, although it is still there. I usually downsize my stuff for faster upload, so if I try to make a picture bigger than will look good it immediately warns me to upload a higher-rez version. They have so many premade templates for every conceivable occasion (maybe not funerals :shock: ) it's actually overwhelming. I tend to design my own on a blank book. There's a range of prices for a wide range of sizes, paperbacks, hard covers... I'm sure the competition has most of it, too, but we all tend to recommend what we use. (BTW they do put a tiny logo in on one blank page at the back, and I see absolutely nothing wrong with their taking credit. I do! :) )

I hope this link works. If it does, you can page through a little paperback I did a couple of years ago, just for fun. It was not made from a template; I started with a blank white book and made it all up on site. If you can page through it at all, be sure to size it up to "massive."
http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/interests/penn-state-rr-museum-2013-10045988?vk=ymWDidOAWC
(One last thing: if you can see it, many pictures, esp. the full-bleed double-page spreads will not look sharp on your monitor. I'm not sure why that is, but if you could see the physical book you would not believe the wire-sharpness! It just looks soft on the screen for some reason! Don't worry! :thumbup: )

hj Loc: Florida

If you're on a Mac.... MyPublisher is ideal and I doubt any of the others have more options!

CHASEPLACEMAIL Loc: Ct,Fla

I use Blurb. it gives you the most format flexibility. I usually do 11x14 landscape. They are a bit cheaper than others but it depends on the size and number of pages. Each has a different way of calculating price. I particularly like doing panoramas across 2 11x14 pages.

louparker Loc: Scottsdale, AZ

MyPublisher and Shutterfly merged a couple of years ago, so they're the same.

louparker Loc: Scottsdale, AZ

I have made several photo books over the past 5 years or so and Shutterfly is the only one that did not have to be reprinted and in fact am in the process of putting one together on Shutterfly as we speak -- it is by far the best quality, but is limited to 120 pages. For more pages, all the reviews I have read had said that Blurb is the best. The others that I have used are Kodak Gallery, which is now out of business, Picaboo (my book had to be reprinted 7 times before they got it right), SmileBooks (which was a total disaster and had to be reprinted 3 times before they got it right) and Winkflash (which had to be reprinted once before they got it right). Shutterfly got my books right the first time and photo quality is excellent -- also both Groupon, Amazon Local and Travel Zoo regularly offer discount certificates for Shutterfly, which I have used. The only caveat about that is that if you add very many pages to the number included in the certificate, you will end up paying more than if you just use the promos offered by Shutterfly directly.

wotsmith Loc: Nashville TN

We have done a number of books via apple and iPhoto and the quality is excellent

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Have you done any since iPhoto was replaced with Photos? If so, is the quality the same? With the changes in options, I wondered if they had begun to use a different print service for their books.

wotsmith Loc: Nashville TN

Nope, I still have iPhoto. Actually, I use LR and PS almost exclusively, but for books I move selected photos to iPhoto and then create a book. We have done about 6 books, all turned out excellent.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I have always done exactly the same, always with good results. I never used iPhoto for anything else but the books. However, the new book options are more restricted than they were before Photos arrived. Have you done a book recently?

Phylinpagosa

I have made over 20 photo books using Shutterfly. They often have terrific specials (50% of everything, free shipping)...it pays to sign up for their emails. I have a Mac and it is very easy to upload my photos to their website. When you create an account with Shutterfly you get a free photo book and very reduced prices on prints.
Phyl in Colorado

paulrap Loc: Connecticut

I have been using Shutterfly for years and have created dozens of photo books mainly as gifts. You can also create share sites for displaying or sharing your photos with family and friends. I do not recall ever having an issue with the quality of their products and they are reasonably priced.