Photo Books: What brand of photo books have been most pleased with for personal documentary use?

Hnclary Loc: IL & FL

What brand of photo books have been most pleased with for personal documentary use?

6FootFiveFotog Loc: Escondido CA

I have only used Shutterfly to date, but I have been very happy with the photo books I have ordered from them. In order to get your "biggest bang per buck," I usually wait until they offer free unlimited pages (up to 121, I think), before I place an order.

Hnclary Loc: IL & FL

Thanks!

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Two years ago I researched about ten different companies that produce photo books.

I chose MixBook, and have been very pleased. I chose them because their software to create the page layouts was very feature rich and easy to use.

Hnclary Loc: IL & FL

Thank you. How is the binding? Can the books lay flat when open for a double page photo? Do they offer a jacket cover with one of your photos. For many years I used the photo book app available from Apple. It was such high quality paper, printing, color control and had a strong fabric cover with sewn binding. Apple closed it down several years ago with one of my 100 page books almost complete. Yikes!

SAVH Loc: La Jolla, CA

I have used Shutterfly for years - more than 20. I usually do a photo book to cover the last year of family and travel. I have used several of their formats and have liked all the results. They are the best customer service company that I use. Once there was a printing error and a picture was reversed. They immediately corrected it and sent a new copy quickly and free of charge. No questions asked. Very good "chat" support if needed.

Scotty

djet Loc: Burbank, CA

I've been using Blurb since 2010 and have made over 40 books with them. They come out great and have never had any problems. They offer a variety of sizes, lay-flat options and paper options. I like the fact that you can place your photos and text wherever you want on the page and everything stays on your computer until your design is completed. Then it is uploaded to Blurb for printing.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Hnclary wrote:

Thank you. How is the binding? Can the books lay flat when open for a double page photo? Do they offer a jacket cover with one of your photos. For many years I used the photo book app available from Apple. It was such high quality paper, printing, color control and had a strong fabric cover with sewn binding. Apple closed it down several years ago with one of my 100 page books almost complete. Yikes!

I’m assuming you’re asking me? Best to hit Quote Reply instead of Quote to communicate with a specific person.

The answer is Yes to all your questions. I get lay flat books that turn out beautifully. High quality paper, etc. Go to Mixbook.com and check them out. They also offer big discounts (as do most of the other companies).

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Hnclary wrote:

What brand of photo books have been most pleased with for personal documentary use?

I use Shutterfly.
They currently have 50% off with free shipping.
They usually have this sale at least once a month.
In my opinion, they are the best I have used.
There are many companies that do photo books and most are excellent.

Temuna

I have made 60 or 70 books with Snapfish. Quite satisfied though I always shake my head at the crazy pricing scheme with insane numbers always offset by sales of 50% to 70%. From
the research I have done there seem to be almost a half dozen good options for who to use. I stick with Snapfish because I have learned to be comfortable with the software.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

djet wrote:

I've been using Blurb since 2010 and have made over 40 books with them. They come out great and have never had any problems. They offer a variety of sizes, lay-flat options and paper options. I like the fact that you can place your photos and text wherever you want on the page and everything stays on your computer until your design is completed. Then it is uploaded to Blurb for printing.

Me too with Blurb and it interfaces so nicely with LrC. It's a quality book and paper and thus more expensive than the shutterfly, etc.

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

If you’re a Lightroom user, then I’d recommend Blurb. I just completed a book for my African Photo safari and it came out superbly! High quality papers, many different sizes and cover types, and excellent image quality.

What I liked best about Blurb was that I could use my RAW images straight from LrC. You build your book in Lightroom through Blurb (which is built into LrC) and then export it.There’s a bit of a learning curve when you get started, but after that it’s fairly intuitive. Couple of tips: do not use the auto layout function, if you use text; proofread at least 5 times, use the collection feature in LrC for your images and set the collection as a target collection, then press B to add or subtract an image to/from that collection. When you do the export, it will take a while, so be patient!

JFCoupe Loc: Kent, Washington

I have used Blurb for the the last 3-4 years, but also have used Shutterfly in the past and even Costco before they shut down and moved files to Shutterfly. I typically export my images from LR to my desktop as jpegs and then upload the jpegs to Blurb. I have tried to work within LR to Blurb but found it not as easy as my current approach.

I recently saw a lay flat book at a friend's house done with Shutterfly and even a paded leather cover. It was very impressive.