kcp.portland Loc: Portland, OR

Shutterfly's photo books are an inexpensive way to enjoy and share your photos. Does anyone know of an equally easy way to produce similar books where the content is solely text, with possibly just a few illustrations? I write logs for most of our vacations and would like to print these and, of course, only need one copy.

avflinsch Loc: Hamilton, New Jersey

I have used lulu.com to do similar things - around $20 for 50 or so pages + a few illustrations/photos

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

I use BookBaby. $39 for 174 pages with whatever you want on those pages.

kcp.portland Loc: Portland, OR

Thanks)and gor the quick reply), I'll look into it.

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

The very first time I wanted text in a photobook, I typed the text in WordPerfect, printed it, then scanned the print with PSE and used it as if it was a photo. Worked like a charm, but a lot of extra work.

I'm still using PSE for my photobooks, but if/when I want text I use the text tool provided with PSE.
It gives me the same possibilities as WP: Font, font size, centered, left aligned, right aligned, size, etc.
Plus PSE gives me a nice feature that WP does not: place text on a curve, like around a picture.
I imagine that PS can do the same things with text, although I only used PS a very short time.

BebuLamar

I can only see the value of having them making a photobook in which the contents is mostly text in the binding. If I can do book binding I would rather print my own using a color laser printer. The photos won't be very good but good enough for illustration purpose but the text is better than in a photobook.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Amazon KDP. They provide online software. The best approach is to write the book and pop the illustration in where you want it, then create a PDF and pop it into Amazon KDP. They have options to create the cover. I self published using this site. There is no cost to you at all.

ezslides

You can do it in Shutterfly under advanced editing. Delete the photo boxes and add a text box to any page or all pages.

gypsy02 Loc: Indiana

I've used Bookemon very successfully on many projects with photos and text. You can do about anything you want to in any way. Nice publishing!

davyboy Loc: Anoka Mn.

Costco

kenArchi Loc: Seal Beach, CA

When I see a mag article about a location all I see are a couple of small pictures and a whole lot of repetitive writing. And a picture of a dinner plate with food? Same with books. The more pictures the more I buy.
Sorry.

dan59019 Loc: Washington Mi

Easiest way I've found is to create a pages in Power Point with as many photos and as much text as you want. Then export as a jpg. I create my pages as 12x12 and set either a color or photo as background then add add photos and text boxes as desired with as many pages as you want - then submit to Shutterfly or your favorite printer.

Mldigital Loc: NewJersey

Barnes & Noble Press. You register and get an account created (free) you then can create a project. The book you are creating will originate in your PC or Laptop and you will just be uploading the manuscript as many times as you need for review. A proof copy is create each time and you can either read it there or down load it. If you are happy with it you sign off and then your project progresses to your front and back covers, be it hard copy of soft. Same process as your contend. Again you upload and proof. All through the process they offer help documents for reference on the processes of creating your “book”. They initially will quote you a price per book in the beginning based on page count, paper and printing options selected. They also will handle printing for your own personal distribution or handle it as publishing and they do the selling and distribution. I just did my fathers “Life Story” he wrote. 100 pages, hard covers. $11.20 a copy. They recommend buying one copy first for your look. If you like it then you order the remaining copies for you or distribution if they are publishing for you. Google their website and it will give you the A-Z for what you want to do.

ZoeyC. Loc: Indiana

I think Shutterfly allows ample text, certainly long captions. But consider StoryWorth — it’s primarily a writing/book program, with photos inserted as needed, which results in a book you can buy X number of copies of for $39 B&W or $79 with color photos. I’ve been doing storyworth for a year, weekly: they’ll send you a prompt/question on whatever schedule you like but you can ignore those and write on your own topics. Can go back and edit, switch out photos, etc. at any point up to ordering the final book. Max somewhere like 420 pages. The basic subscription is $99. In your example, it might be a book of several vacation logs combined. Layout is pretty basic — pages of text, photos placed where needed or at the end; also you can share each entry with others as you go and they can write replies with other photos, which all adds up until you declare it done and order the book.

Rational1