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coffee table photo book
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Feb 28, 2019 09:14:07   #
islandboy4147 Loc: Savannah, GA
 
I am interested in creating a coffee table photo book and was wondering if any of those that have had experience would be willing to share. Any tips would be much appreciated.

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Feb 28, 2019 09:16:13   #
dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia
 
islandboy4147 wrote:
I am interested in creating a coffee table photo book and was wondering if any of those that have had experience would be willing to share. Any tips would be much appreciated.


Just one for home or are you asking about publishing and selling?

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Feb 28, 2019 09:28:42   #
pappleg
 
Blurb via Lightroom does a good job. Pat

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Feb 28, 2019 09:32:06   #
rdfarr Loc: Floridian living in AL
 
I have a stack of ten photo books from Shutterfly.
After your first book, with digital photos you supply and arrange, they'll start sending you special offers for photo books. When I get my books, I additionally fill all the blank pages and spaces with additional printed photos that I glue in.

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Feb 28, 2019 09:34:20   #
John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.
 
I had been using Apple to design and print custom books for each travel adventure but they stopped providing support for the software and the printing service. I just started to use Blurb, and their software BookWright. It's not too bad. I am able to select the paper, create my own page layouts. Text boxes can be added to describe the photos, locations, background on the trip. They have standard sizes but not too many. I have done one 12" square format and expect delivery of two 11"x13 tomorrow. These will be my first in BW. One thing I do not like is when you select the hard bound photo book style, you must select the Cover as being an Image Wrap (printed on the outside of the cover) or a dust jacket (a paper wrap around with inside leafs). With the dust jacket the outside of the book is blank under the jacket. Apple would give you both, printing on the outside and the jacket over that. I contacted them and they don't provide the option for both (yet).

Like noted above, I did one small book and then started to receive discounts. The two BW books are 40% off.

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Feb 28, 2019 09:36:21   #
John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.
 
pappleg wrote:
Blurb via Lightroom does a good job. Pat


Agreed, but if you download the BookWright software and use that instead of the LR version, it is more flexible software. I learned it in about an hour.

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Feb 28, 2019 11:42:13   #
via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP
 
islandboy4147 wrote:
I am interested in creating a coffee table photo book and was wondering if any of those that have had experience would be willing to share. Any tips would be much appreciated.


You don't say what software you currently use. If you do use Lightroom the book module is very good, although not intuitive. You can create very professional looking "coffee table" books with it. I have about 15 books, all the large coffee table size, that I created in LR. I think almost any program will do a good job, but it all depends on your skills with the program you choose. One of the nice things about creating a book from within LR is that no export of images to jpeg in order to load them into a software program is needed. You simply pick your images in LR and use those within LR to create your book and then export to Blurb. You can also sell your book on Blurb.

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Mar 1, 2019 05:21:21   #
wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado
 
islandboy4147 wrote:
I am interested in creating a coffee table photo book and was wondering if any of those that have had experience would be willing to share. Any tips would be much appreciated.


My wife has made two coffee table books from mostly my photos and some of hers. The people she worked with at Shutterfly loved the books. I liked them even better.

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Mar 1, 2019 06:32:03   #
steve49 Loc: massachusetts
 
I do an annual family photo book with Shutterfly.
Pretty simple and, after a few, gets to be really simple and fast.
They come out well.

Make sure that you click on " advanced " as it allows more sizing and movement within the pages.
The program can be pretty simple... pour in yr photos and the program will sort, size, etc...
I prefer to do that myself in advanced.

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Mar 1, 2019 07:03:12   #
Fotomacher Loc: Toronto
 
islandboy4147 wrote:
I am interested in creating a coffee table photo book and was wondering if any of those that have had experience would be willing to share. Any tips would be much appreciated.


I am using the Blurb plug-in in Lightroom. You can see what I’ve done from my website www.fotomacher.ca under the “Publications” tab.

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Mar 1, 2019 07:09:31   #
islandboy4147 Loc: Savannah, GA
 
Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond. Lots of good info provided. Much appreciated

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Mar 1, 2019 07:51:18   #
ronichas Loc: Long Island
 
I have made many books using different companies. It is a bit frustrating as each company has different software to make the books. I design the page to the correct size in photoshop, then drop the entire page into the book software. I find this easier to do as I have much more control over the images I use, sizing and using a stroke around each image. I can also add the text.

I have been using Adoramapix for the past several books. I also use them for printing. If you pm me your address I will send you a friend request. We both gain some credits!

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Mar 1, 2019 07:52:38   #
Wilderness Images Loc: Apache Junction, AZ.
 
I used Costco to make my Photo Book. They have an on-line publisher that allows you to size and move your photos, add text, etc. The book is a very high quality, the kind that you want to keep out and show your friends. The 30 page, hard cover book sells for $20 for the first copy and $15 for each additional book (I think prices are current). I've researched other publishers and this is about as good as it gets. You must be a Costco customer to use the service.

Jack

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Mar 1, 2019 07:55:05   #
jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY
 
I've used Adoramapix for smaller books. Very nice.

Remember the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer made a coffee table book that folded out into a small table?

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Mar 1, 2019 08:32:23   #
mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma
 
I’ve used Blurb which is easily accessed from Lightroom. They offer a wide variety of sizes, quality papers, and bindings. You can add text to your images and text pages. When adding text be careful to proofread carefully! Because of what was undoubtedly user error, I couldn’t get the text as shown on my screen to enlarge. I suspect if I’d reached out and called someone, there was a way I could have avoided a costly reprint. P. S. It’s not cheap. I doubt that any of them are.

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