laurenm Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 I know these are not professional quality books. I am just looking to make a cheap book for my neices of their visit here. Has anyone used either of these companies' books for personal use or for a low budget event? Again, I know they are not pro and I'm not expecting zookbinder or asuka quality but just wonder if they are better than the storyteller books found in Staples. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougs1 Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 Lauren, I have used Snapfish in the past and they do an okay job. For the most part their photo printing is not bad. Since I am a Mac user, I have used iPhoto to make books and have been very happy. Have a couple on our coffee table and they are very nice. For what you are wanting, I expect that either one would fill your need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshroot Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 Photoworks also does decent quality books for the use that you are talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmoody Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 ofoto (kodak somethingorother now) does pretty good too... (in fact, I like their quality a bit better but snapfish has a larger format and the option of putting your photo right on the cover) Might want to look into "blurb". Doesn't appear to be a lot more $$ and gives you the option of a dust jacket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurenm Posted December 9, 2006 Author Share Posted December 9, 2006 Thanks guys. I do like the blurb books, but they can't get it to me before X-mas. I will look into the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picturesque Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 I used Shutterfly for some low cost, non professional use, and they are pretty good. You will be surprised. Plus, they are fast. Nice designs, too, considering, although all of them don't have enough templates for photo-only uses, and the layouts aren't reversible. Still, if you design your pages yourself in PS, you can use their whole page option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gina_marie1 Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 Hi Lauren, just wanted to add MyPublisher. I made a MyPub book to use as a guestbook for our wedding last summer and I thought the quality was pretty good. Just formatted all the text & images in photoshop and the MyPub software was easy for importing the layouts & accurate previews. Only about $20 w/ a coupon or costco discount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colleendonovan Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 Staples uses Snapfish for their stuff, just an FYI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cariad Posted December 10, 2006 Share Posted December 10, 2006 Go and check sharedink.com they do a nice job and it might even be done by Christmas :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meldell Posted December 10, 2006 Share Posted December 10, 2006 Another option like this is Picaboo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_powell2 Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 Hi Lauren, To add to Gina's response, the Wall Street Journal's 12/6 "Gadgets" section was a comparative review of MyPublisher, Apple's iPhoto, and Kodak's EasyShare Gallery. For Apple users, they preferred iPhoto. But for PC users, they preferred MyPublisher...both for ease/speed of use and quality of results. I just checked into www.mypublisher.com for my own use, and here's what I see about their pricing: A 20-page 11.25x8.75 hardbound (with from 1 to 12 images per page) costs about $30, a 20-page 15x11.5 hardbound costs about $60, and a 20-page 7.75x5.75 paperback (also with up to 12 images per page) costs about $10. Additonal pages cost from $.50 to $3 each, depending on the book size. One of the other perks of MyPublisher was their option to allow one photo show through a cutout in the front cover. The interior photos can be "autoloaded" into the selected page formats...or placed and moved manually. Is SOUNDS fairly simple, anyway! I'm working on some photo books for Christmas now...hope I can get them done in time! Sincerely, Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_flanigan Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 I love the books I have made from iphoto and aperture, simple and clean. Good quality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_powell2 Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 Hi again, Lauren! A follow-up to yesterday's post. Last night, I used MyPublisher to create and order four gift copies of a 20-page, 7x5-inch paperback book (containing around 60 photos, with one photo/title showing through a cutout window in the front cover). My total was about $50 ($10 per book, plus about $10 for FedEx shipping). Once I figured out how to use the interface to define each page's format, creating the book went quickly. You first drag all of the photos that you intend to use for the book into a bar across the top of the application screen. For each page, you then select how many photos you want on the page, and select a specific page layout from a drop-down list. You then drag photos down into the layout spots on the page. You can drag them back up to the bar, or from one page location to another (and the software does a good job of putting an image back up to the top bar if you drag another onto their spot). You don't have to use all of the page layout spots...but if you don't, when you go to finalize the book, the system will warn you that a "page is empty." Perhaps not the best wording, since only a spot on the page is empty! But you can press on anyway. You can also enhance, crop, rotate, and move photos around within their layout locations. Another nice feature is that if you click on a photo (in page-creation mode) and a red line appears around it, the photo's resolution isn't optimum for the print job. That happened with two images that I had already cropped rather strongly. But "zooming out" of them very slightly made them only a little bit smaller on the page, and brought them back to an acceptable print resolution. I encountered only two problems, but the company's 24x7 email Help link resolved one of them within 20 minutes. That problem occurred while I was ordering the finished book. That's also when you select a color/texture for the cover, and at the moment I picked a color, the application window closed. Their advice was to go to Start > Programs to restart it. And when it reopened, my book was back in the window...it wasn't lost. The second problem was similar. Just after I entered my Billing Info, the application screen went white. And closing/reopening it didn't help...it was like the system was in some kind of loop that I couldn't break. But I did eventually break it by doing a Save As and saving my book file under a different name. THAT interrupted my first ordering session, and allowed me to start again with the "new" book. Bottom line, though, was that I created and ordered four photo books in two hours, and they'll be delivered by Friday, printed on heavy 100-lb stock. I think the company's web page said that books ordered before 12/17 could be printed and shipped before Christmas. Just wanted to share my experience with this particular tool! Though I'm not an Apple user, and can't compare the Apple product, I do agree wiith the Wall Street Journal's assessment of MyPublisher. It is fast and easy to use, though the page layouts offered may be a bit more limited than the Apple tools provide. But they were fine for my little job! Sincerely, Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_powell2 Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 Hi again, Lauren! Just wanted to followup again that the books that I created and ordered through mypublisher.com two nights ago arrived this morning. They are great. The confirmation email that I received also includes links for reoprdering a book and for sharing it online with friends. Unfortunately, I tried the latter and the link seems to be broken...but it may be working in the future, if that feature is of interest. Just wanted to let you know, in case you were interested. Sincerely, Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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