Two new photo book printing places...

Mike Lane · Jul-24-2006, 09:22 PM

I can't vouch for them, but these 2 places look promising for getting photo books published. The first one is called Picaboo and it looks like it's more about books that you'd send to grandma (which isn't to say that they don't look nice). The other one is called Blurb and it looks like a more serious book publishing site. You can print all kinds of books on blurb and it looks like you can do 440 pages in a book for only $80 which sounds pretty good.

Maybe I'll get my act together with some bryce and zion pics enough to get a book put together and I can report back about if these sites are any good.

Brookes' Photography · Jul-25-2006, 05:34 AM

Hey the Blurb site looks great. So glad you posted it. I may also try it soon and I will post the results.

photofreak · Jul-26-2006, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Lane

I can't vouch for them, but these 2 places look promising for getting photo books published. The first one is called Picaboo and it looks like it's more about books that you'd send to grandma (which isn't to say that they don't look nice). The other one is called Blurb and it looks like a more serious book publishing site. You can print all kinds of books on blurb and it looks like you can do 440 pages in a book for only $80 which sounds pretty good.

Maybe I'll get my act together with some bryce and zion pics enough to get a book put together and I can report back about if these sites are any good.

I've had several books made through Picaboo. I went and picked my best photos, added quotes and made them to show to other's. I like the quality, the binding is good. I would recommend the faux leather as opposed to the linen if you are going to use them as portfolios. The faux leather does not look cheesy and seems to be holding up better than the linen. A drawback I have found... there is an opening on the cover for the first picture. It is a small opening...my photo there already got scratched. It would be nice if they offered book jackets. They are great with customer service. They sent me one of my books with half the pages upside down. The next evening the new book was in my hands. I didn't even have to send the other book back.

Another company I used was Photoworks. They produced pretty much the same quality, however they do not give you the option of different fonts.
The prices, I felt were very reasonable. Starting price is 29.95 for the first 20 pages. 1.99 for each page there after. There for awhile, they were offering a medim sized book free with every large book. The software program is very user friendly.
Just my humble opinion,
Mandi
www.mandraleephotography.com
I'm going to go out and check out the other site you listed.

cambler · Jul-26-2006, 05:33 PM

Any recommendations for sites that don't charge one-off prices?

I'd like to get 1000 copies of a 60-page full-color book for retail sales, but short of going through a broker who gets the work done in China, I'm failing to find a decent provider. All of the sites mentioned around here (and others) are all geared towards one-off publishers who can get away with charging $200 for a wedding book.

I'd like to sell a $39.95 coffee-table book, but at a unit price of $75 per book from most of these sites, that's just not going to happen. From China, the cost goes down to about $9 per unit in Q1K, but that's quite a risk if they show up bad.

Mike Lane · Jul-26-2006, 08:35 PM

Geeze man, I don't know. Did you really look at the prices for blurb? For 1-40 pages it is $29.95. For up to 440 pages (!) it's only $79.95. Plus they have bulk rate discounts of 10% for 25 to 199 and 15% for 200 to 400 (and presumably more over 400 but you have to get a quote).

$80 at blurb will get you quite a coffee table book! You could probably use the book as the coffee table

aktse · Jul-26-2006, 09:11 PM

I don't have experience with any of these, but I hope this helps.

NY Times article on blurb and others

100 books -- printing in China, but someone seems happy with the results.
An experience with 100 books

photofreak · Jul-27-2006, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aktse

I don't have experience with any of these, but I hope this helps.

NY Times article on blurb and others

100 books -- printing in China, but someone seems happy with the results.
An experience with 100 books

VERY GOOD ARTICLE!! Thankyou!!!!

Mandi
www.mandraleephotography.com

Seefutlung · Jul-27-2006, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Lane

... You could probably use the book as the coffee table

I need a coffee table ... sorta like killing two birds with one stone.

cmason · Jul-27-2006, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cambler

Any recommendations for sites that don't charge one-off prices?.

Cambler, you may be interested in Lulu.com

Lulu is really focused on self-publishing. It does photo books like the others, but also does larger orders, and also offers online sales of your title.

Bird Man Photographer · Jul-27-2006, 05:35 PM

Thanks for the info Mike. Need to find a reliable source after the disaster with "My Publisher".

Seattle_Li · Jul-29-2006, 01:19 PM

First of all, thank you. I have searched high and low on the web and you're the only info I've been able to find about what sort of quality the Picaboo albums are. (How many combinations can you do of the words: Picaboo, online, album, book, photo, quality, "made my own", etc!) It made me join the site just since I was so happy to finally find someone who had used them. I suppose the fact that they don't have reviews anywhere yet means either 1) not that many people use them or 2) they're just too new to have gotten much reaction yet.

Do you know anyone else who has ordered from Picaboo, and if so, what did they think about the quality?

My one problem with their service (well, only problem I've figured out so far) is that I can't order prints from them, so I'm unable to tell how well their pictures turn out without ordering a whole album.

The others I could all compare (Kodak EasyShare, Snapfish, Shutterfly, Winkflash, Photoworks) by ordering a few test shots from each (or reading threads like this). I've seen some good things about Picaboo, and their software seems like it does more than a lot of the other sites I mentioned, but I'm leery of spending my time and money putting together something that looks c****y in the end.

photofreak · Aug-01-2006, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seattle_Li

First of all, thank you. I have searched high and low on the web and you're the only info I've been able to find about what sort of quality the Picaboo albums are. (How many combinations can you do of the words: Picaboo, online, album, book, photo, quality, "made my own", etc!) It made me join the site just since I was so happy to finally find someone who had used them. I suppose the fact that they don't have reviews anywhere yet means either 1) not that many people use them or 2) they're just too new to have gotten much reaction yet.

Do you know anyone else who has ordered from Picaboo, and if so, what did they think about the quality?

My one problem with their service (well, only problem I've figured out so far) is that I can't order prints from them, so I'm unable to tell how well their pictures turn out without ordering a whole album.

The others I could all compare (Kodak EasyShare, Snapfish, Shutterfly, Winkflash, Photoworks) by ordering a few test shots from each (or reading threads like this). I've seen some good things about Picaboo, and their software seems like it does more than a lot of the other sites I mentioned, but I'm leery of spending my time and money putting together something that looks c****y in the end.

IMO, they don't look crappy at all! I am a perfectionist to a fault so, passing my standards is a feat. I will say this...the larger books (meaning, more pages) look slightly better than the 20 page books. They are thicker, obviously. And again, I would choose the faux leather over the linen. It just is not holding up as well. I use mine as portfolios and have made several for customers as gifts from me, of their photo shoot. The response has been overwhelming.
And don't do this...I ordered a medium size book to start with. I got ahead of myself and ordered a larger one before the med one came in. I did not like the medium size at all. It is called a soft cover...it was card stock. Those medium books are in a drawer while, the large ones go with me to a shoot. I let any "others" who may be at the shoot, look through the books. I've scheduled many sittings simply from people looking at the books.
Again, though...faux leather over linen...for handling purposes. I've done some wedding books for customers, that I ordered in linen and felt it would be safe as they probably would have it simply, on their coffee table.
Mandi
And yes, they are very new!!

Aug-04-2006, 09:15 AM

I just placed an order with blurb.

The software is decent , only some minor glitches mostly in regards to speed. I seem to want to work faster than the beta software. The ability drag and drop photos into the book is also a bit touchy but it works. making sligt changes to the placement of photos within a given page is tricky though as the software is very clumsy here. There is also a lack of otions for "portrait" style phots as the current templates really favor "landscape" size pics. You have to get a bit creative with that. Font and text options are also limited which kinda sucks. Overall putting together a 54 page portfolio took about 6 hours from start to finish. Total with shipping was $41.90. I'll report back once it arrives.

claudermilk · Aug-04-2006, 09:44 AM

This thread is taking me down some interesting, potentially expensive or lucrative roads. Thanks for the links. I'm liking what I see so far with Blurb--some great layouts & styles in the software.

A quick question on the Picaboo software: can you do all-black pages like the Blurb portfolio layout?

ChibiPhotography · Aug-05-2006, 07:47 PM

For reference, here are all of the Photo Book Printing sites I have found so far:
shutterfly
Photoworks
Blurb
Picaboo
Kodak Gallery
Snapfish
SharedInk
lulu
Winkflash

Does anyone know of more out there?

Feature Request: Can SM hook into one of these companies so we have book printing options? {or did I miss another cool feature?}

photofreak · Aug-06-2006, 07:57 PM

Quote:

"A quick question on the Picaboo software: can you do all-black pages like the Blurb portfolio layout?"

I haven't seen the blurb layout...but, yes you can. There are many themed backgrounds to choose from. I prefer either black or white. I think it looks a bit classier. I did one with sepia tone photos on white background. It was beautiful! But, then they were my photos...and I did create the book...but, no bias here!
Mandi

Stustaff · Aug-07-2006, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChibiPhotography

For reference, here are all of the Photo Book Printing sites I have found so far:
shutterfly
Photoworks
Blurb
Picaboo
Kodak Gallery
Snapfish
SharedInk
lulu
Winkflash

Does anyone know of more out there?

Feature Request: Can SM hook into one of these companies so we have book printing options? {or did I miss another cool feature?}

Apple!

Seattle_Li · Aug-07-2006, 10:13 PM

I've been doing more research and have come across a few other threads that might be useful...
http://blog.photoblogs.org/2004/09/2...tography-book/
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=18517645
I found them by doing a google search on "picaboo quality" and then going through to page 5 or so. Picaboo seems to have the most options for layout (or else making the book yourself in Photoshop) - they also have some interesting options for scrapbookers...

A few other sites that I don't think have been mentioned:
www.treasureyourpics.com
www.asukabook.com
http://www.viovio.com/wiki/Photo+Books
http://www.pixart.com.my
http://photobooks.colormailer.com/
www.mypublisher.com
www.blurb.com

I registered at KodakGallery and they sent me a coupon for 30% off their books (med & large, not small) but it's only thru 8/9. Might be good for anyone who wants to give them a try though. Coupon code is BOOKS30. Picaboo is also currently running a special - buy one large book, get a medium book free - can't tell anywhere if that means they just print the same book twice but in different sizes, or if you can get two completely different books.

Another interesting question I came across - some of the photo sites only accept JPEG files, which means I'd have to get my TIFF files translated before I could use them.

Would love to hear any results from folks...has anyone tried Snapfish?

photofreak · Aug-08-2006, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Picaboo is also currently running a special - buy one large book, get a medium book free - can't tell anywhere if that means they just print the same book twice but in different sizes, or if you can get two completely different books.

It is the same book and it is the cardstock cover, I spoke of earlier in this thread. They "run" that special all the time.

claudermilk · Aug-08-2006, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photofreak

I haven't seen the blurb layout...but, yes you can. There are many themed backgrounds to choose from. I prefer either black or white. I think it looks a bit classier. I did one with sepia tone photos on white background. It was beautiful! But, then they were my photos...and I did create the book...but, no bias here!
Mandi

Thanks. I'll give them a harder look then. So far these two appear to be the top runners for me. I'm also going to take another long look at the Leather Crafstmen page. I talked about the photo book ideas with my sister & she whipped out the wedding photo album; her photographer used them & it's a gorgeous book.

Jul-24-2006, 09:22 PM	#1
Mike Lane I � Unicode Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Dover, DE Posts: 7,059	Two new photo book printing places... I can't vouch for them, but these 2 places look promising for getting photo books published. The first one is called Picaboo and it looks like it's more about books that you'd send to grandma (which isn't to say that they don't look nice). The other one is called Blurb and it looks like a more serious book publishing site. You can print all kinds of books on blurb and it looks like you can do 440 pages in a book for only $80 which sounds pretty good. Maybe I'll get my act together with some bryce and zion pics enough to get a book put together and I can report back about if these sites are any good. __________________ Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance. http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/

Jul-25-2006, 05:34 AM	#2
Brookes' Photography Brooke's Photography Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4	Looks Great Hey the Blurb site looks great. So glad you posted it. I may also try it soon and I will post the results. __________________ Brooke's Photography www.brookesphoto.com

Jul-26-2006, 05:33 PM	#4
cambler Internet Luminary Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 275	Any recommendations for sites that don't charge one-off prices? I'd like to get 1000 copies of a 60-page full-color book for retail sales, but short of going through a broker who gets the work done in China, I'm failing to find a decent provider. All of the sites mentioned around here (and others) are all geared towards one-off publishers who can get away with charging $200 for a wedding book. I'd like to sell a $39.95 coffee-table book, but at a unit price of $75 per book from most of these sites, that's just not going to happen. From China, the cost goes down to about $9 per unit in Q1K, but that's quite a risk if they show up bad. __________________ Photography: http://www.AmblerPhoto.com Cheerleading: http://www.CheerPhoto.com Blog: http://cambler.livejournal.com

Jul-26-2006, 08:35 PM	#5
Mike Lane I � Unicode Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Dover, DE Posts: 7,059	Geeze man, I don't know. Did you really look at the prices for blurb? For 1-40 pages it is $29.95. For up to 440 pages (!) it's only $79.95. Plus they have bulk rate discounts of 10% for 25 to 199 and 15% for 200 to 400 (and presumably more over 400 but you have to get a quote). $80 at blurb will get you quite a coffee table book! You could probably use the book as the coffee table __________________ Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance. http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/

Jul-26-2006, 09:11 PM	#6
aktse Major grins Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 1,611	some reviews, etc. I don't have experience with any of these, but I hope this helps. NY Times article on blurb and others 100 books -- printing in China, but someone seems happy with the results. An experience with 100 books __________________ http://aktse.smugmug.com/

Jul-27-2006, 05:35 PM	#10
Bird Man Photographer Osprey Whisperer Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: In my backyard Sarasota X Venice , FL Posts: 3,491	Thanks for the info Mike. Need to find a reliable source after the disaster with "My Publisher". __________________ Mike McCarthy "Osprey Whisperer"

Jul-29-2006, 01:19 PM	#11
Seattle_Li Beginner grinner Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 5	Any else ever order from Picaboo? First of all, thank you. I have searched high and low on the web and you're the only info I've been able to find about what sort of quality the Picaboo albums are. (How many combinations can you do of the words: Picaboo, online, album, book, photo, quality, "made my own", etc!) It made me join the site just since I was so happy to finally find someone who had used them. I suppose the fact that they don't have reviews anywhere yet means either 1) not that many people use them or 2) they're just too new to have gotten much reaction yet. Do you know anyone else who has ordered from Picaboo, and if so, what did they think about the quality? My one problem with their service (well, only problem I've figured out so far) is that I can't order prints from them, so I'm unable to tell how well their pictures turn out without ordering a whole album. The others I could all compare (Kodak EasyShare, Snapfish, Shutterfly, Winkflash, Photoworks) by ordering a few test shots from each (or reading threads like this). I've seen some good things about Picaboo, and their software seems like it does more than a lot of the other sites I mentioned, but I'm leery of spending my time and money putting together something that looks c****y in the end.

Aug-04-2006, 09:15 AM	#13
truth Guest Posts: n/a	I just placed an order with blurb. The software is decent , only some minor glitches mostly in regards to speed. I seem to want to work faster than the beta software. The ability drag and drop photos into the book is also a bit touchy but it works. making sligt changes to the placement of photos within a given page is tricky though as the software is very clumsy here. There is also a lack of otions for "portrait" style phots as the current templates really favor "landscape" size pics. You have to get a bit creative with that. Font and text options are also limited which kinda sucks. Overall putting together a 54 page portfolio took about 6 hours from start to finish. Total with shipping was $41.90. I'll report back once it arrives.

Aug-04-2006, 09:44 AM	#14
claudermilk Major grins Join Date: May 2006 Location: SoCal Posts: 2,750	This thread is taking me down some interesting, potentially expensive or lucrative roads. Thanks for the links. I'm liking what I see so far with Blurb--some great layouts & styles in the software. A quick question on the Picaboo software: can you do all-black pages like the Blurb portfolio layout? __________________ Chris http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/

Aug-05-2006, 07:47 PM	#15
ChibiPhotography Big grins Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 29	Summary of photo book printint (so far) For reference, here are all of the Photo Book Printing sites I have found so far: shutterfly Photoworks Blurb Picaboo Kodak Gallery Snapfish SharedInk lulu Winkflash Does anyone know of more out there? Feature Request: Can SM hook into one of these companies so we have book printing options? {or did I miss another cool feature?}

Aug-07-2006, 10:13 PM	#18
Seattle_Li Beginner grinner Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 5	Additional info on photo books I've been doing more research and have come across a few other threads that might be useful... http://blog.photoblogs.org/2004/09/2...tography-book/ http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=18517645 I found them by doing a google search on "picaboo quality" and then going through to page 5 or so. Picaboo seems to have the most options for layout (or else making the book yourself in Photoshop) - they also have some interesting options for scrapbookers... A few other sites that I don't think have been mentioned: www.treasureyourpics.com www.asukabook.com http://www.viovio.com/wiki/Photo+Books http://www.pixart.com.my http://photobooks.colormailer.com/ www.mypublisher.com www.blurb.com I registered at KodakGallery and they sent me a coupon for 30% off their books (med & large, not small) but it's only thru 8/9. Might be good for anyone who wants to give them a try though. Coupon code is BOOKS30. Picaboo is also currently running a special - buy one large book, get a medium book free - can't tell anywhere if that means they just print the same book twice but in different sizes, or if you can get two completely different books. Another interesting question I came across - some of the photo sites only accept JPEG files, which means I'd have to get my TIFF files translated before I could use them. Would love to hear any results from folks...has anyone tried Snapfish?

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