Printing Out Photo Books

95 posts / 0 new
Last post

@Shawna: Definitely will let you know when they have a sale.
They have them twice a year. Their scrapbook pages are 1.99 each but during the sale you can buy print credits, usually in bulk.
Here is a link to an old sale...........
http://persnicketyprints.com/testimonials/202-12x12prints/new-2012/367-print-credits

sold in increments of 50.
sale price is 1.46 each page. (about 27% off)
print credits never expire

They seem to have them right after National Scrapbooking Day.
smiley

@Lucy: Thanks for sharing all the info! smiley

Anytime Shawna. Happy to share.

I didn't take the time to read all the posts, so if this has been suggested, my apologies. I have found Shutterfly to work for me. I save my created scrapbook pages as JPEGs, then upload them as "photos" onto Shutterfly. I then start a "create your own" scrapbook, choose the template for each page that is one picture covering the entire page, and drop a JPEG page onto it. The covers can be done that way, too. I wait until they have a sale (which is frequently), and I can usually order a book for a dollar a page.

I'm on their email list, and they occasionally send me offers of a free 8x8 album, up to 20 pages. I am working toward designing a scrapbook to have it ready to go when the next offer comes. Who can turn down a free scrapbook!

bump for the newbies to find easier... smiley

I've tried blurb in Australia but found the print quailty a darker then the original, so I wasn't that happy with the book. I then tried shutterfly in America when they had a sale and found the print quailty better but the shipping costs to Australia make it expensive. I would only consider printing if they had a very good special. Does anyone out there down under have a suggestion to where is a good place to get photobooks printed without having such a large shipping fee?

Hi everyone! Our member Rose Thorn has a question about the quality of Walgreens books:

Quote:
I'm looking to hear about the quality of Walgreen's photo books. I have a bit of money in my Balance Rewards account and thought a photo book would be a good way to spend it but was hoping to get some reviews first.

Anyone?

Does anyone have experience with Walgreens? Rose is still waiting on some reviews!

The only experience I've had with Walgreens was with prints and I was pretty disappointed.

Thank you for that info. Marisa, that is helpful. smiley

I know that generally prints from Walgreens look horrible but while I was there and saw the price of their photobooks I had to take a look at the example one they had sitting there. It wasn't the worst I have seen but it seems to me that this is definitely a case of you get what you pay for and I wouldn't get a book from them.

Thank you, Kaleena.

Great topic, thanks for sharing all the info. I made a book for my nieces wedding photos with Shutterfly and was very happy with it.

My issue is I need to make a pretty large photo book for family history photos. Does anyone have a preference for buying large photo books? Large as in many pages smiley thanks

I have just had some photo books printed by Picaboo. They now offer a lay flat option on the large books. I am very happy with the quality and the service from them. The lay flat books are not cheap, but they are beautiful. The paper quality is excellent and the colors are vibrant and exactly as I see them on my computer screen.
I prefer them to the photo books I had printed by Shutterfly.

Two questions:

1. Those who have used Shutterfly, do you have to do any tweaking to the layout to print it correctly? For example, in Prestophoto (formerly Viovio), I add a .75" border when I have details to the edge because they tend to crop just a teeny bit around the edges.

2. Anyone else used PrestoPhoto/Viovio lately? I like that they offer a 10x10 size and their prices are good...but I am so FED UP with their design editor. I have had so many problems with it. Anyone else?

I use http://www.scrapbooksplease.com. They almost always have 12x12 pages on value matte for .99 each. They have several albums to choose from that are about $14.95 each. If you choose the completed album, you of course pay for the album and .99 per page and shipping, but sometimes there is a sale and you don't have to pay shipping. The pages are in plastic sheet protectors when you order the complete album. As for the value matte, the print quality is still excellent, it just has a small white border around the edge of the scrap, but I don't mind that.

I typically stick to Shutterfly. They have great quality for a low price!
In the past I have also tried MyPublisher. They are affiliated with Shutterfly now, but have different printing options and besides their weird page sizes, the quality of the book I received was amazing. They may be more pricey, but they usually have buy one get one deals. So in the end, you will probably be paying less.

Marisa, I am totally late to the game on this one, but..... You can always check out your local High School, they (like us) might have access to high end printers. Some even do binding. We get all kinds of requests. I've printed everything you can think of. I like my students to get experience in the finishing process; printer set up, finishing, customer service, etc. I can usually offer cheaper rates as well. Just a thought for the future!!

@Jeanine: So do you do alot with the Phoenix Challenge? My niece and nephew have been many times as HS and College Students, traveling down from the Toronto area.

I have used Mixbook only and have done 9 books and one was over 50 pages. I was totally happy with the quality. The reason at the time of using them was because I could create my pages in PSE or other software and save and then just load the pages as photos and did not have to use their backgrounds and clipart to create pages. They have warnings as you load them so you don't go over the margin for cutting etc. It has been a while since I used them but it was the only printing place that I could do all this especially create my own pages instead of using their software and I did lots of research to find one I could do this with and there were no others so I am working on another book and will use them again. Here is the link but also someone else had a link before me. I just wanted to let you all know my experience with them. Here is the link.

http://www.mixbook.com/

I just got my first Artscow book last week! It's not 100% perfect (I think that may be my doing!) but I LOVE it. It basically works out to free shipping (the postage for the free things seems to magically equal how much it would actually cost).

I get what Cindy means about the cover, but in my case that works as they're called "Living the Creative Life Volume X" so are meant to be a bit story bookish. The colours aren't too bad and I like the texture of the paper.

I've also used Photobook (which is quite expensive really) BUT they don't do 12 x 12!

I posted about a year ago in this thread but wanted to update my opinions. I haven't printed an actual photobook in quite a while - I've been getting 12x12 prints done at Persnickety Prints and putting them in page protectors. My kids like this better, they said it feels more like a scrapbook, and I can add things to it more easily. I LOVE the quality at Persnickety and they have excellent customer service. They do also do photobooks, though I don't know how those are.

I've never bought the whole book option before, just single layouts, so this is very helpful for me. I always want to create gifts for family and friends, but don't want to pay separately for the album itself. Plus, it seems that the quality may be better with turning into books and the pages won't slide out of the page protectors. Has anyone used Costco for book printing?

Artscow, I printed from shutterfly and the quality is not that good

I've done Blurb and Adoramapix. The Blurb book was nice but a little dark, and very cheap (I ordered several as Christmas presents for grandparents). The Adoramapix book is GORGEOUS! The lay flat pages mean you can do some pretty cool things with double-page layouts, the paper is really think, and the colors in the book matched my (calibrated) monitor nearly perfectly. It was pricey, but they do run 30-40% off sales pretty regularly, so my new thing is that I create the book in their online tool and then wait for a sale to order:) If you use Photoshop, they also have PSDs on their site for page layouts and the cover layout so you can figure out where the safe area is.

Great information ladies. I use Adoramapix. I have used Shutterfly for printing 8x8 books, and Persnickity. I'll have to give that Artscow a look. I had never heard of them.

If you print single pages... I just received my persnickity prints and they are the best I have ever seen! Easy to use website and cheap too. Quick turn around. I purchased during the sale and got them for $1.49 each... and still got them within a few days.

I have individual pages printed via MyPicTales.com. I've always been happy with the results!

This is a great topic. I have created almost 300 digital layouts but have yet to get any printed. I am wanting to get them done but have been leery of sending in the orders. Now I have a better idea. Thank you for sharing all this information

I use Costco for my individual 12x12's and the quality is fine. For books, I've used Blurb (good quality but catching a sale is a must), Shutterfly (better quality than it used to be), Picaboo (constantly offering sales to offset their very high base prices - quality is good), Costco (medium quality but great prices), and probably a few others that I'm not remembering.

Pages