What printing service to use?

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What printing service to use?

I'm fairly new to digi-scrapping but I've dove in head first and probably have enough pages to make a book. I was wondering what company other people use to print their pages? I've seen quite a few ads for several companies that print 12X12 scrapbooks so I'm having a hard time deciding which one to use. Best quality? Best price? Speed of delivery?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

For page prints I LOVE Persnikety Prints http://www.persnicketyprints.com/ So far, I've only used them for a little over a year, it seems that they have a twice a year sale on prints (May & Nov.) when they're pretty cheap. At the same time, I've bought print credits for an even cheaper sale price although you have to buy 50 at least, to use in between sale times. I love their color, their quality, and their speed.

@Sarah - here are the resources I used to do my research on printing a photobook (a bound one, not individual pages printed & put into page protectors). I ended up printing through PhotobookAmerica. I'm still waiting to get the book - I'll let you know how it looks when it gets here.

Photobook Girl: http://www.photobookgirl.com/
Daily Digi compared 12 different companies: http://thedailydigi.com/12-different-photobook-printer-reviews/
This site is a bit of work to slog through, but it has good details, so it's especially helpful as you're zeroing in on a couple of choices, or if you want info on some of the less common options: http://photo-book-review.toptenreviews.com/

@Marisa: I know from reading other forums that this is going to be a very popular, ongoing question people have. Is there somewhere it might be appropriate to sticky a thread about printing options so we can collect them all in one place and newcomers can benefit from old conversations? I've even seen on some sites where the top post is like an index that gets updated as people add to the thread. (Like when I post my PhotobookAmerica results, the PhotobookAmerica listing would get added to the top post with a link directly to wherever my comment is in the thread.)

Violet,
Thanks so much for sharing that printer review article. That is excellent!

Sarah,
I use Shutterfly and have received good service from them. The quality of is good and close to what I see on my screen. They ship very quickly--days or at most a week. Their web software is intuitive. They regularly run specials, so if you try them be sure to get their photobook discount plus the free shipping deal. Here are a couple digital scrapbooking links on their site if you are interested:
http://www.shutterfly.com/digitalscrapbook/scrapbook-design-specs.jsp
http://www.shutterfly.com/digital-scrapbooking

Can anyone recommend any non-American ones? In Europe?

@Violet: We could make a list in the first post of this thread, like Marisa did here. Maybe put the ones up there that get the most 'votes'. I'll keep an eye on it!

@Shannon: So glad it was helpful! I've used Shutterfly in the past to make photobooks for my mom, and like you I found it easy, inexpensive (comparatively, and with the near-constant specials and coupons they offer), and pretty good quality. I wanted to try one of the fancier places for this big yearbook, I'm very curious to see how they compare.

@Melouise: Thank you for taking charge in awesome moderator fashion! A couple of the book places I've seen mentioned by European scrappers have been Artscow (which people have VERY mixed reviews about) and Blurb. PhotobookAmerica, which I just used, is actually part of PhotobookWorldwide, which lists many countries in Europe. I have no idea if the quality would be comparable between the same company in different countries, but I will let you know how this one looks as soon as I open it up. There's one that is solely in Europe that had great reviews and I remember being bummed I couldn't use it, but I can't recall the name. I'll do a little digging and see if I can find it.

Thanks everyone!

@Violet - Thanks for the research links, I'm going to go check them out now. This info is exactly what I was looking for. And I would love to know how your yearbook turns out.

@Shannon - I've heard pretty good things about Shutterfly so far, I just have to find out if they ship to Canada or have a Canadian site. (Guess I should have mentioned I'm Canadian in my original post, eh? smiley )

@Violet: I've read good reviews on blurb too, but I just assumed they were american as well! *off to investigate*

Oh, and I would love to hear (and I think I speak for everyone here) how you liked your photobookAmerica order. Can't wait to see some pictures too smiley

I print from my printer, but I only print 8x8" and put them in Pioneer albums. Sometimes I'll make 8.5x11" and put those in SEI albums.

I've seen Photobook Girl before, but I wish she would compile her results and give us some kind of side-by-side comparisons or charts. If it's there, someone please link it because I get lost clicking around on there.

@Lady Phillippa - I know what you mean, it took me months to do all this research, and eventually I found my way through the different layers of her site, but it's not obvious at all. If you know what you want and you want to compare prices (for example, I knew I wanted a hardcover square either 12x12 or 11x11) the Photobook Wizard is your best bet: http://www.photobookgirl.com/wizard/. You'll end up with a chart that has only the companies that offer the type of book you want. You can then sort the book by max pages, lay flat, cover style, and of course price. So that's super useful. If you're dialing down on more of the quality comparisons, that takes more digging. Here is a link to all of her comparison posts: http://www.photobookgirl.com/compare/. I found the 12-book paper quality comparison to be very helpful.

My PhotobookAmerica book arrived! It was sent from Malaysia, so I am guessing that the quality actually would be the same for a European order, if they are all printed in Asia and sent out to various locales. There are some things I am very happy with, and other things that are slightly disappointing. Overall I am quite pleased and there are no major errors like pages printed sideways or bashed corners, etc. I won't have time to write it all up with photos until after New Year's, probably. If anyone is planning to print sooner than that and has a specific question, just let me know, otherwise expect a full report in a couple of weeks!

I loved Persnikety Prints... their color and quality was great!

@Violet, Thank you yes, that is exactly it! I have looked on her webpage before but never found those comparison tools. I get frustrated at the mess of the website and leave before I get too far down the rabbit hole. Thanks for supplying those links. I see the side by side 12 book comparison post, which is indeed helpful. I wish she consolidated that in some way into her main chart! Even just a broad "top three" as to which photo company she would personally recommend to a friend.

I've used Viovio for albums...I absolutely loved how my book came out.
For 12x12 prints I use costco...they are cheap, superfast and I think the quality is great.

I've used Artscow in the past. My only problem now is that they don't ship to my current country so I would have to have them ship to family in the US & then have someone bring it to me. I was very happy with whatever I ordered though. smiley