Reviews on Album Printing Companies

[sal4gal]

Digital Home Thoughts: The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?

They cover so many publishers! This is really cool.

Sallie

[esther_a]

Fabulous review! Thanks for the link.

[ValerieP]

Great info and it was nice to see that Shutterfly rated so well, and I think the one area that wasnt excellent, might have been so if Vivid pics had been turned off!! Interesting-thanks!

[anke]

thanks for the link, this is pretty cool!

[Denise Gormish]

Great article! Thanks for the link!

[connieg]

Interesting read, Thanks for the link.

[LoriS]

VERY INTERESTING!!!! Thank you for posting this!

[susiecw]

Thank you for the link. I had two books made at Shutterfly two weeks ago. One 98 pages for my grandson's birthday; one 60 pages for my granddaughter's. Shutterfly had 20% off all books, free shipping and for each I had a 10% coupon. I was so pleased with each book. I'm lucky that I can wait until the last minute to order the books because they are printed in Phoenix, so I receive mine usually within 5 days of ordering them. Each book was perfect!

[dugarner]

Those are great reviews, but my main beef with the photo book industry remains that so few companies are printing industry-standard sizes!

I will like to read all the reviews in-depth when I have time.

I've had my Blurb book for about a month now, and while I **was** pleased with buying the premium paper, I am very disappointed with the cover quality. That strange paper-covered cardboard has already dented and torn in two places (I'm not hard on my books, so I can't figure out why it happened) and the front is stained. I have DD wash her hands before she looks at them, but still, I wish the Blurb imagewrap cover was the same laminate-type material as Shutterfly's books. Whatever the cover material is for Blurb also absorbs a lot of ink, and the cover image is very dark. But overall, I'm pleased---the cost was right, and I didn't have any other options since it was a 100+ page book!

[ValerieP]

Good to hear about the Blurb cover, I didnt realize it wasnt closer to the Shutterfly one-I have printed several books at Shutterfly and I love every one of them!

[deanie]

I have to agree with Sarah about the Blurb image wrap cover. My cover was black, and I liked the matte finish but it shows finger prints, etc. I made the book for an adult, if I had children looking at it I think I would go to Shutterfly.

[BrennieM]

Just to throw something else into the mix. Last year I had three albums printed by Apple from the feature that is part of iphoto. I was thrilled with the results both in hard back and paperback. Only drawbacks as far as I can see are that they don't have a square format one and they are more pricey.

[jk703]

Great info... THANKS!

[ang66]

Thank you for the link!!

[Denise Gormish]

OK. I read the whole article. This is a review for my needs. You will certainly be different but I thought I'd share this for any interested people.

Sizes. A dealbreaker for me is a company that does not have a square option I scrap 12X12 or sometimes smaller but always square. That leaves me with Treasure-Book, Blurb, Shutterfly, Inkubook, AdoramaPix, Snapfish, ArtsCow, Photobook Canada, Mpix

Spine Printing. I want spine printing. It is just handy and fun. Plus it is important for me because I have so many books printed. I want to see at a glance the name of the book. So that leaves Treasure-Book (request), Blurb, Shutterfly, AdoramaPix (not easily), Snapfish and ArtsCow for me. I noticed that Mpix has the 10X10 I've been wanting but no spine printing.

Treasure-Book. Bummer that you have to request spine printing. Paper quality rated excellent. Print quality rated average. Cover rated average. Most expensive book.

Blurb. Paper rated average. Print quality rated average. Cover rated excellent/superb. Durable, etc. of Blurb imagewrap cover a question. Clearly the cheapest option.

Shutterfly. It was unfair to rate Shutterfly without turning Vivid Pics off. Shutterfly should make that easier, though, with a button in your book processing that allows you to shut it off for that book. Cover rated Excellent. Paper reated excellent. I would move the print quality with Vivid Pics to Excellent. Good price with sales/coupons.

AdoramaPix. I love the flat pages of AdoramaPix. But since it only does 50 pages there is hardly a time I would be printing that few. My family albums are now 2 albums of 100 pages. I can't move to 4 albums of 50 pages. More albums would also mean more $$$. Great choice for smaller projects, though. Paper quality and cover rated Superb. Cover rated excellent. Average cost.

Snapfish. Paper and print quality average. Cover poor. I've had pictures printed at Snapfish and I didn't like the coloring so I doubt I'd like the photo books. Slightly more expensive that others.

ArtsCow. Paper quality rated excellent but print and cover quality were low. Average cost.

Since I know what I'm doing on Shutterfly and the rating were excellent I will stick with them. Sales keep the cost down as well. I may try a small book with AdoramaPix - maybe a vacation or something like that. Blurb is a good option on a budget or for over 100 page books.

[DonnaNJ]

Oh Denise Thank you sooooo much.. what a wonderful summary.. looks like it would come down to the same two choices for me also.. Shutterfly or Blurb.

[dugarner]

Denise, thank you for doing that! I also eliminated those who don't print 12X12. It's just the size I prefer, coming over from paper scrapping in that size. And I realize that's just me!

I would agree with you; Shutterfly will get my business anything up to 100 pages; if I have a 100+ page book again in the future (I'm thinking about starting Project 365 in June this year and going June---June) I will go with Blurb by default. Even though Blurb does spine printing (which I am ambivalent about; I rarely do it), you can't put an image on the spine yet. I was able to color-match the spine but it is a little irritating. But not THAT big of a deal.

Thanks for the review!

[cassiec]

Thank you so much for that, Denise. I totally agree (and have told Shutterfly) that they need the option to just turn vivid pics off for an entire project. They make it extremely tedious. I just printed a large (72 page, 12x12) club scrapbook and missed turning vivid pics off for a few pages. That made the backgrounds of adjacent pages not match and really ticked me off. I personally consider vivid pics to be destructive. The photos I upload are the photos I want printed. If I want my photos "enhanced" I think that should be a conscious decision, not the default.

[lesvrolyk]

Really detailed and very informative. Thanks for sharing!

[h_ryfa]

Very informative link. Thanks for sharing.

[janedee]

Great review - very interesting!!

[Debbyo]

Just wanted to let you know that I read the review very closely and I really thank you for providing the link for it. I tried out *My Publisher*. Both MyPublisher and Inkubook offered me a limited time deal on my first one. I went with MP as they offered a 2 for 1 which came in handy for a small vacation book that we took with my BFF and her husband. I want to say that I was thrilled to bits with it. I did it in a 11.25 inches wide x 8.75 inches high size, linen cover with an insert window featuring a small pic with title. There was an insert of vellum on the first and last page that I thought was a very nice touch. The quality of the paper and printing are excellent in MHO -but this is the very first book I've had printed. [I usually print my own 12x12's for albums]. They shipped to me in Canada for about $20 Fed-Ex including duty etc. and the turn-around was extremely fast. I uploaded my pics on a Sunday afternoon and the box was at my door on Tuesday! I was really impressed with that. So for my 2 cents worth, I'd go with them again.

[sal4gal]

Thanks Denise!! Great information that I totally agree with.

Sallie

[sarahbcmc]

What a lot of companies Shutterfly and Blurb have worked well for me

[KarenC]

I just did one at inkubook and I love how it turned out. I tried blurb first, but the trimming of the pages was way off and I ended up requesting a refund.

[dugarner]

Originally Posted by KarenC

I just did one at inkubook and I love how it turned out. I tried blurb first, but the trimming of the pages was way off and I ended up requesting a refund.

Karen,

I am undertaking the task of designing a yearbook for my daughter's school. Blurb and Inkubook are the same price for the 8 1/2 X 11. Would you go with Inkubook again? I have never used them. Is their print quality better than Blurb? Or was it just the page trim that was the concern?

Thanks!

[KarenC]

Hi Sarah,
I loved my inkubook. I did a softcover 8.5 square. The print quality was wonderful (brighter and crisper than blurb) and the trimming perfect on almost every page. For what you are doing that may not be a big deal, but I really use my edges when I scrap. The blurb did offer me a re-print, but they didn't sound too confident that they could get them trimmed just right because of how I scrap. I had even added a 1/4 white border for extra trim room. (They said to keep everything in the safe zone.) I got a refund and sent the exact pages to inkubook and the trim was great. Anyway...that was probably way more than you wanted to know, lol.

[dugarner]

Karen,

No, that's the info I was looking for! I needed to know how color/sharpness compared as well as price and trim quality. I probably won't go to the edges since it's a school yearbook, but we are trying to offer the product from different companies so people with different budgets can pick what they can afford.

Thanks!

[Debbyo]

I like knowing that too, as I am just trying to finish a book for printing with them of our Med Cruise last fall. O think I'll pput a push on and try out Inkubook. I like that I can get an 11 x 11 book with 30% off.

[Amson]

I have also printed with Inkubook and the books were excellent. I printed the 11" * 11" as this is the max size. This is also where I will print my next book and it is still cheaper for me to print with them than print locally in Australia.