Best photobook for $$

[wonton]

I am not a professional photographer but would like to find a high quality photobook, preferably one that is 10X10 or 12X12. I know Shutterfly offers them but I have ordered from them before and they were not great. Any others that you would recommned? I checked out Mpix, how are they?

The thing I did not like about shutterfly was that the pages looked thin and might rip easily.

Any advise?

[o2sensorheating]

Im working on the same thing. My smugmug account offers a couple different companies on the site with downloadable book designing software. I went with one called Blurb. Prices are fair and the designing software doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out. Good Luck!

[wonton]

Thanks. I am making my own designs (digital scrapbooking) and wanted to upload. I am not too concerned about the layouts/software etc. Just want something of good quality.

I checked out Blurb but they did not have any of the sizes I was looking for. I wanted 10X10 or 12X12.

[Razor524]

I have never used Mpix but a lot of people rave about them, may want to at least give them a look.

[theague]

POTN uses Blurb for the great POTN book... you might check them out. I have both volumes of the POTN book. I also recently saw a blurb book a friend made for herself. She used all her wedding photos to make a book and it is really high quality! I'd go BLURB if I were doing it myself.

[Lori Putman]

You can try asukabook.com.

[artekphoto]

I've tried many including blurb, mypublisher, mpix, digilabs, asuka, digilabs and few others. As far as quality Asuka seems to be the best and also the most expensive with prices very close to a Graphi studio. Imho whcc hinged photobook with UV coating offers best bang for the buck, quality second only to asuka but for much less ( a 20 page 10x10 with custom photo cover and uv coating for $92, shipped free). Pages are thicker then any other book and they have very fast turnover, usually a day or two. Hope this helps.

Artek

[Osteo]

$92.00 for 20 pages? I'm in the middle of a Blurb project with 80 pages for around $75.00 (11x13). Is the WHCC quality that much better? I have an account with WHCC, but never looked into their books. It is hard to figure these book companies out. There are a lot of rants and raves about all of them. I do favor WHCC due to their customer service and excellent prints.
Decisions.......

[MCB]

I just got an 8x8 photobook from WHCC. I got the hinged paper with a leather cover and couldn't be happier. I know there are cheaper options, but I didn't want the product to look cheap. I haven't tried any other vendors yet, but if Artek is right, maybe I'm better of sticking with WHCC since I already know their results are great.

I have another project to do and might look into Blurb, though, just to see what that's like. Anyone have any bad results with them? Anyone else compare them to other vendors?

[zincozinco]

could anyone compare the aperture/iphoto books from apple to the above??

[kosin]

could anyone compare the aperture/iphoto books from apple to the above??

simple search on google: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikefranklin/sets/72157600048999421/

read and scroll down to "Possibly related posts": http://cheekygrin.wordpress.com/2007/04/19/apple-book-problem-and-resolution/

you can also go on Flickr.com and use their search on photobook or just search for any of the companies: Blurb, Apple etc.

[kosin]

Personally I used Blurb with great success. Knowing that their prints seems to be dark for many people (on many forums) I brightened them about 15% more and this gave me a book that I wanted. I've used their premium paper and Image Wrap cover. I've also found many complains about the bar code on the back cover. Mine didn't have it. The only issue I had was that the print was a little on the magenta side but I didn't softproof the book first. Maybe that was a problem.
Overall I'm happy with Blurb. Also try to look for any coupons online. I found and used one for 30% off :)
Blurb => best bang for the buck ;)

[John Thawley]

I have used many of the print-on-demand services to publish books. I'm up to several hundred at this point. I would rate them for "value" as follows:

Blurb: The most recent book I did was excellent in print quality and I used the new premium paper with a self wrapped hardbound cover. The spine was a little too big... however, the book was very well done and great print quality. NOTE: Do not expect good communication from Blurb. They are atrocious. I order 5 books on December 4th and received them December 24th. That's a joke. Their customer service can be infuriating. But... you do get a lot of bang for the buck. SO, be forewarned.

White House Custom Color... nice books, good quality.. a bit pricey. Great turn-around times.

SharedInk - sharedink.com - BY FAR one of the nicest print-on-demand products out there. Their bindery is SECOND TO NONE. This is a company that gives great customer service and communication and takes tremendous pride in their work and the final product. I can not say enough. A bit pricey... but WELL WORTH THE PRICE.

Apple is ok..

lastly VioVio, as a company, is just screwed up. I don't even want to go into the nightmare I went through with them.

[zincozinco]

maybe a silly question....but ive got this really great 1dsmk2 camera loaded with pixels on a FF, looking in to getting a 5dmk2 at some point with even more pixels for the buck. So i want to print BIG. does anyone know of the better POD services with BIG books

[John Thawley]

maybe a silly question....but ive got this really great 1dsmk2 camera loaded with pixels on a FF, looking in to getting a 5dmk2 at some point with even more pixels for the buck. So i want to print BIG. does anyone know of the better POD services with BIG books

Most do an 11x14 now... but I think that might be the limit based on current equipment.

[zincozinco]

Most do an 11x14 now... but I think that might be the limit based on current equipment.

Thats it... i want bigger 24x10 or so....

[Aray_Of_Art]

I just used Blurb...and loved their software, and size/page options. But am in the process of trying to get printing errors fixed. I ordered three books; One had a scratched cover, one was bound with a book not mine and one had major white scratches through ALL the right hand images, 20 pages worth.
So far the customer response is helpful, and I really liked the program to design your book....but three for three printing errors has put me off.

I like Shutterflys print quality, my pictures were very vibrant and the binding was tight/clean with no errors. But I don't like having the slow up load when you have dozens of pictures, and the designs and program for designing your book is more for a soccer mom, than a semi-pro photographer. I also have issues with using the book program that it hangs up with larger numbers of pictures.

[tkbslc]

I just made a post in the printing forum about books, but I have been fairly unhappy with all 4 printers I have chosen (Viovio, shutterfly, winkflash, mypublisher). None come close to the quality of a photo print.

[njmac7777]

no one has mentioned paper chase... their quality seems great and they are expensive. i'd love to hear anyone's experience with them.