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The Kitchen Table

Photo Books

9 years ago

I want to make a photo book with hubbys birthday pics. I've made several w Shutterfly over the years, but it doesn't seem so user friendly anymore. What sites do you use that are easy to navigate? Walmart even has one! Any ideas will be appreciated!!

Featured Answer

Alisande

9 years ago

Adella, I always wait for a sale. If you get on the Photo Book Girl mailing list, she often sends out sale notices. All the photo book printers I'm familiar with have one or more pre-holiday sales each year: Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, etc.

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Comments (8)

juneroses Z9a Cntrl Fl
9 years ago
I've never made a photo book so can't offer user experience. I did find this link, however. If you don't get responses here, you might find the suggestions on the link helpful. In my quick scan, I didn't see a review date.

http://www.toptenreviews.com/services/multimedia/best-photo-books/
susanwv thanked juneroses Z9a Cntrl Fl
User
9 years ago
I've used Shutterfly, Picaboo, and the Walgreen's own book-maker.
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Glenda-- why do you have to print out the photos? These are digital photobooks in which you upload the photos that are already on your computer into the book-publishing software that's online. Are we talking about the same kind of books? Not the scrapbooking-type books where you buy stickers and paper and put it all together yourself on the kitchen table (which is what Bulldinkie's referring to?). I've done that, for my first puppy's life. Fun, but these digital bookmaking programs give you something different. Really nice professional look. There are some inexpensive photo scanners out there that'll have all your loose pictures uploaded in no time (or photo service places will scan photos on a CD -- if you can still find an old-fashioned-type photo place nowadays! They're dying off... unfortunately). I've stuck to Shutterfly for a few books I've done (trips). Too bad that the guy who wrote the comparative analysis didn't include the version made for Apple computers (tho I understand why--not everybody has an Apple). But it's the simplest one I've ever tried. At the time, tho, there were very few layouts to choose from. I saw a friend's Apple book and it looked really nice. Some of the book-publishing software is easier to understand than others. Beyond Apple, Shutterfly is pretty simple, but I found MyPublisher (and I think Blurb, too) to be much more difficult to master (without investing too many hours!). I'm going to mess around with the Inkubook publishing site next to see what that looks like. It got some good marks from this guy's tests.
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I just have a few finishing touch ups to do for my grandsons book and will send it to the printer. It's not a Christmas gift. His parents are fully aware of the book as they've been 'ordered' to send me the vast majority of the pictures. They're just so happy it's over. LOL I added the last of his birthday party pictures to the book and am waiting for the other grandma to give me one thing to add to it. Then my son and his girlfriend will go through the book picture by picture and add anything they want to it. I'll pay for their book and a copy for me. Anyone else in the family who wants one can pay for their own. They're not cheap...... I'm using Blurb to put it together. They also did the maternity book I did last year. They did a fantastic job. :)
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PhotoBookGirl.com is a great resource. Her reviews of all the photo book printers are detailed describing the various options, plus she has all sort of tips and articles on every aspect of making photo books. All the current specials, offers, etc., are always listed. She mentioned recently that the best deals are usually offered before Christmas (I took advantage of them twice) and before Mother's Day.
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chessey35
9 years ago
I've only used Shutterfly but I agree the last time I tried to use it I finally gave up. I don't know what they've done to it but it certainly is much more complicated and much less user friendly.
Alisande
9 years ago
I don't know if my advice is useful because I look for photo quality over ease of use, but my favorite photo book printer so far is Adoramapix. They print on actual photo paper, and the books are beautiful.

Adoramapix and Mpix are my favorite printers for exhibit-grade enlargements too, and Mpix is my go-to place to get custom cards printed. I used Mpix for one book and will probably try them again, but I found the process counter-intuitive. Even though I've had experience making photo books, I had to contact their help desk more than once. They said they'd look into make some changes, and I hope by now they have.

Do you know about Photo Book Girl? Her website is full of information, and might be helpful to you.

http://www.photobookgirl.com/
OutsidePlaying
9 years ago
I gave up with Shutterfly too, and the last time I used Snapfish. It wasn't totally user friendly and I couldn't do exactly what I wanted to do, but it was ok. I have also used Tiny Prints for cards it can't recall if they have books. It was more expensive but the card quality was wonderful.
User
9 years ago
I just looked at the Adoramapix that Alisande posted. My choice starts at $54. Too pricy for the book I want to make for the family history, but that might work when I copy my parents pictures for my siblings.
Annie Deighnaugh
9 years ago
I use shutterfly and have managed to get it to do mostly what I want...
susanwv thanked Annie Deighnaugh

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