Photobook recs

fia214 · January 2010

I am sure this has been asked a million times........but can any of you gals share your personal experience with photo book websites?

I am considering mypublisher.

adpilove · January 2010

I just finally did my wedding book with Shutterfly. I also did my honeymoon pics there as well. My book came out so wonderful. I especially loved all the templates they had to offer. I think they had more than any of the other photobook sites. I can send you the link to my book if you're interested. It also arrived like 1.5 weeks after ordering. I found so many different coupon codes online to bring down the cost as well. I couldn't have been happier with their service!

redshoegirl · January 2010

I'm actually doing this right now, and I've done a TON of research about the different companies. Shutterfly, Blurb, My Publisher and Mpix all get good reviews. They also all get bad ones too - most of the complaints are either about print quality (e.g., graininess of photos) or the book pages being too thin. So really, which company you go with depends on what you want from a photobook.

For example - do you want fixed templates, or the ability to freely design each page? Do you want to be able to download design software, or would you prefer to use it online? There are other limitations too - for example, some companies don't let you use images as backgrounds (so if you wanted to type text over a photo, you actually have to make the entire thing in Photoshop, then use it as one solid picture instead of two photo and text layers).

Eventually I ended up choosing Smilebooks, which I've never seen reviewed on the Knot/Nest, but decided to take a chance on anyway. A few things won me over - first, in all my googling, I found VERY few bad reviews, and even the negative ones weren't really all that bad. Second, they have much thicker paper than any of the other standard companies - 135lb vs 100lb. Finally, they have the most flexible software of any company I could find (I actually downloaded four different ones to compare them before I made a decision) - you can use any font on your computer, you can do full bleed photos (where the image extends all the way out to the edges of the paper), you can put text over the photos without any hassle, and the page layouts are extremely versatile. The only potential downside is that although they offer a TON of design options (lots of backgrounds, tons of help with photo placement, etc.), there aren't really any "templates" as such - I don't see this as a negative, but I know some people may. Their prices are also pretty reasonable, and you can find coupon codes to lower the cost as well.

I'm still finishing up the book, so I don't have a finished product to review yet, but I'll be sure to post about it when I see it in person!

lelekay · January 2010

I was very pleased with my Snapfish books. My only complaint was that some of the colors of their templates didn't look the same online as when they were printed. The photo colors were good, just the background graphics seemed a bit off. Not bad, they just weren't represented well on the screen.

vanilla15 · January 2010

I haven't done my book yet, but we gave our parents books for Christmas. I used iPhoto on my MacBook & was really happy with the results & fast shipping/delivery. You could probably find it cheaper somewhere though b/c I couldn't find any coupon codes.

mrspresley · January 2010

i've always used mypublisher w/great success...i also used to design books for knotties (back in the day Stick out tongue

) and everyone was always happy w/the quality

fia214 · January 2010

You girls rock! Thank you for all the great feedback.

Vanessa- I have a mac I saw the easy tools right on my computer, buyt they are pricey? Were the pages nice an thick.

I like that my publisher has buy one get one free right now. Big Smile

I just got my pictures yesterday. I will post some pics up later.

Married2MrWright · January 2010

We used MyPublisher and Blurb for our wedding pics...side by side review in my married bio.

fia214 · January 2010

Thank you Lori. Your wedding was just gorgeous.

HulaLove · January 2010

I used theblurb for my honeymoon pics and MyPublisher for our wedding pics. I much prefered MyPublisher to use for designing the book as well as the quality.

HulaLove · January 2010

I just checked out your bio and the pro pics there are beautiful!

I'm looking forward to seeing photos of your wedding, it looked so fun! And you are stunning! Your dress looked amazing on you!!

MrsIH · January 2010

I used Blurb for 3 of our books, photos in my married bio. If you do have a Mac I would suggest the iPhoto books, we did two for our parents and were very pleased with them, the pages were on the thick side for sure. The only problem with the iPhoto books is that there was a page limit

Not sure if there still is though? Good luck

Photobook recs

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