Photobook recommendation

GSXRMovistar · 8 Jan 2013 at 23:07

Hi guys, wanting to put together a simple photobook which will be a present from my daughter to her great nan. Nothing over complicated/fancy, just a set of images and ideally the ability to overlay text on several of the pages.

Any recommendations on which company/service to use?

I know Lightroom now has a photobook module but not really looked into it, will this or any of the online services allow text overlay or would I be better off just creating all the pages in say InDesign and then uploading each page as a prepared image?

Thanks for any recommendations.

An Exception · 8 Jan 2013 at 23:10

albelli is good

Turbo-G · 8 Jan 2013 at 23:12

I used Albelli previously, pretty pleased with the results. You can build it online, or download a native application, which does give a few more options.

pingu666 · 9 Jan 2013 at 01:36

i think there was a photobook offer on hotukdeals, worked out at 4quid for the postage being the only cost

GSXRMovistar · 9 Jan 2013 at 09:30

Cost isn't the primary consideration at this point, although not looking to spend a huge fortune but more concerned with the ease of use and quality/presentation.

Downloaded the Albelli app and hopefully get a chance to play with it this evening.

Also anyone have any experience with Blurb books as they appear to be integrated with Lightroom?

Thanks

cokebottles · 9 Jan 2013 at 10:21

Yea I ordered a ~80 page blurb book for my gf for Christmas. Made it in Lightroom with a mixture of holiday snaps from iPhone, my gf S95 compact, and my SLR.

I was really quite happy with how creating the book in Lightroom went. Fairly easy and intuitive - I hadn't looked it to in at all before just diving in. It's pretty simple.

Print quality from Blurb was an unknown to me, but I was very satisfied. I went for the hardcover image wrap cover (not the dust jacket one) which resulted in lovely matte (almost velvety) finish. Finger prints just wipe off it very easily. For the pages, I used their premium lustre paper which Im also very happy with and will use again. Colours look great, and there is acceptable definition in the shadows.

A couple of friends have recently used Groupon vouchers to order photobooks from Photobox for quite cheap. Comparatively I would put the Blurb books one the next tier of quality above Photobox. The pages, cover, and binding are all better. My dad also ordered a Jessops book just before Christmas and that looked terrible.

Also worth noting, is that I had to send a few messages to their customer service dept. They had a certain xmas delivery cut off advertised, but upon check out the predicted delivery dates didnt match up - so I had to pay extra for express delivery (which shouldn't have been necessary). They refunded me the difference. Took around 48h to reply to my messages.

a1ex2001 · 10 Jan 2013 at 08:33

Have previously ordered from Blurb and found the product to be excellent certainly worth the extra cost, used Jessops (CEWE Re-seller) for some books for family at Christmas and was really pleased with the quality a little below Blurb but far from terrible and brilliant for the price. With Jessops in Admin I will certainly look into the other CEWE re-sellers (like WHSMITH) or use CEWE direct.

GSXRMovistar · 21 Jan 2013 at 19:37

Well I went the Blurb route in the end, compiled the book in Lightroom which as above was very intuitive. Uploaded/ordered on the 13th and delivered today via the cheaper delivery option. All in all very impressed with the service and the quality off the book and should make a nice little thank you present.

~Mike~ · 31 Jan 2013 at 08:26

I recently ordered a photobook with Photobox, it was for a present, and they had an offer on. Ordered on the 9th of Jan, order got delayed and they would not say why, received it on the 24th Jan. They did refund the delivery charge and upgrade the delivery to DHL.

Overall I was less than impressed with the quality of the prints in the book. The book itself was good quality. Don't think I will order from them again.

Also the photobooks are printed in France.

I'll have a look at Blurb next time.

a1ex2001 · 31 Jan 2013 at 09:25

Mike306 said:
I recently ordered a photobook with Photobox, it was for a present, and they had an offer on. Ordered on the 9th of Jan, order got delayed and they would not say why, received it on the 24th Jan. They did refund the delivery charge and upgrade the delivery to DHL.

Overall I was less than impressed with the quality of the prints in the book. The book itself was good quality. Don't think I will order from them again.

Also the photobooks are printed in France.

I'll have a look at Blurb next time.

Pretty much sums up all my experience with Photobox I think one word 'disapointed' would cover it.

Ksanti · 31 Jan 2013 at 10:02

I tried to print a book on blurb, but the print cutting was awful. They do give those cutting guidelines to avoid stuff getting cut off, but 2cm on each border of a 20*25cm book is just ridiculous, as it means you can't work out a proper layout for text as it will either be cut off on the border or way too far into the page itself.