Photo book question

[glassslipper2004]

Hi all. Here's a different topic - do any of you use an online service to make a photo book of your digital pictures? I've been using Kodak gallery for years and like them a lot, but I know I've seen some really nice ones made by other companies. Suggestions?

 

[SLK1]

I have used Shutterfly in the past to make on-line albums. The quality was very good. But, for my ABD trip, I'm doing it the old-fashioned way. I wanted to include tickets, maps, mementos in my scrapbook that I couldn't do in a digital book, unless I took a picture of them and then included them. Shutterfly books were of good quality and make a wonderful gift. I have not compared prices of the companies, but I keep getting MyPublisher.com coupons - buy one, get one free.

 

[mwebsite]

I use Target's online service, I think it's actually a Kodak product. They run great specials, I'm trying to put my Viva Italia together right now because it is 30% off through July 7. We did one for my inlaws 50th anniversary, I couldn't believe the quality and the price!

 

[kristilew]

We've done several books with Shutterfly and love them. At our Target store, they have samples of the Shutterfly photobooks that you can check out. Don't know if it's different in other areas, but might be worth a stop by the photo counter next time you're there.

 

[OSUChad]

I've completed two Disney Photopass photobooks and love them. But I just completed my first Shutterfly photobook. Shutterfly's online creator is so much better than Disney's it is ridiculous. The site runs so much faster than Disney's it is amazing. I would love for Disney to have an agreement with Shutterfly to create Disney albums on their site. That way you could get the Disney backgrounds, signatures, icons, etc. using the Shutterfly design software. Great prices on Shutterfly also.

The photobook I completed and ordered today from Shutterfly for our Hawaii trip we just finished was 101 pages (the max on Shutterfly) and 361 pictures. The book was 12" x 12" green leather photobook. With discounts and shipping it was $121. Not too bad in my opinion.

Chad

 

[lovemyzoe]

I did our wedding book through Shutterfly and am very pleased with it.

For the Disney trip we just finished, I actually pre-purchased their photobook at the same time that I pre-purchased the CD. Well, after trying to start to put a book together, I just e-mailed them to get a refund for the book. Their site has the Disney backgrounds but overall is much less customizable than Shutterfly's.

I like to include a lot of text/journaling in my books...basically like a trip report with pictures...but all of Disney's "text" pages still included stock images that took up like half the page! They were going to limit me to 790 characters (about 120 words on average) on an all-text page! As you can see, I'm way too wordy for that!

 

[OSUChad]

I did our wedding book through Shutterfly and am very pleased with it.

For the Disney trip we just finished, I actually pre-purchased their photobook at the same time that I pre-purchased the CD. Well, after trying to start to put a book together, I just e-mailed them to get a refund for the book. Their site has the Disney backgrounds but overall is much less customizable than Shutterfly's.

I like to include a lot of text/journaling in my books...basically like a trip report with pictures...but all of Disney's "text" pages still included stock images that took up like half the page! They were going to limit me to 790 characters (about 120 words on average) on an all-text page! As you can see, I'm way too wordy for that!

Totally agree. I only had one page with a lot of text, but it was nice to have the option of adding it. You can also change fonts, font sizes, and font colors. They have a zillion layouts and backgrounds available. I loved being able to put 16 images on a single page. I have several 1 - 12" x 12" images and several with 8 or more pictures. If I remember correctly, 5 was the maximum number of images on the Disney photobook pages.

Okay enough of my commercial. I was just so excited to create something so good on their site. Still something magical about Disney though. I do still love those Disney character signatures and Disney backgrounds on my photobook pages. Can we please tie the two together? Licensing agreement please!

Chad

 

[glassslipper2004]

Wow, those are some really good recs for Shutterfly! I'll have to check it out. I just did a photobook to include some kind of random pictures from the past few months that didn't really have a unifying theme. I used Kodak Gallery, which I am always very happy with, although this time they added a few new photo formats which did not allow you to have any text on the page. I thought that was kind of odd - wish they would give more variety and still let you use text.

 

[sarahanne26]

I gave one of Smilebooks photo books to my Parents as an anniversary gift. The software was easy to use, the book came out great and with coupon code PV25 the price was right. The best part was my parents love the photo book, thats all that really matters.

 

[msvlg]

For the first time this year I made a photobook of our Disney vacation. Actually I made one from the disney photopass site and the other from Snapfish. Both of them were beautiful! They came out so well that I made my daughter a copy of the snapfish photobook and made my two grandchildren 5x7 copies to take to school for show and tell. The Snapfish book was considerably cheaper, but with the Disney book you could add all of their backgrounds. I can't wait until we go back next year I know for sure that I will make another book of our magical memories!

 

[vakamalua]

I really like Snapfish but can't compare the other sites. I have used it for different size photo books, quick little flip books with captions, calendars and the collage prints which I love to give as gifts. Snapfish has great prices (last week was a sale--50 4X6 prints for 50 cents), gives you freebies for using them and has great print quality. It is quite customizable but, of course not with the Disney backgrounds. Although I have scanned in a Photopass picture with the Disney border and incorporated it into a Snapfish product. And I still love to do albums by hand the old fashioned way with lots of memorabilia--then I order the prints, sometimes in different sizes, from Snapfish.

 

[TheEvilQueen]

For all of my photos, no matter if I am on a trip or not, I use iPhoto. I love it. Not sure if it works on PCs though. I like it because it is very user friendly.

 

[Icemann]

Well I'll have to say I like Shutterfly too.I did one of a non-Disney trip just to try it out because I'm not to computer smart.But it came out pretty good if I do say so my self.I'm working on one now from last months trip from the Spirt of America and I will have to make at least two books but that's okay by me.I wish we could use the Disney backgrounds too I scanned a few pictures from the photo CD but they didn't look right?

 

[OSUChad]

... I scanned a few pictures from the photo CD but they didn't look right?

You should be able to take the photo files from the photo CD and store them to your hard drive. Then upload them to the shutterfly site from your hard drive just like your other pictures. You possibly could upload them directly from the CD to Shutterfly.

We just got our book in from our Hawaii trip. 101 pages (the max) and 361 pictures printed in a 12"x12" leather bound book. With discount codes applied and shipping the total cost was about $121.

Chad

 

[let'sgo]

The first book I used the Diney book as you could also add all of your photopass photos in it. Then I used Shutterfly, which was less expensive and you could have more pages. I thought that the Shutterfly quality was better than the Disney book.

Now I'm using Blub to put a book together. They just came out with new software that will allow you to move pictures and change picture sizes and the text boxes as well. I haven't ordered a book, but you can sure customize the pages very easily.

 

[abbyjt]

We have used Snapfish and Shutterfly to make photo books. Shutterfly makes a better quality book and is easier to do.
This year my husband is using Eurobook. We have never tried it before, but my husband likes that you are not set on certain templates. The background choices aren't as good. He hasn't finished it yet, so we haven't even ordered it yet. I can chime in again when I see it (may be a few months)