Charles Photography

Photo Book Tutorial Page 3 of 5

Selecting a Book Printing Company

To get started you will have to select a company. Fortunately you can usually download the book making software to your computer and try it out. This is time well spent even though you probably want to get on with actually making your book. While evaluating the software here are some factors you can think about:

Book Sizes and Formats - if you have a finished book size in mind does the software you are evaluating provide this capability? The same choice is made with respect to book format: portrait or landscape?

Backgrounds - do you like the choice of page backgrounds?

Frames - are there picture framing choices that appeal to you?

Layout choices - some packages allow you complete control over the size and location of each picture. Other packages provide a variety of page layouts that you can choose from. The limited layout choices are in general easier to use, the complete control software is a little more difficult to use if you take advantage of the flexibility. Either way will work just fine.

Cost - look not only at the cost of the minimum book but also at the cost for each additional page before deciding which company has the best pricing.

Proofing - how can you see the results of your book before commiting to print? The software you evaluate should provide this capability.

So how much time should be spent evaluating the software? If you like the first package then go with it. If not then download, install, and try another. This sounds like a pain (and it is) but if your happy with your first book and want to make another then the time spent selecting your software will be well worth it.