Photobook Reviews
In 2008 I finally decided to give creating a photobook a try. It seemed like a simple thing,
download some software,
drop some photos in, upload the results, and wait for the book to arrive.
Was I ever mistaken! The following narrative describes my experience:
Getting Ready
There are a number of book sizes available and each vendor has a set of themes and formats available
for each book including a formal photographic style (black background, larger photos), a whimisical style
that many use for books documenting their latest trip, and at least one style suitable for creating a wedding
book.
So what did I want? For the first book I wanted to
stay with a rather plain style, a book with a hard cover with one or more images on the front and back,
and a larger size for my better photographs.
Time to Pick a Vendor
I reviewed the information available on
the net and examined the products available from each vendor. There are a few book publishers that require you
to upload pictures to their site in order to create a book. My preference was to be able to work on my book on
my computer even if I was not online so these publishers were eliminated. I also prefer an image printed
directly on the hardcover rather than a dust jacket. This dropped out a few more vendors. Next to look at
was the size of the books available, I want to showcase some of my better pictures so I'm looking for
a larger size book with landscape format. That still left more publishers than I could test so I did some more
reading on the net and finally selected MPIX and SmileBooks. Their software was downloaded and installed.
The plan was to create and print a test book from each publisher, compare the results, and then create the
final book. Extra expense to do it this way but I was concerned about putting all my time and energy (and money)
in one publisher only to be dissappointed. Ok, the software is installed and ready.
Now the fun begins, right? Well not exactly.
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