Trying Out the Software
The software for each vendor has a common purpose: to allow you to use your creative talents to create
a book just for you, to package up the results and send the file to the publisher so they can print your book.
To do this requires sophisticated software and each vendor approaches the user interface differently.
So if your trying out several systems this means you have to learn each one. Most systems have
a "let us lay the photos out for you" mode but even if you select this mode there is still a learning curve
to go through.
Size Your Photos
Perhaps off topic with respect to photo book reviews but important enough that I will mention here.
Eager to get started I grabbed a few test photos (which happened to be quite large) and dropped them on
the photo book screen. Big mistake! Large photos cause the photo book software to become sluggish and very
large photos cause the photobook software to become practically unusable.
Most vendors accept JPG format
photos and at least one accepts TIF format photos. My 50 meg TIF photo caused one system to work on trying
to put that photo on a page for 20 minutes until I canceled the program and decided to stick with JPGs.
(A good rule of thumb is to try to size your photos so that you have between 200 and 300 pixels per inch.)
Next Page
|
