Online photo books publishers

[Eric Rose]

Well it's kinda paper oriented...

I shot my daughters wedding last Friday and want to do up a book for her. I understand there are online book publishers that could do this for me if I send them the files. Does anyone have a recommendation based on personal experience they can give me?

Thanks,

Eric

 

[rorye]

Hi Eric,
I've had very nice results from Blurb, www.blurb.com
I like the layouts and find the paper/print quality to be very nice.
Best,
Rory

 

[Eric Rose]

Hi Eric,
I've had very nice results from Blurb, www.blurb.com
I like the layouts and find the paper/print quality to be very nice.
Best,
Rory

Thanks Rory. I took a look at their site and downloaded the book layout file. I see over on the Large Format Forum they are using Lulu to generate a book. I took a look at that setup and it would take forever to upload say 200 files one at a time. They say you can use FTP for large files but maybe you can do it for smaller ones too.

 

[rorye]

Hey Eric,
I believe that you can FTP smaller files. On my books (40-45 images, b&w) the upload usually takes about 25 mins. with basic DSL.

 

[patrickjames]

Are you on Windows or Mac? I have had some success for clients doing books on MyPublisher.com to use as a giveaway, but you have to use Windows to get better quality. They do have a plug in for I-Photo but the printing isn't as good. Ditto for the I-Photo books from Apple. I keep a W computer just for this purpose believe it or not.

 

[James Glaze]

I have used MyPublisher for two B&W books and one color book. I am quite pleased with the quality particularily for the color book. In the case of B&W I wish one had a choice of papers. The paper that they use is close to a Luster finish but personally I would prefere a glossy finish----although this is a rather minor complaint. Howver a more substantial complaint is that their so called "book sharing" feature which allows you to send the book to a friend for on-line viewing generally ends up in the recepients "spam folder". There is a way around this but it is a pain. Also, they do not discount their books for volume purchases-----they do, however, offer promotional pricing from time to time. In the future I will try other on-line vendors such as Blurb to gain a comparison.

 

[Scott Peters]

I was told that Graphistudio was very good at B&W. I am waiting on samples. I used blurb for a color book and black and white. Good for color, not for B & W. B & W is tougher to get the tone right...Graphis has some very nice recommendations and seems to be a wedding photographers choice...not inexpensive, but you probably pay for quality. give them a call and they will send samples. I was told they print in Italy...

 

[Eric Rose]

thanks Scott. The book I want to do is B&W and one thing that would just burn me is lousy paper and a weird color cast to the photos once reproduced. I also want to do a wedding book for my daughter as well which will be a combination of color and B&W.

 

[patrickjames]

If you want the book to come out right you have to be color managed. That means a custom profile for your monitor. I have a friend who was having problems until I set him up.

Patrick

 

[Cheryl Jacobs]

Eric, I use American Color Imaging (www.acilab.com) and I'm very happy with them. The print quality of my B&W's (I don't shoot color) is excellent. I usually upgrade the paper to a heavier weight. Their product is very similar to Asuka, but they generally turn books around in about a week, and they charge just about half of what Asuka charges.

- CJ

 

[bob100684]

I'm going to second blurb. The quality is just about as good as some real books that we own, and the turn around time is fast, the only recommendation I have is to tone your b/w photos a little bit as neutral greyscale is hard to get with color processes.