Digital Home Thoughts: The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Printing" @ 06:30 AM

Picking the Best Book Maker Isn't Easy

There are a lot of different ways to answer the question of who makes the best photo book, because everyone has different values. Some people may value ease-of-use above all else; others, paper and print quality; while for some, price is king. In light of this, I've broken down the results of this review in a few ways. First, an executive summary of each photo printing company.

Photo Book Review

Figure 84: Photo books reaching to the sky...

Picaboo Photo Book Review

Picaboo (www.picaboo.com)

Great desktop software that's easy to use, but dark, muddy printing quality and only average paper and cover quality coupled with a lack of spine printing and extremely high prices ($119.59 USD) seal the deal in a bad way. You don't want to order a book from Picaboo. OVERALL RATING: POOR to AVERAGE

Treasure-Book.com Photo Book Review

Treasure-Book.com (www.treasure-book.com)

Solid desktop software makes book building easy, and the excellent paper quality combined with average to excellent printing quality and spine printing make this a decent choice. The cover quality doesn't quite measure up to others in this review, however - they need to improve the image printing quality. Slightly higher-than-average pricing ($79.59 CAD), but if you live in Canada, shipping isn't very expensive and there's no hassle with cross-border fees. OVERALL RATING: AVERAGE to EXCELLENT

Blurb Photo Book Review

Blurb (www.blurb.com)

The powerful book-building software combined with a variety of book options - including the superb imagewrap hardcover - make Blurb a real contender. The paper is a little cheap-feeling compared to the others in this round-up, and their $6 premium paper is a waste of money - but Blurb's prices can only be described as "Crazy Cheap!" ($24.95 to $43.95 USD), so there's a lot of value for the dollar. OVERALL RATING: AVERAGE to EXCELLENT

Inkubook Photo Book Review

Inkubook (www.inkubook.com)

Despite a few bugs, the Web-based book building experience was quite excellent, and the paper and print quality are excellent. The otherwise nicely-done cover is dragged down by the lack of spine printing and the Inkubook logo on the back, but the price is in the same ballpark as Blurb ($42.95 USD), meaning it's quite affordable and well worth your consideration. OVERALL RATING: AVERAGE to EXCELLENT

Shutterfly Photo Book Review

Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com)

The Web-based book building process isn't fancy, but it gets the job done with minimal effort. Excellent paper quality and cover quality (along with spine printing) are held back by the average print quality due to the too-warm implementation of their Vivid Pics system. If you've done a good job pre-processing your images, turn off Vivid Pics and you'll likely be quite happy with the print quality. Average pricing ($61.59). RATING: AVERAGE to EXCELLENT

AdoramaPix Photo Book Review

AdoramaPix (www.adoramapix.com)

Bringing lay-flat pages to the game at a price point no one else can match, AdoramaPix stands out with superb paper quality and superb cover quality (despite the lack of easy spine printing). The print quality is more of a mixed bag - my test book came with Photo Correction turned on, and the resulting images look a bit muted in tone, though not seriously so. The AdoramaPix books have a real "WOW!" factor that's impossible to ignore. Average pricing ($65.58 USD). The 50 page limit caused me emotional pain, but as of July 2010, they now offer a 76 page option. OVERALL RATING: EXCELLENT to SUPERB

Kodak Gallery Photo Book Review

Kodak Gallery (www.kodakgallery.com)

A big-gun in the photo printing industry, Kodak offers excellent paper quality and excellent print quality - but surprised me with restrictions on the front and back covers; you can't do full-cover images, there's no option for spine printing, and there's a big, ugly bar code on the back cover (though the bar code will be removed by summer 2010). Fairly expensive ($74.59 USD). OVERALL RATING: AVERAGE to EXCELLENT

MyPublisher Photo Book Review

MyPublisher (www.mypublisher.com)

Although fairly expensive compared to some other options, MyPublisher has top-notch print quality and excellent default paper. Their reproduction of my photos was flawless in every version of the book they printed. It's also worth noting that their paper is better quality than basically every other paper I saw, short of the upgraded paper from Photobook Canada. MyPublisher has also upped their game since I first wrote this review, now offering photo finish covers, lay-flat pages, and the insanely great-looking super gloss printing. It's still generally cheaper to go with AdoramaPix for lay-flat pages, but MyPublisher supports books up to 100 pages in size, and discount coupons radically change the cost comparisons (especially if you're doing more than one book). OVERALL RATING: EXCELLENT to SUPERB

SnapFish Photo Book Review

SnapFish (www.snapfish.com)

A middle-of-the-road offering with average paper quality, average print quality, and less than stellar cover quality. Every other book came to me with a black and white cover; the SnapFish cover was tinged purple. Spine printing is a plus, but the lack of flexibility with the back cover is irksome. Expensive ($69.79 USD) given the quality you get, and the Web-based system is buggy. OVERALL RATING: AVERAGE

ArtsCow Photo Book Review

ArtsCow (www.artscow.com)

ArtsCow might use excellent-quality paper, but everything else about their photo book falls into the poor category. They offer spine printing, but the front cover has horizontal streaks running through the image, the back can't have a custom image, and the interior printing is less than impressive. The images have horizontal lines going through them, and given the average cost of $64.99 USD, ArtsCow isn't a good choice for someone who cares about quality. Their Web software is fast and easy to use, but looks like it was created as part of a high-school computer science project. It's worth noting though that the $65 price does get you a 12 inch by 12 inch book, so if you need to go big on a budget and don't care too much about quality... OVERALL RATING: POOR

Photobook Canada Photo Book Review

Photobook Canada (www.photobookcanada.com)

Boasting the nicest non-lay flat paper in this whole review, Photobook Canada makes an extremely high-quality book - the printing is excellent, the cover is excellent (despite the lack of spine printing). You pay for it though, with a book cost of $106 CAD, but the cost can be mitigated by good coupon code. Their software is capable, but needs work; the back cover images on my book were nearly printed right off the edge. If quality is what you care about the most, this company is worth considering - just be careful with that back cover. OVERALL RATING: EXCELLENT to SUPERB

Mpix Photo Book Review

Mpix (www.mpix.com)

Mpix impressed me when they caught a printing error and re-printed my book, but their 50 page limit forced me to make the hard choice of cutting out 10 pages from the baby book. That's not cool - and neither is the lack of spine printing. On the plus side, excellent paper and excellent print quality - along with a price of $65 - make a compelling offering if you design your project from the start to be no more than 50 pages. Mpix uses the same desktop software as several others here, which is a good thing - it's capable. OVERALL RATING: AVERAGE to EXCELLENT


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