Photo Books

[AndyStevens]

Blurb outsource to 'European' printers - I have a feeling (from talking to Blurb staff at shows) that it's done in Holland and I wonder whether Albelli have anything to do with it? Coming from a print/workflow/software background, I have spoken to other clients who use the same digital presses and they couldn't deny or confirm that they handled Blurb's overspill orders.

The good news is Blurb seem intent on all their books being printed on HP Indigos so we get Litho quality books at Digital speed/numbers/costs.

[KeithT]

The Blurb UK printing is usually done in Europe. I like smug-mug, well especially their user galleries. For my normal printing I use a pro lab that were on the go when I used film. Like digital, they have grown somewhat in size now as a company, but their service and print quality never ceases to make me say WOW!

Edit, never saw Andy's post before typng mine up. Yes, Blurb printing is really good if all else is good too - photo wise. I have the Indigo profile in PS, but often just let Blurb printers use RIP to correct it for me as fine art my stuff isn't and if grass is a slightly different shade than I remember it, I'm not that bothered. Important for some though.

[Forseti]

I've used several over the past 3 years or so with varying results. Of those that I have tried myphotobook has given me the most satisfaction - paper and print quality are simply excellent. This is a German company that has a European as well as English (co.uk) web site both in the English language although the books themselves are actually printed in Berlin and dispatched from there.

http://www.myphotobook.co.uk/

[wavemachine]

I used blurb last December and was really impressed with the finished product.

I have used Photobox and Tescos as well, Photobox when I used them was all done online which I found a pain in the backside to use, Tescos photobook software I found to be incredibly slow (even on an I7 based PC) and inflexible.

Blurbs software seemed far better than anything else I tried and offered some good standard layouts as well as the ability to do custom ones although this is going back 10 months ago so things may have changed.

To me there are two factors the quality of the final product and of course the ease and flexability with which the book can be put together.

Having shot a wedding myself it is a lot of work to put the photos together especially in a book to tell the story of the day so you want to be able to concentrate on just that without battling with software.

I am not sure what formats these companies will accept the books in, as I understood it the blurb process rendered the document as PDF and uploaded it so I am not sure with all these companies whether you have to use the software they supply or whether there are alternative methods.

Before you make your final decisions it maybe worth trying the software they supply.

[AndyStevens]

KeithT - the HP Indigos can use sRGB as a default profile so you can pretty much throw anything at it and get a good result - even though the Blurb profile is CMYK.

wavemachine - would you like me to make your life a lot easier for wedding books? Go here and try their software. Once you have it installed, select a book, the wedding pics and hit 'autoflow' then choose 'picture order'. And within a minute (or less) you should have a completed book that will have used all images once in the order they were taken with no blank picture boxes or pages. You can then use page styles and masks from the bottom pane to drag and drop and get the look you want. And they use 'lay flat' pages and print using HP Indigos (they're a client of mine!).

All the decent softwares will render the final book as a PDF and then upload it - makes the resulting file a few MB instead of a few hundred MB with all the images.

[deanodpo]

I have used photobox, jesspos and blurb. They are all very similar. If you use photobox, make sure you get a calibration card first they can be requested through the website, but my books have turned out much better.

Also I use photobox for editing the images and upload them as a complete page, make sure if you do this that you dont go withing about 2cm of the edge if you place a square insert. Sometimes the pages are not 100% central, so what looks like an even border on screen doesn't end up so on the book.

I agree Blurb is very good indeed, great quality without a doubt. Although as such they seem to be set up as a vanity press in that the pricing structure is end user based, which limits potential sales somewhat.

[AndyStevens]

Just had a thought... It's the Canon Pro Photo solutions show this week in Islington. Blurb had a stand there last year - wonder if they'll be there again this year as it could give you a good chance to see their quality in the flesh.

Providing you can make London tomorrow or Wednesday of course...

[shelfside]

Might be a bit late for this but I've found the photobooks through Apple Aperture (and I think the functionality is also in iPhoto) are pretty good, if a little expensive.

If I could find somewhere that would take the PDF generated by Aperture for a cheaper price I'd be a very happy man

[dex220610]

used aldi very pleased and quick delivery