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DPChallenge Forums >> General Discussion >> Which Online Photo Book Printer is Best?
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05/02/2006 02:37:46 PM · #1
last christmas i got viovio to print up a few little books of pics of my son for the family who live in far flung corners of the globe. i was reasonably happy with the results - nice cover, nice quality paper, but the resolution of the images themselves was not good. all images that had anything less than the equivalent of full sun lighting were grainy and flat.

so, does anyone know which printer is best?
05/02/2006 02:51:04 PM · #2
I recently ordered a coffee table book through MyPublisher.com and was quite pleased with the results in respect to the photos. I even had several photos that were low-res scans of film and also some from my old Mavica (.08mp) camera and if they were kept to the smaller sizes they looked just fine. Certainly couldn't have done a full page photo of them, but overall I think they did a really good job. I opted for the linen cover and it's nice, not fancy or anything but nice. They also have leather which I haven't seen. And they're templates were easy enough to use. Of course, now I would probably try using something like FotoFusion to customize the pages a little more but didn't know about it at the time.

And right now they are running a Mother's day special where you can save from 25-50%. :)
05/02/2006 03:58:30 PM · #3
I just ordered five more books from MyPublisher.com (taking advantage of the 50% discount).
05/02/2006 04:05:38 PM · #4
Asuka books are outstanding

edit cause i kant spel :P

Message edited by author 2006-05-02 16:06:06.
05/18/2006 01:28:05 AM · #5
I just got my first MyPublisher book and am extremely disappointed with the quality. All my images were 5Mpixel and all of them turn out grainy and slightly fuzzy, even the ones there were in a 2x3 box. The program did some kind of "upload optimization" step before taking my order. I am not sure if that was the problem. I can see artifacts in the text that are in my photo; they look like a result of over compression or a poor printer. I heard quite a few folks say that they have good quality. I am not sure if mine was an anomaly or what. Even a picture from my laser printer is better than what I got from MyPublisher. Very disappointed. Considering re-printing the same book with a different company now.
05/18/2006 01:38:36 AM · #6
I am not a fan of MyPublisher either. I ordered one book and was not pleased with the cheap plastic frame on the cover, nor the print quality (especially on dark colors). Everything seemed very grainy on these 6.3 MP prints. I later gave it another whirl with the softcover book and all white backgrounds. Even more disappointed with the results. At the minimum 20 pages, the book felt more like a small pamphlet and the white on all images was extremely "blocky"...not solid white in the slightest. I don't think I'm even gonna try the "three strikes, you're out" approach...I'm just throwing my $$ away.
05/18/2006 07:27:06 AM · #7
well, i just got my first book back from MyPublisher, and i am thrilled!

why? because rather than dropping images into their templates, i used the 'Just Images' layout which allows for 1 full-bleed image per page. i edited all my pages to 300dpi. some pages were single images, most were collages that i put together in either photoshop or fotofusion. the bottom line is, rather than take a crapshoot that some automated process is going to be perfect, i tried to minimize my risk by doing as much of the work as possible myself.

is it perfect? no. but, they are/can be an excellent value.

Originally posted by AllanL:

Considering re-printing the same book with a different company now.

if you edited the images to size and got bad results with MyPublisher, that would be cause for concern. if you are simply going to drop the images into another printer's template, the only difference in results will probably be in the quality of paper, inks, and print resolution. good luck...
05/18/2006 08:12:32 AM · #8
All five of my recently ordered books arrived last week and they all look great. Similar to skiprow, I don't use their templates. Every page in the book was submitted as a "single image page with no text". Instead, all of my pages and text were assembled together using Fotofusion (by www.lumapix.com).

The quality of the images is superb.

Someday I want to try Asuka book, or some other publisher that provides a book with a "heftier feel" to it. But for now, MyPublisher is working out great for me.
05/30/2006 01:26:52 AM · #9
This seems to be very odd. Some people get very grainy pictures and some are reporting superb quality. What's the trick or is there any? I too used Photoshop to assembly my collages. The images were set at 150dpi, which is exactly what MyPublisher recommends. I may give these guys one more trywith the images set at a higher DPI and see what happens.
05/30/2006 06:07:57 AM · #10
Originally posted by AllanL:

This seems to be very odd. Some people get very grainy pictures and some are reporting superb quality. What's the trick or is there any? I too used Photoshop to assembly my collages. The images were set at 150dpi, which is exactly what MyPublisher recommends. I may give these guys one more trywith the images set at a higher DPI and see what happens.

for me, the trick was to first edit all the individual images at 300dpi, then to assemble my collages (whether in photoshop or fotofusion) at 300dpi. this 'magazine' quality resolution may be twice as high as what they specify, but i'd 1) rather have more than enough, and 2) rather already have the editing done in case i want to print it through a more high-end service.
05/30/2006 06:50:09 AM · #11
I must have missed seeing their recommendation of 150 dpi. I have Fotofusion set to produce everything at 300 dpi, so that is what I uploaded to the site. Perhaps they meant 150 dpi as a "minimum"???
05/30/2006 07:21:12 AM · #12
Nikonians recently has a review of SharedInk.com on their current eZine. Sounds like a good service but a little more pricey.
05/30/2006 07:48:16 AM · #13
and then there is

Graphistudio

they seem expensive, however, like the review on nikonian said, you get what you pay for. I don't have any experience with them, butwould be interested in hearing if anyone does.
05/30/2006 08:20:48 AM · #14
We have used SharedInk for several books now and have been very pleased with the quality of the book and the pictures.
05/30/2006 09:10:21 AM · #15
Originally posted by AllanL:

I just got my first MyPublisher book and am extremely disappointed with the quality. All my images were 5Mpixel and all of them turn out grainy and slightly fuzzy, even the ones there were in a 2x3 box. The program did some kind of "upload optimization" step before taking my order. I am not sure if that was the problem. I can see artifacts in the text that are in my photo; they look like a result of over compression or a poor printer. I heard quite a few folks say that they have good quality. I am not sure if mine was an anomaly or what. Even a picture from my laser printer is better than what I got from MyPublisher. Very disappointed. Considering re-printing the same book with a different company now.


About a year ago I had a book made for a 25th anniversary for a couple using MyPublisher. At the the time I thought the photos looked fine, but I heard from my daughter that the binding broke immediately. I contacted the company and they redid the book for free. Amazingly enough the second set of photos were soooooo much better than the first, so I don't know what was going on there. I haven't ordered again, but I won't say that I never will. I'm just a little leary now.
06/01/2006 01:34:52 AM · #16
Where do you find the 50% discount?
02/05/2009 03:43:21 AM · #17
I havn't printed off many photobooks from different companies but I have downloaded about 5 or more different photobook software and I have to say that the software and the printing of //photobookworldwide.com/ was great. The software lets you do easy drag and drops for full page or you can create you own layouts within the program itself. You can stack images over each other rotate freehand not just 90 degrees and be alot more fun with your layouts. I linked a couple examples at the bottom of this post. Of course the program does have your standard layouts and such as well but I just included some of the different types just to give a idea of what I mean. The prices are a little higher then say www.blurb.com but the ease and flexabilty of creating your book is so much easier. Again if you want to spend the time in photoshop you can even be more creative and compile a unique collage and import it as a full page. But just on sheer program flexability I loved photobookworldwide.com No fiddling with align picture left or right on page, just drag your photo where you want. want more percise alignign you can have it snap to a grid, its great.

//stevenkovickart.com/candice/candice4.jpg
//stevenkovickart.com/candice/candice5.jpg
//stevenkovickart.com/candice/candice6.jpg
//stevenkovickart.com/candice/candice7.jpg
//stevenkovickart.com/candice/candice8.jpg
02/05/2009 04:12:15 AM · #18
Originally posted by lentil:

Asuka books are outstanding

edit cause i kant spel :P


I'll second this. Fantastic quality!
02/05/2009 04:18:17 AM · #19
posted twice???

Message edited by author 2009-02-05 04:21:08.
02/05/2009 04:20:47 AM · #20
I use snapfish, but i have only created the 'minibooks' myself
//www1.snapfish.co.uk/storenewphotobooks

They were amazing, and arrive the next day :-)
02/05/2009 08:07:53 AM · #21
Can someone recommend the ones available in UK?
12/27/2009 03:12:35 PM · #22
I just got a 120 page hard cover phot book printed by Print-ibles. I was very pleased with everything espeacilly the quality but the low price didn\'t hurt either. I\'d recommend them any day. print-ibles.com
12/27/2009 04:42:19 PM · #23
I've done several books with blurb.com with excellent results. They have a paper upgrade that is worth it in my experience. The print quality is superb and consistent. I have used their templates in their software and found them to be very flexible and customizable. I have also done page layouts in illustrator and prepared the book from pdfs. They have good support and forums.

I've also made books from Apple with good success. Their templates are a little more restrictive, but the quality of the product is good, and the process is integrated in Aperture.
04/06/2010 07:15:32 PM · #24
(Revived)

A recent review of Photobook publishers, The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?.
04/06/2010 07:38:13 PM · #25
Originally posted by _eug:

(Revived)

A recent review of Photobook publishers, The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?.


Thanks Eugene. That review is quite comprehensive and useful.

I had started a book with MyPublisher but they recently announced their new software before I finished it. Now I need to download the new software and start over again when I find the time and/or stop procrastinating.
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