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I would say mypublisher over kodakgalery... and blurb over mypublisher. I would also say that I have albums of all the above and about 2 years later they look like crap. From seldom use and shelf life, they are already deteriorating. (They look good enough at first, but they're not really built to last.)
I have flushmounted albums that are 3 years old, left uncovered, on a shelf and with heavy use they still look like they did the day they shipped.
So it really all depends on what you want. If you want something to last, find a much higher quality. If your just looking for something to throw on a coffee table or in your purse for the next few years, go with any of the above. Just know it won't last until your old and gray ;-)
just make sure you don't forget about your images and back everything you have up. Your files should be RE backed up every year... do not leave them on the discs, even archivable ones (which most people don't use) don't last past maybe 10 years. I would also re-burn and store a new disk every year in a fireproof box with your other documents and stuff.
KLP - tell me about these flushmounted ones. I appreciate your input!
I want to do 7 photobooks - one for us, my mom, my dad and fam, SIL, IL's, Grandpa, and my step grandmother. I feel like a regular kodak book would be good for this. I have given them the links to order the photos from our photographer online - the prices are reasonable, and I think that the prints are better, so they can pick and choose which images they want to frame etc.
But it'd be nice for my hubby and i to have one really bangin' book that will last long enough to show our grandchildren. This is one time where it's a pain in the toosh to have divorced family - I would ideally like to get everybody the most fancy book, but $$$ after paying for wedding is hard to part with.
I've used kodak, mpix, and mypublisher to make photo books. Photo books are press books where the images are printed on paper, usually using 4 color processing. I think mpix pictures look the best (truest color), followed closely by mypublisher, then kodak. For paper thickness, my ranking goes mypublisher, kodak, mpix (I've used their standard paper - they do offer upgraded paper options though). In my experience, the album building software on all three is pretty good, but mpix offers more flexibility in layout. I only use white backgrounds without borders, so I don't have any input on the fancy colored/patterened page design templates any of them offer. On the issue you've had with kodak appearing to crop your image, you may be dropping a picture into a box in a template that's a different size than the aspect ration of your photo. In my experience, they print pretty much how they look on your screen in terms of cropping/zoom. Some other things to think about when choosing between photo book companies are cover material options and page count.
Flushmout albums are gorgeous. The photos are printed on actual photopaper, which is then mounted to board-type pages. These albums are also more expensive than press books, and while there are a lot of album companies who make flushmounts, the majority of these companies only work with pro photographers. I know that mpix (their assembled album in the specialty products section) and somerset albums both offer flushmount albums to the general public, and I think there are a couple others as well. There are also wedding album design companies that will work with you to produce a flushmount album, much like a photographer would (Indigo Album Design, for example, which was in a WB blog sale post a week ago, for example). I don't have any experience with any of these, so I can't vouch for any of their products.
Adoramapix offers a photo book that has aspects of both a press book and a flushmount album. The pictures in their books are printed on photo paper, and the pages are bound in a way that allows each 2-page spread to lay flat, but the photopaper isn't mounted to the board-type pages. I haven't used this company yet, but their reviews on line (and on the WB boards) are very good. I'm itching to try them, and will most likely use them for our honeymoon album. There may be a couple of other photo book companies who also print on photopaper. Anyone know of any?
We opted to have our photographer make a flushmount album for us, but we used mypublisher to make albums for our family. While our flushmount album is pricey, it is completely worth it to us - we wanted an album that would be beautiful for our lifetime. We chose mypublisher for the family albums because they were running a 50% off purchases of $100 or more sale, and they had the right combination of features we were looking for. We're happy with how the mypublisher books turned out, and my parents' book made my mom cry, so mission accomplished on those bad boys ;)
Sorry for the crazy long post!
Thank you both! i'll be referencing these this weekend when putting together the books. I wonder if there is any chance in the universe this can come by next Sunday? Hopefully this cold goes away and I can stay awake and function after work : )
I have only used Kodak and Blurb and Blurb is def superior. Making my book was easy on blurb and the quality is great. I am sure that what the previous poster said about them not lasting forever is true but for now it is great!
I haven't used the sites you were originally looking at, but since people are throwing out other sites, I'll join in :)
I've used Shutterfly, Blurb, Smilebooks, and MyCanvas. Shutterfly produces a nice product, but I wouldn't put this in the class of quality I would want for a wedding album.
The other three were all good, however I would actually rank Blurb the lowest of the top 3 (I was surprised by this because it seems like everyone loves them so much and the other 2 were less heard of companies). The photos in the Blurb book just weren't as crisp and clear...they were rather grainy...and all the books I made with the top 3 companies I used were made with the SAME professional quality photos so it wasn't an issue of original image quality. The Blurb book was still great...just not as good as Smilebooks or MyCanvas.
MyCanvas offers flushmount albums and Smilebooks now offers books on real photopaper (they open flat like a flushmount, but I don't think the photopaper is mounted onto the board backing like flushmount). I haven't used the flushmounts of MyCanvas and I haven't yet receieved my Smilebooks photopaper book cuz mine is currently not getting delivered because the poor delivery man can't get into my apparently ridiculously secured apt building...at least I don't have to worry about being burglarized (sorry side rant! :-p).
The regular books from both those companies are very good though. I preferred Smilebooks overall cuz their regular paper is the nicest I've found anywhere (super thick paper, nice finish) and I liked their software. I've made several books with them now and they've all been fantastic.
OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh!!! I just got my Smilebooks album on the photopaper! It's absolutely gorgeous! Definitely not mounted on the board like regular flushmount albums, but it's super super thick paper and it opens flat like the flushmount. Highly highly recommend!
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Hey there! Has anyone made photobooks with these companies? I'm mostly concerned with My Publisher and Kodakgallery. I want to know the pros and cons you've found with both.
Con I've found with kodakgallery - it appears that when i use their photobook building feature, the photos i want to add seem to be zoomed and cropped in the demo. Do they print like that? or is it a system limitation thing? i would actually want to do some zooming / cropping, but i don't want it to happen automatically. Anyone have any experience with this?
I haven't logged into my publisher long enough to test it out, because I don't want to upload and get started if that's not the direction I want to go.
Price and ease of use are my top priorities, along with of course quality of the print. I have coupon codes for each, and i have store credit with kodak.