# Photo Book Experiences?



## distant.star (Nov 21, 2013)

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I'm looking for experience and recommendations for photo books. Who has any experience?

Comparisons and reviews I've read are all over the place. No one company emerges as clearly superior. My first priorities are good color rendition and excellent image quality. Apparently some are so bad reviewers say halftone dots are visible in their images.

Lightroom has a Blurb design/layout within it so that would seem a good choice. However I don't see any reviews that like it much. It gets dinged on odd size choices for their books, print quality and long delivery times.

Last summer I printed a book with Shutterfly. Since I had a free coupon and had done an event for a family, I printed a book and gave it to them. I didn't care much for the design software you have to use, but the printed book was quite nice. If I can't get a solid recommendation for something better, I'll be using them again.

Thanks.


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## alexanderferdinand (Nov 28, 2013)

I once ordered one from Fuji.
The version which is flat if opened. So a panorama is laying flat over the two pages. Nice.
(was it called "crystalclear"?)
Be very careful about the color management- although they say they respect it I would only use sRGB in the final results.

Sorry to have no more information.

Good luck!


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## charlesbanke (Nov 28, 2013)

I have used blurb for all of my books, I have probably had 7 or so printed. I have always been very happy with color rendition and accuracy. Also their software which they call "book smart" is very easy to use and I have always been happy with the results.

My only complaint is the time it takes to deliver their product, it usually takes about 2 weeks, but It is worth the wait. It is a very good product and i definitely recommend it. 

Hope that helps, id be happy to answer any questions about it.


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## kirispupis (Nov 28, 2013)

I use Blurb for all of my books. I have printed ~10 with them so far and am working on several more. People continue to be amazed by their 11x13 large landscape books with the Pearl Pro paper. I create a book now for each vacation and for special events.

In terms of putting the book together I used to use InDesign but find that Lightroom generally handles what I need once I figured it out. Most of my books are pretty simple with relatively little text and simple layouts. If I needed more complex layouts or more text then I would use InDesign - which I use for my books that actually go to print. 

I have used their Booksmart software before and found it unusable. Even worse I have lost entire books while working on them.

The only other company I have printed with (other than offset printing for market books) is MyPublisher. I used it to print a book for a client and though I never physically saw the book myself, the client said it was abysmal so I never ordered from them again.


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