Question:One of my friends recently shared with me a photo book that they created and had printed professionally. It looked fantastic. I was very impressed by the quality of the book. My friend said that he did it digitally and used a company called Photoworks to create the book. Do you know of other companies out there that create similar products and if so which one would you recommend?

Answer: With the holidays coming up in just a few weeks, a photo book may just be the gift to get the hard to buy for person on your list. On a recent trip to Germany I came back with some great photos that I thought would be great in a coffee table book so I decided to create my own. Before doing so I did some research to see which company best suited my project. In the end I ended up going with MyPublisher.com and was very happy with the results.Below is a brief summary of what I found while doing my research.

MyPublisher.com – This site requires that you download bookmaking software on to your computer. I would highly recommend this over all the other sites if you have a slow Internet connection speed. You can work on your book right on your computer without having to be connected to the Internet and then upload it at the end. I have a high speed Internet connection and actually still prefered this method. I find some of the other sites a little slow when trying to work with the pages. The one drawback that I found from this site is the limited number of templates from which to choose. The ease of use, the quality of the book and the costs (they have a buy one get one free deal for all first time buyers) really outweighed the limited number of choices in templates. If you are really good in Photoshop you can create your own page layouts and not be limited by the templates at all. I created a 40 page book with a jacket cover and paid $53.00 but I also got a second book for free. Typical price is $29.80 for the first 20 pages and then $1 for each additional page. Jacket covers usually cost $4.95 extra. MyPublisher.com only works with creating photo books, unlike many of the other companies that are listed below. For a more detailed review of MyPublisher.com visit http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2175090,00.asp

PhotoWorks.com – When creating a book using this site you need to do all of your work online. With a slow Internet connection this can be very time consuming. However if you have a fast, reliable connection the online version may be perfect for you. Unlike MyPublisher.com, PhotoWorks has many more templates from which to choose. I am currently using PhotoWorks to create a book for Christmas. Since I haven’t printed it yet I cannot comment on the quality of the book in comparison to MyPublisher. The cost of creating a book in Photoworks is $39.95 for a 20 page book with a jacket included. Each additional page is $1.

Some other companies that offer photo book printing are:Kodak, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and SharedInk.com. You may want to read the following reviews to learn more about the different programs before deciding which one is right for you.

http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0405/mh0405-1.html

http://www.slate.com/id/2143039/

If you are already using one of these companies to develop your photos you may want to consider using them for your photo book. Having your pictures already stored with the company makes it much easier to begin creating your book. I would recommend playing around with each of the ones suggested in this column and learn which one has the template, layout, and options for your particular project. Cost may also help you make your decision, although keep in mind you get what you pay for.

If you decide to go with any of these options we would love to hear about your experience to share it with our readers. Good luck with your creation!

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Editor

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 8:54 pm and is filed under Q&A Ask the Experts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.