[UrbanT]

Just thought I would post a quick message regarding Photobooks from Photobox. I did a quick search and couldn't find this discussed anywhere.

I normally use Photobox to print my pictures, and needed to order a load following a holiday to Florida. I noticed they are offering 'Photobooks', and was so intrigued that I ordered one.

I have to be honest and say they really are superb. You simply choose the layout for each page, and drag your pictures into the spaces. You can add brief text to each picture if required.

The book I ordered contained 80 odd pages and cost around £23. But the quality is excellent. The book is hardbacked, and the quality of printing is far better IMO than the same photo's they printed as normal.

The people I have shown it to are all very impressed, and are much more interested than looking at the standard 'sleeve' type album where you have to keep tilting to look at the vertical pictures.

Thought this may help anyone considering ordering one but not sure what they would get

[richard plumb]

cheers. I had considered a photobook from someone. I like the idea of having separate mini albums for big trips we do, rather than having to thumb through huge volumes just to find what you want.

Does it come with client software, or do you do it all over the web? I think it'd take ages to lay one out nicely with text, and I'd be concerned about losing my work if doing it over the web.


On a slight tangent, I had some posters back from them yesterday - trying out their offer. They look stunning, even at 20"x30"! It really is amazing how big you can blow up modern digicam pics

[lmccauley]

Originally Posted by richard plumb

cheers. I had considered a photobook from someone. I like the idea of having separate mini albums for big trips we do, rather than having to thumb through huge volumes just to find what you want.

Does it come with client software, or do you do it all over the web? I think it'd take ages to lay one out nicely with text, and I'd be concerned about losing my work if doing it over the web.


On a slight tangent, I had some posters back from them yesterday - trying out their offer. They look stunning, even at 20"x30"! It really is amazing how big you can blow up modern digicam pics

You do them over the web - it takes all you photos from an album and lays them out in what seem to be random page configurations. You can pick from about 20 different configurations for a page. Have to admit, I'd prefer a client so that I could spend quite a bit of time doing the layout.

Cheers,
Liam

[hutters]

I did one for my wife for mother's day, mainly of pics of our newborn son. Every one that sees it thinks it is great. I know a few of the mum's have done one for their husbands for fathers day

It's actually quick and easy to do if you have the photo's uploaded to Photobox, and you can save as you go along. You can keep it saved aswell so if you want reprints in the future you can easily.

[UrbanT]

Its pretty simple. You select the layout for each page, depending on the photo's you want to show. Just drag the photo's (from a slideshow of available pictures that you've uploaded) into the template. Type your brief text in the box, and you're done. Its very fast. You can save your work as you go, and it only took me an hour to complete 26 pages.

Even if you don't buy the album, you can still upload some photo's and try it for free.

Certainly something I'll be doing again in the future.

[tomson]

Just what i'm looking for.
I've got to get a couple of coffee table type books printed for a wedding later this summer so need to start looking into these. Think I might get one printed as a test.

Apple do one too which looks nice (see http://www.stylemac.com/unpacking-an-iphoto-photo-book )

Is there any branding on the photobox ones?

[UrbanT]

Originally Posted by tomson

Is there any branding on the photobox ones?

Only in tiny lettering on the last page

[lmccauley]

Originally Posted by hutters

you can save as you go along

Aha, I didn't notice that when I had a quick play - thanks. Sounds really good.

Cheers,
Liam

[monkeyleader]

Yer saw a review of some of these in this months Digital Photographer - photobox came out top .. don't suppose you could take a few snaps to show the layout, cover etc ?

[PmSonic]

Originally Posted by monkeyleader

Yer saw a review of some of these in this months Digital Photographer - photobox came out top .. don't suppose you could take a few snaps to show the layout, cover etc ?

Would be great if you could.

[UrbanT]

I'll take some this evening when I get in

[UrbanT]

These don't really do the book justice, but hope they help

[monkeyleader]

Wow that looks cool - might have to invest in one next time I get a bunch of pictures cheers for the snaps !

[richard plumb]

Thanks for the pics - looks fantastic, I'll definitely have to try one out.

[UrbanT]

[wabbitt]

Do you have to use their web software, or could I create my own pages in Photoshop and send those in?

To give you an idea this is a storybook I did for a couple last year (well in digital form anyway!), and it cost me £120 to get a simple 25 page storybook made up.

http://www.enigmaphotos.com/story1/template.htm

As you can see, I didn't just go for simple straight photo's on a blank white background. Sometimes I want lots of background images, sometimes just nice faded out backgrounds. Not all of the photo's are placed parallel to the page edge, etc.

Anyway... just wondering if anyone knew?

[UrbanT]

You have to use their software. The service looks like its very much aimed at the consumer rather than the professional. They do offer different styles of book though, so for a wedding you can opt for the formal style.

Love your book BTW, looks excellent

[wabbitt]

Ah, that's a pity. I just checked out Photobox, as a result of this thread, and it seems that it is a little restrictive for pro use.

Guess I'll have to stick my mega-expensive ones for the moment. These would have been great to fit into a 'budget' category for the less wealthy folk!!!

Thanks for the thumbs up on the album

It took about 15 hours to get all the pages made up. Ouch. Luckily I only do a couple of these a year.

[hutters]

I'm sure that there's nothing to stop you creating the pages in Photoshop, uploading them to Photobox and then creating the album using full pages only for each page. That way you get your designed pages produced by Photobox.

[wabbitt]

Certainly worth a go... at just over £20 a go, nothing to lose really!

[PmSonic]

Thanks,

I'll be getting some pictures together and giving it a go.

[richard plumb]

wabbit, thats a beautiful album. Worth contacting photobox and seeing if they'll accept fullscreen images.

There are other services that can have one photo per page, and use PC clients to author it. Although I don't know if they do full bleed photos which you'd need for stuff like that.

[wabbitt]

Thanks Richard ,

Well I'm going to download the software tonight and have a go at putting one together.

I have a potential wedding coming up where all they want is a storybook, and as you've probably guessed, they are wanting a budget option!!!

I think I will print this storybook again to see how it looks with this Photobox option. I can use it as a sample of a lower cost storybook.

I actually like how it describes that the pages lie flat.

The storybooks I've done before are stich bound, and the pages don't lie very flat, and to be honest spoils the viewing experience quite a bit.

Really like the look of that book I might get one done of my birthday pics.

Out of interest, what is the quality like of the photo's they print?

I'm thinking of taking them up on their offer of 250 prints at 5p each, that's a bargain!

Also how quick do you usually get them? cheers!

[hutters]

Originally Posted by Adam65

Really like the look of that book I might get one done of my birthday pics.

Out of interest, what is the quality like of the photo's they print?

I'm thinking of taking them up on their offer of 250 prints at 5p each, that's a bargain!

Also how quick do you usually get them? cheers!

Photo quality of the prints we have had done are good. Turnaround time is second to none - we've uploaded pics at 2/3pm and they've arrived next day!

[richard plumb]

wabbit,

you seen this?

http://www.photographyblog.com/index...obook_creator/

binder that lets you create your own hardback photobooks. Maybe worth it if you do some professionally?

[tomson]

Originally Posted by wabbitt

As you can see, I didn't just go for simple straight photo's on a blank white background. Sometimes I want lots of background images, sometimes just nice faded out backgrounds. Not all of the photo's are placed parallel to the page edge, etc.

Dunno if you use a mac, but if so, the iphoto books allow you to do pretty much what you want. You can make up each spread in photoshop and upload them into the page templates. I've got a few mocked up but am yet to send anything off to print.

There are a couple of example books here:
http://www.3dstuff.co.uk/everything/...ed%20book.html
http://www.futurosity.com/29/iphoto-books

[wabbitt]

Originally Posted by richard plumb

binder that lets you create your own hardback photobooks. Maybe worth it if you do some professionally?

It certainly looks like it may do the job, and it's fairly cheap. I think I'll try photobox first and see how they do. Thanks for the tip though.

Originally Posted by tomson

Dunno if you use a mac, but if so, the iphoto books allow you to do pretty much what you want.

Nope... unforunately I'm not on the Mac, but the books certainy do look good.

I think I'll try and put the merge each full page Photoshop file to one high quality JPEG, and try and arrange each onto a full page.

My only reall worry is where I've done a full page spread for a photograph, is that the two pages bleed across nicely and aren't disjointed.

[richard plumb]

from photobox:

Each page is on US letter size paper (roughly 8.5"x11").


If you are planning to size your images specifically for a book then you should note that we print at 300 dpi. So a full page (edge-to-edge) image would need to be roughly 3366 x 2646 pixels, but we get excellent results from much small images. 1800x1200 will still be fine for all images within the book.

For the technically minded, as with all other PhotoBox products images must be uploaded as JPEGs in RGB colourspace. Please note we don't support profiles for photo book images at this time.

Also, you should note that if you intend to use the full page layout, the pages are printed with a 'bleed' of approximately 3mm, so you should take this into account when creating your images.

What type of paper is used?

We are using highest quality 170gsm Allegro paper. This has a silk finish (not as high gloss as a conventional photograph).

How many images on each page?

You can choose to show one to four images per page from a number of different layouts, or have pages that contain only text. The front page just has one image which shows through the rectangular hole in the hard cover.

How are the pages bound into the book?

It is a "perfect bind" - adhesive injected into microscopic holes in the edge of the paper, bound to a spine and then attached to the book covers using adhesive endleaves. This creates a very robust bind and allows the book to be opened nearly flat (unlike a stitch bind).

Can I print to the edge of the page and on both sides?

Yes, all of our themes feature a full page (edge-to-edge) layout. You can choose to change any of the page layouts (except the front page) by clicking the page layout button underneath each page. All sheets of the book are printed on both sides.

so looks like you can do full page images and if you compensate for the 3mm bleed, you should get a good blend across the page

[wabbitt]

Looks good Richard to be honest.

The only problem I've had in the past is when I've tried to be clever, and have two consecutive pages with full page spreads. The inital two page spread matched up great, but when you flipped to the next spread it mustn't have been easy to get the second print (on the other side of the page) to be in the correct spot. Then the spread was offset!!!

However, I'm going to give it a go next week anyway and see what comes back. It'll be interesting.

I'll try and get some images of the final book.

Cheers,
Dean