Photobook recommendations - where should i get it from?

[TaraQ]

I am thinking of creating a photobook to give to relatives this xmas. Has anyone had experience of creating one? If so, what company did you use and would you recommend it? I want it to be as cheap as poss but of a good quality. I have a bonusprint code but not sure if they are the best company to use. Any advice welcome! x

[baublesandbaileys]

I used photobox and the quality was fantastic, even photos which themselves weren't very good quality snaps looked great in the book

[Themumsnot]

I've used both Photobox and Snapfish. Both are good - Photobox a little better but often more expensive. Check them both to see what offers they have on - I go back and forth between them depending on the deal I can get.

[TaraQ]

Thanks both. Will have a look for some voucher codes. x

[WhitesandsofLuskentyre]

I use photobox - not the cheapest, but they often do good offers, so I wait for those. I have just got an A4 lay-flat book back (full of landscape photography) and I agree with baubles - the quality is fantastic. Some of the photos were only taken on my mobile (not very high pixel count) and they look amazing! They have a good range of backgrounds/layouts etc.

[timeforachangebaby]

Albelli blow the socks of everyone else, my second choice is photobox, keep lookling at Groupon, they have loads of offer, Albelli have a FB offer today and I highly recommend them, they are fantastic, pay the extra for the glossy paper.

[timeforachangebaby]

albelli

DO NOT use minibox, also called Hippo, EVER, they are simply dreadful.

[Sleepingbunnies]

I get mine from truprint / snapfish. I buy one for DH every year of the DDs and him
:)

[ecuse]

I've found Lulu.com excellent. They're a self-printing company rather than a photo specialist but I found them cheaper and better than the kodaks and snapfishes of this world.

IIRC the one I did was less than £50 for about 150 A4 pages and a customised hardback cover.

I preferred the layout options too and found the interface easier to manipulate.

[bootsycollins]

Asda is brilliant, very good quality and cheap. Keep meaning to pop in myself, they do personalised wrapping paper and other cool stuff too

[WhitesandsofLuskentyre]

timeforachangebaby - I saw the offer, but I wasn't sure about their choice of backgrounds; they seemed very "busy". But maybe that was just a sample on the home page and I need to investigate further.

Also, do you know if their lay-flat books have that nice sort of matt card that photobox do? I don't just want lay-flat binding, I want thick cardboard pages (like a professional wedding album for example). I am so pleased with photobox's one.

[timeforachangebaby]

I don't know the answers to your questions - re backgrounds I always use either plain or my own photos made opaque (circ 30% transparency).

I will say albelli are highly regarded on photography forums I use - I do a 100 page photobook every 6 months, plus one for every family holiday/very special occasion record family life - and if I could afford it they would all be Albelli.
Photobox are who I mainly use because they have so many groupon deals - but Albelli quality far exceeds anyone else I've used (they are mote expensive though).

[timeforachangebaby]

The other thing I like about Albelli is the software is downloaded.

[WhitesandsofLuskentyre]

Ah, sod it, I've got so many photos, I'll give them a whirl and see what I think!

[WhitesandsofLuskentyre]

Noooo!!!! I've downloaded the software and I love it. I'm going to lose hours/days of my life now.

I've sorted out the background thing, it's fine - and better than photobox because I can choose exactly my own shade. And being able to use all my fonts from Word is a huge bonus, too.

The only thing I can't quite work out is where to get the frames from. I usually faff about framing my photos in other software and then downloading them as jpgs in photobox. But I don't seem to have any pre-loaded options.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll work it all out.

[timeforachangebaby]

There are frames - lots of them - using a part of your own photo is nice (as background), look at their sample wedding one

[frederi]

if you want to make your own photobook at home for free and print at your printing machine you can try www.free-photobook.com/en/home.html