Kristina

I made a book for my mother as a gift for her birthday about our trip to Thailand and Cambodia last year from the web site www.blurb.com. Has anyone else used this web site?

I got the book last week and I'm thrilled with the results.
I gave it to my Mom tonight and she was truly impressed with the quality; high praise from someone who has worked in publishing her whole life.

I wanted to share this because I thought some of you might be interested in making books as keepsakes. You can even make coffee-table sized books of your favorite photos.
I found the software very easy to use and versatile. Of course, I learned a lot in the process and I think my second book (about Rome), will be even better.

I opted for a hard cover book with dust jacket and premium paper (worth it!). It was 80 pages and cost about $40 which is not bad for print-on-demand. I think it looks very professional. It took about 10 days to get the book after I uploaded it.

If you want to see an example of my book, you can see the first 15 pages here:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/466784

And no, I'm not advertising for this company or for myself. ;-) While you can buy my book from that link above, I don't know why anyone would want to. But I had to make it available for purchase in order to have a link to share.

If anyone is interested in making a book, I can share some tips I learned in the process.

rhkkmk

wow that is a good buy....i have been doing 20 page books from shutterfly for a couple of years...they make great gifts and coffee table books....20 pages is about $30....plain covers or leather covers are among the choices, but they are all hard covers...easy to do once you get the hang of it....printed in just a few days and in your mailbox....they also mail over seas for you....

along the same line do fodorites know of amazing mail....they do postcards you submit pictures from over the internet and mail them for you from the usa....take a look at their site....

there are many book companies...

dogster

I think it looks great. I didn't know you could do such a thing. I'm planning the limited print run of the Dogster Chronicles right now.

I think about three copies should suffice.

Kathie

Apple also does these kinds of books and the price is about the same. They really look great.

Kristina

Dogster, the difference is, I think you could actually <i>sell</i> yours. I'd buy a copy. They do text books as well you know.

Bob and Kathie yes, I've looked at other companies. For some reason I was just really impressed with Blurb so I went with them.

I have to say, it's incredibly time consuming. But most of that is because I'm an obsessive perfectionist. It would be really easy to throw together one of these books if you were willing to have all the photos the same size and no text. But where's the fun in that?

ms_go

Thanks for the link.

I just got done making a book for my mother of our family trip to Italy this past summer. I did it through Webshots, and it was a vastly improved product/process from the one I used last year. The book just arrived yesterday and I was really happy with it. I did a hardcover book in a size/format similar to yours. The interface looks like it may be similar, and it has that same Java preview that flips through the pages. But Blurb looks like it has a lot more alternatives for sizes and layouts.

I still need to make a book from our trip to Australia a year and a half ago and may give this a try. It's fun, but you're right--very time consuming!

hawaiiantraveler

It is a great idea, thanks for sharing.

If anyone is interested the shutterfly site that rhkkmk mentions is having a 20% off sale of their photo books till Dec 29th

Aloha!

Kristina

For those of you who have used other companies, do you create the book online or download software?

One of the things I like about Blurb is that you work on the book on your computer and then upload it when you are finished. It seems faster that way. Also, the software automatically saves everything you do all the time, so no lost work.

ms_go

I've only done a couple of them through Webshots, and you do the work online. But, I already had the photos loaded there in either public or private albums. For the most recent book project, I was able to save it as I went along and come back to it later, so no lost work. I do like the ability to work off line, though. I'm going to look at Blurb whenever I have time to start another project.

Kristina

BTW, Blurb allows you to get photos not only off your computer, but from Picassa web albums, Flickr, Smugmug, and Photo bucket. You can also download a blog directly into a book format.

For me, it's easy because all my photos are on my computer and I like the option to work on some of them a bit in Photo Shop first.

Bella_Bluebell

For anyone in the UK, we have made books on a number of UK based sites and the best quality is from Bobs Books. Like Blurb, you download software and upload it before sending it to print.
Kristina - your book looks lovely
BB

absolutkz

Kristina- Your book looks great. I like that you can add text, and the idea of one bigger picture, and a lot of small ones on the same subject.

You said you learned a lot - what would you different next time? I like hearing this program is easy.

Elainee

Did mine on MyPublisher.com. These books are great from any of the sources.

Kristina

Hmmm..what did I learn?
Well, a bunch of little details which apply only to this particular program I assume.
First and foremost use the highest resolution photos possible. The program will automatically size them down if needed.
Second, read the forums on their website for tips. I learned a lot there reading about other people's complaints.
Make sure anything important in the photo is at least 1/8 inch from the edge of the page.
Photos may print darker than you expect, so err on the side of lightness if you are doing any adjustments in a program like photoshop first.
There are some other little text formatting things I can mention, but they will only make sense if you start using the program.

Nywoman

That looks like a great book, and of course your photographs are stunning.

kellyee21

Very nice book Kristina. I had made 2 from my trip to India using Kodak gallery and i was pretty happy. I have been wanting to try a different one to compare and I think I will be using Blurb now.

quimbymoy

great book, kristina! bet your mom was thrilled with her book. i also have made blurb books for my trips to the galapagos and paris and found them to be a good value. i also make books thru apple because i think their templates are more user friendly.

Mango7

Dogster- Make sure you include a thorough review of the bar scene there, lol.

Kristina

quimbymoy- how do the apple and blurb books compare in terms of cost? Quality? Did you make the same size/kind of book in both?

Have you used Blurb's premium paper? I thought was very good.

quimbymoy

hi kristina, i think blurb is less expensive only if you are doing a book more than 20 or 30 pages. my galapagos book was 130 pages (!!) and cost about $90 shipped. i think apple charges $1 per page after 20 and if i calculated it correctly, it would have cost about $150 shipped from apple.

i did use the premium paper from blurb for the paris trip. i thought it was nice. quality wise it's about the same. dark pictures tend to get a little muddy IMO. apple's interface with their templates are superior to blurb's. with blurb, you cannot change a template... if it's a portrait template you can't turn it into a horizontal template, whereas you can with apple's. and both work thru iphoto which is a great feature.