Having trip report and images bound like a book
 

I know many of you have lots of images stored online, as I do. I took a trip report I had written in MS Word and added the appropriate images to the document as it occurred in my trip report. So now I have this very large Word document that I would love to get printed and bound like a book. I know that many online image storage websites will print your images in book form, but only the images and maybe a title under them, not lots of text. I have no idea how to get a large document of text mixed with images printed and bound.

Has anyone else researched this? I would love to do this for all my trips.

Your local university probably has a duplicating service which binds theses. These are bound like regular hard-cover books with imprinted titles and look quite nice. It's not very expensive (e.g. about $40 at my university).

Good luck!

Actually I do this. I do it myself, which is a lot of work (but I love it) and costs quite a bit but I rationalize that someday when I'm an old lady I'll be able to sit in my rocking chair and re-live all my trips. My documents are pretty large - some are a hundred pages or more of photos and text. I wasn't able to find anyplace that would do that large a document, and certainly none that would do it the way I wanted it to look. I print on double sided matt photo paper - so the images are not as good as those printed on high quality glossy, but better than those printed on regular paper. Places like Staples and copy centers can then bind it (spiral or other types of binding).

I'll be interested to see what other people come up with as ideas - assuming anyone besides you and me do this.

I went to Kinkos and they will sell me the nicer paper and bind it with a ring binder but it looked really cheap..like something you would hand out at a business meeting. I was looking for something more like book binding but I may be asking for something that ultimately I cannot afford. My document right now is over 50 pages and I am not quite halfway through.

I'm up for any ideas..

I would think you could at least get it spiral bound (done by a machine)which I think would look better than the rings but don't know how much more it would cost.

Have you tried an online photo service like snapfish?

I used this site to make my own wedding album http://www.mypublisher.com/default.php

It turned out fantastic, I was really pleased. It had enough room to write out our vows on one page...and trust me, they were long!

Hope this helps!
Jamie

I just saw this company featured on my local news cast (KCRA Sacramento) and the finished product looked very nice! You download a formatting software & then they print the book on archival material with a real bindery cover. http://www.blurb.com/

Also much more image-friendly than the old "vanity press" books I'd seen.

I'm using blurb's BookSmart right now trying to create a heavily photgraphed version of my trip report from last year. My only concerns at this point are: (1) the quality of the reproduced photograph and (2) the extent to which I can manipulate the software to put text where I want text and photos where I want photos. I produced a trip report fromn our Med cruise last summer using iPhoto and "published" by Apple, and the quality of the photographs was excellent but there were severe constraints on the use of text. The cost was about $35/copy for 3 copies (Xmas presents for fellow travelers) at 100 pages - not unreasonable I think.

Does anybody have experience with blurb's BookSmart? If not, I'll be a guinea pig and let folks know.

KC

knoxvillecouple - I wondered the same thing when the newscasters held up two different books... one with glossy photo pages & one with a more-matte page with text & picture(s).

I was hoping to scan little bits, like matchbook covers, menu's & receipts, and insert'em with photo's & text (ala Nick Bantock's Griffin & Sabine books).

thanks for going there first! and be sure to share your thoughts about the end result.

last year I used QOOP to do a trip book of images. It was bound and it turned out great. It cost 24.99

I've used My Publisher for 6 or so trip albums and a few family albums. It's wonderful and they keep adding new features all the time (recently the ability to have even more text). However, I will say that the software is not at all intuitive to learn. But once you do the results are excellent.

amyb -

Does MyPublisher allow you to use and format much text? I want to be able to put photos with my trip report, not simply have lots of pictures with captions.

Thanks,

KC

That's what I'm looking for as well...lots of room for text.

I just downloaded the new mypublisher software last night and under the deluxe covers there is an option for "storyteller" style book and there is room for a lot of text.

In my recent post (Trip report part 1 - Paris, Loire, Burgundy) I described how I used the photo book service of shutterfly.com to make an album with photos and narrative. It was quite easy and the resulting leather bound album was very nice looking. The only drawback is that you are somewhat limited on the amount of narrative that can be included.

The post said, in part:

" I have posted an album of our photos on Shutterfly.com, but you will have to send me your e-mail address so that I can e-mail you with an “invitation” to view it. The invitation will contain the URL. Send your e-mail address to [email protected], and please be patient if I do not get back to you immediately. This album is what Shutterfly calls a photo book and it contains captions and narratives laid out in book form. This is a great idea for you digital photo buffs who like to share your travel photos but aren’t especially wild about a collection of loose prints. I also was able to share this album with family far away. Sharing is free. After I laid out the photos (everything is online at shutterfly, you upload your jpg files, and position them on the pages) and typed in the captions and narrative, I was able to pick out a page background, a cover, and details like font styles, photo edge styles, etc. I choose a black leather cover and had it printed. I received the bound book within 3 days of submitting my order. Many other online photo services offer the same or similar products."

drbb, thanks for the information, I will check them out. One suggestion though, I use imagestation.com and often want to "invite" people to my albums. You can send the invitation to yourself, and once you open the invitation you will see a URL embedded in it. You can the post the URL directly on this site without you having to send invitations to everyone individually. Did that make sense?

Knoxville, My Publisher has recently expanded the text capability so now you can do things like recipe books, story books, etc. I've seen samples with whole pages of text, so I think that's much more robust than it was originally.

I love MyPublisher... when I want to use lots of text, I cut and paste the text into Adobe Photoshop (you can do this any almost any photo editor) and then save it as a jpg. I then just put it into mypublisher as I would any other photo. It works great for putting your itinerary or a table of contents into the book.

Wow, I never thought of that before. I was just thinking, when I had the time, I'd put together a scrap book as my friend from NC has always encouraged me to do. Especially since I take zillions of pictures thanks to my digital camera.

I hope to be taking up this new hobby soon. The scrapbooking, not the picture taking.

OK, so once you put it all together in My Publisher, who prints it out and binds it?

never mind my last question..I just found the website.

Bookmarking

I'm so excited..I'm in the middle of building my book in MyPublisher. So far, so good.

I cannot thank you all enough.

Here is web site I found that might be the answer for binding your book. http://www.lulu.com/author/create.php

For any MacIntosh users bad news. MyPublisher only provides a plug-in that allows you to print your iPhoto file with MyPublisher. And iPhoto has severe limitations regarding the use of text in an iPhoto book. I'm trying to find work-arounds with iPhoto about text limitations, but no luck so far.

KC

I've completed my trip report with photos on Lulu and have ordered a copy. As I noted previously, I'm afraid that the print quality will not be very good with respect to the photos - due more to the quality of the paper than the print resolution itself. But I'll let people know after I get my copy and take a look at it.

KC

sandi-travelnut--

Thanks for the URL suggestion - I don't know why I didn't think of that!

If you'd like a look at a shutterfly photobook check out
http://www.shutterfly.com/action/sha...C/project/view

As I mentioned before there are limits on the space for narrative, but as I keep a separate travel journal that I write in daily on my trip, this was not a concern for me.

I'm experiencing some problems with MyPublisher because of the amount of text I have. I may have to keep looking.

drbb, I love your book, it's beautiful and very artistic. I will definitely have to try that for image only books.

Sandi, did you select the storyteller option? It has lots of text options...

knoxvillecouple - I have a question about Lulu. Did you use the photobook option or just upload it to lulu as a pdf from MS Word? Just wondering what worked best for you?

I did select storyteller but I don't think I know exactly what I'm doing on there yet. Unfortunately they don't have a customer service number where I can call them and ask. You have to email each question and it can take a couple of hours to get a response. I will keep trying.

Sandi - I saved a MSWord file as a pdf file and uploaded that to LULU - I should know in a week or so if the quality of the photos is good enough.

KC

P.S. Now I'm having problems with BookSmart/blurb - they have a "new and improved" version out (1.5.1 I think) that they promised wouldn't mess up an existing file - whadda' you know - it did. Oh well.

Fwiw, not so much for the original poster as for general interest, I made a photobook on Shutterfly using our Scotland pictures, and was happy with the result. It was easy to use and the picture quality was good. I am using it now to make a couple of books for my sons (8 and 2). But I don't think I'm using as much text as the original poster, and Shutterfly would be extremely expensive for a 100-page book. The suggestion about a university duplicating service is a good one, or even a small printer. I'm surprised Kinko's only offered you ring binding. Their website offers book-style binding as well:
http://www.fedex.com/us/officeprint/...ice.pdf?link=4

This is "paperback" style binding, not the same as a Shutterfly (or other company's) book that really does have a hard cover.

One thing to think about with the book-style binding is that you can't leave the book open. One of my cousins made a spectacular album of photos and comments from a trip out west that was bound with a spiral binder. It might have looked a bit more "elegant" with book-style binding, but it was easier to handle with the spiral binding.

drbb - how much did a book of that size cost. Very nice!

Thanks sandi and bigtyke for the compliments.

I purchased an annual plan ($29.99) from Shutterfly which gave me a reduced rate on prints, a discount on other purchases and a free 20 page photobook. Of course I had to pay for the 80 extra pages and I chose the leather cover option which was an additional charge, so I ended up paying about $70 with shipping. It was not cheap but I wanted a really nice memento that I could share with friends and family. Like Barbara_in_FL, I was very happy with the result. The picture quality was good and the font/color options as well as the leather hardbook cover made it seem more like a professional effort. I would definitely do this for my next trip.

For those of you still interested in publishing your own travel book ---

I just got my book from Lulu. The quality of the photos is better than I expected, the binding is great, and I wish I'd paid more attention to typos and to mistakes in some of my photo captions.

You can see a preview of the book at: http://www.lulu.com/content/493855

The preview includes the first 8 pages or so and a few pages toward the back. Scroll far enough and you can see some of the photos and captions.

If you have any questions feel free to post them here. Since I'm leaving for Napa Valley tomorrow for 5 days it will be a while before I can get back to you.

KC

P.S. I've given up on BookSmart/blurb - the software was just too complex, particularly for a MacIntosh user. Lulu was very easy, since you can send the entire completed file as a pdf for publication - my file was about 290 megs!

When I want to build a book for posterity, I use my <b>comb binding</b> (google it) machine. I build the &quot;sandwich&quot; like this:

Clear plastic sheet
Front cover (usually 60# ledger)
Contents
Back cover

By varying the weight of the covers, you can publish anything from a brochure to a book. This process has the added advantage of being capable of modification (adding/modifying/deleting single pages) any time down the road.

If you don't have access to a machine at home or work, then a bindery like Kinko's will probably let you use theirs.

Thanks for the info Robespierre. Some of the earlier posters had indicated an interest in hardcover/perfect binding with &quot;glossy&quot; pages - to be more book-like.

The cost for my Lulu book was about $35.

KC