I have finished my trip report/trip picture book in Lulu. I estimate it will cost approximately $80.00 since it's about 85 pages long. Some pages are just text, some just images and the rest are a mixture. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy to navigate. The only unfortunte thing is that some of my images are not of the highest quality. I justify that by the fact that if they aren't printed somewhere, they'll be forgotten, so I'm going for it.

duh, sorry, I used Mypublisher.com and not Lulu.

I have also used MyPublisher.com and have wonderful results with the quality of the photos.

My first book had scanned photos and they were of very good quality and my second book which was alot easier was using my digital camera and used their new features with lots of text.

I had whole story pages that preceeded the photos and the binding was just like a book.

Unfortunately MyPublisher won't work on a MacIntosh operating system, and the plug-in they have for Mac users simply lets us publish a photo book created with Mac's iPhoto. Mac's iPhoto doesn't let you have much text at all.

Oh well. I like my Lulu book. :)

Sam

That's all that matters Sam!

I have to report back that I rec'd the book I put together from MyPublisher.com and I could not be more thrilled with it. The quality of the book, pages, binding etc were beyond what I expected. Even though my images were from a one megapixel camera, and I knew they'd be slightly pixelated on a large page, MyPublisher.com did a fantastic job making them as nice as possible. I cannot wait to get started putting together books from our previous trips. My book was 86 pages but was double-side printed and it costs a little over $100. inclu. shipping.

This will be the Christmas gift for my parents since it's from their first European trip with us during their 50th wedding anniversary.

I fanyone want to see the online version of the book, email me at [email protected] and I'll share it with you. That way you can see the different page layouts and how much text is allowed on each page etc.

Thanks Sandi - skimmed your book and it looks lovely. Also looks like you had a great time with your folks and your husband and son. BTW, we did a Med cruise last summer with daughter (college graduation present) and sister, and it was fabulous. If your parents haven't done it yet, by all means encourage them to do so - OTOH, the Med cruise is VERY port-intensive (that's good) and exhausting (not so good - LOL).

Sam

Contact any university that offers a Master's or Doctorate Program. Those students must submit theses and/or dissertations. Mine had to be bound, as you say, 'just like a book.' The university I went to gave us a list of businesses in the community that provide this service.

Sandi, what a great gift for your parents!

bookmarking

On Shutterfly, you can also use an entire page for text. I agree that they should have more options for text.

I used to scrapbook all of our trips and family pictures but now I just do them on Shutterfly. They frequently have sales on the albums - currently they are 20% off. Plus if you were ever into the actual physical scrapbooking you would agree that it is cheaper on Shutterfly than printing out your photos, buying the albums, pages, page protecters, etc. I have given Shutterfly albums as gifts and my family is really happy with them. I also scan postcards and other items and they turn out very well on the final product.

bookmarking

Just so happens that my parents will be taking a med. cruise in April. My Mom is beside herself with anticipation. After we give he the book, I am going to offer to put one together for their cruise.