Printing books?

mom2triplets04

mom2triplets04

Well-known member
I tried searching. It's been a long time since I have had books printed. What companies are the best to do this at?

In the past I have done 8 x 8 books. I can't remember which companies I used.

How many pages do you put in the book?

Would you print now? or wait till the end of the year? My harddrive is filling up and I have come to the point where I need to print.

Also I've been saving at 12 x 12 size. Am I supposed to size down to 8 x 8 now or can I upload the 12 x 12 size? I scrap a lot. Probably have been averaging 30 pages a month or so. Yes, I do still do project life a photo a day.

Any advice would be highly appreciated.
 
I use Shutterfly and have really liked them. I generally wait for free extra pages and 40% off and it makes a book with around 90 pages $20-$25 for an 8x8
 
mom2triplets04 said:
Are you storing the finished pages at 12 x 12? Do you need to save at 8 x 8 too to print at 8 x 8?
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No. You can upload the 12x12 and print 8x8. If you can afford the upgrade, I prefer 10x10. It's still smaller and less cumbersome than 12x12, but the photos and journaling are larger.

If you have a printer, I recommend printing a page at 8x8 so you can see how the font looks. What looks nice on screen, is sometimes really small in print depending on your workspace. You don't want to reprint a book because of that!


Also, with Shutterfly I pick their layout that has the white frame around it. That gives me automatic bleed room. I don't worry about bleed when creating, but I've had things too close to the gutter before!
 
I print pages at Scrapbooks to share and store them in book with the slip in pages. That way I can add to them later if I wish.
 
I use Shutterfly, as well. At the end of each year, I print ONE 12x12 album for the year, picking my favorite 110 layouts (that's how many pages you can fit in one 12x12 book).

However, I love making smaller books (8x8 or 10x10) for gifts. So when my nephews came to camp with me this year, I made each of them a book of that event. Or when my nephew and his girlfriend asked me to do their maternity shots, they got a small book of those photos.

I've learned to make the book, add it to my cart, and then wait. Most times, Shutterfly will send a 40% coupon to "finish your purchase." Or, in the case where I've added a ton of pages, I wait for the free extra pages sale. Most of the best sales come around every few weeks, so I don't usually have to wait too long. And it saves a ton of money. :)
 
One more thing... Shutterfly has a customer satisfaction guarantee. I had to reprint a 12x12 album because I has misspelled the cover title. They let me send the misspelled book back and gave me credit to fix the typo and reorder.

They also have feature upgrades on printing quality and a "lay flat" book option if you have a lot of double-page spreads. I've upgraded once to see if I liked the higher-quality better, but honestly, I'm happy with the standard options for the way I print my books. :)
 
I'm actually looking for a place other than Shutterfly. I just printed an 8x8 book. I made a 1/4" white border around every layout, as I couldn't find a "layout" with a white border. I figured that would take care of the bleed. The book came back with at least 3/8" in the gutter, and the printing was awful. All the pages were dark. Some pages had 1/4" on the top and bottom, but others had 3/8" and 1/8" or vice versa. The sides opposite the gutter showed the white border between 1/4" and 1/8". I need to complain, which I have done before, and they sent me the book with the same things wrong with it. They used to make nice books years ago.
 
I have used other services in the past, but it seems like Shutterfly is the best option now, with several other 'good' companies going away. I do like photobooks from Costoco's photo department, but they do not allow as many pages.

I have found that the quality of printing varies from order to order at Shutterfly. I recently had five copies printed of a large book I created for my children. They were sent in two packages - one package with one book, the other four books in another package.

I eagerly opened the one-book package, and was delighted that the print quality was amazing! After 'opening' the pages all the way through, I decided to open the other package, just to check the quality on them. The box was really beat up. I slipped the plastic off of one of the books, opened it up - perfect! Then I noticed - all four books had a majorly crumpled up corner - really bad. So, I called. They printed four more books, and sent replacements. (Again, one in a package by itself, three in another package. I wonder why???)
When I checked out those books, the covers were in perfect condition! However. The print quality on those books tends toward the dark & 'muddy' that I have seen before.

Maybe I'm just 'picky'....

...and Shutterfly still seems like my best option.
 
With as much work as we do to create these pages, we have every right to be picky! Ha!

anitab said:
I have used other services in the past, but it seems like Shutterfly is the best option now, with several other 'good' companies going away. I do like photobooks from Costoco's photo department, but they do not allow as many pages.

I have found that the quality of printing varies from order to order at Shutterfly. I recently had five copies printed of a large book I created for my children. They were sent in two packages - one package with one book, the other four books in another package.

I eagerly opened the one-book package, and was delighted that the print quality was amazing! After 'opening' the pages all the way through, I decided to open the other package, just to check the quality on them. The box was really beat up. I slipped the plastic off of one of the books, opened it up - perfect! Then I noticed - all four books had a majorly crumpled up corner - really bad. So, I called. They printed four more books, and sent replacements. (Again, one in a package by itself, three in another package. I wonder why???)
When I checked out those books, the covers were in perfect condition! However. The print quality on those books tends toward the dark & 'muddy' that I have seen before.

Maybe I'm just 'picky'....

...and Shutterfly still seems like my best option.
Click to expand...
 
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