Looking for advice on photo books and photo book software

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Stewart
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I'm going to turn my last 30-ish years of family photos into 30-ish photo books. I made one a few years ago with Bob Books and was very happy with the outcome; it's a 12" square lay-flat hardback book printed on semi-gloss photo paper and it looks and feels great. I'm going to adopt that style for our project.

So I guess the questions I have are:

(1) Quality. Are there any book printers who are definitely a bit better than the rest? Any that I should avoid?

(2) Software. As I'm going to be putting a lot of photos into a lot of books, it feels like the software ergonomics are going to be important. I don't need or wants lots of pre-designed templates, but I do want to be able to create and re-use page layout templates as easily and efficiently as possible. Should I be looking for offline software, or are the printers' online software tools OK? Any that stand out? Any to avoid?

(3) What else is important, that I haven't yet realised is important?

Thanks for your help.
 
IIRC Saal (German photobook company) had software you ran locally, allowing the finished design to be uploaded after assembly - much easier than creating the book online.
 
As Andrew mentioned, the Book module in Lightroom is a bit clonky but if you have LR it's very easy to do this. You could create 30 collections, then make a book from the 1st, then copy that "template" over to the rest. Obviously you might have to add or remove a few pages, but the time save would be a real boon. LR does support custom templates and has its own generic templates too. If you already have LR this will cost you nothing to try. And if you don't, you could grab the free trial and just try getting to grips with the book module in your 30 days.

The book module can also output the file as a pdf IIRC which means you can build it in LR then submit the pdf elsewhere - not just Blurb. Of course, LR is "Integrated" into Blurb which basically means you can upload to Blurb from within Lightroom. I have never tried exporting as a pdf and submitting it elsewhere btw. I generally always use Blurb because it's convenient.

Quality is subjective. I have both Photobox and Blurb books going back over 10 years and they're still looking ok. I also print my own images at home, and the quality I get from my prints far outweighs the print and paper quality from Blurb premium papers. My books aren't for quality, they're for family members who don't care that the photo was taken on an iPhone4, has poor resolution and is a bit blurred. They want the memory. If that's your feeling too, then don't get too hung up on pixel perfect quality. My top criteria for a photobook would be quality of binding/spine. In my house, the family album books get far more use than my "artistic" treatise on woodland ICM photos.

Some places will do samples for you. If you're embarking on a large (and time cosuming) prohject like this, I'd suggest looking for samples from various companies so you can compare paper & binding types. My Cewe book feels like it's going to fall apart (I think it's 13 years old though) as it opens with a huge "creak" on the spine. It hasn't fallen apart btw - it just feels like it will :)

Good luck with your project!
 
I've had books from DSCL and been happy with the quality of images and the book itself. not the cheapest, and last time I used them it was an online platform which was a little clunky

As an alternative to LR, Affinity Publisher is excellent value, intuitive, and has a 30 day trial version, well worth a look.
 
'HD' - make sure they print at higher than the standard resolution. The difference is huge.
 
.... If you already have LR this will cost you nothing to try. And if you don't, you could grab the free trial and just try getting to grips with the book module in your 30 days.
...
Re Lightroom. The book module still works after the subscription ends. It’s just the develop and map modules that stop working.
All DAM features will still work, the basic develop tools available in the library module and presets as well as the book, slideshow, print and web modules.
 
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