Printed Photo Book Reviews – Part 4 (including wrap-up)

If you’re just joining this review, so far, I have covered my book-testing plan, reviewed two photo books from ArtsCow, and reviewed my Blurb and Shutterfly purchases.  This post will cover the last two books, from Mixbook and MyPublisher as well as a few final thoughts.

Mixbook

Mixbook was one company about which I could not find many reviews.  I discovered it on one site that listed many, many photo book companies and clicked over to see what it was about.  After looking over their site (and noting their 399-page limit), I wanted to give them a try.

Their book-building software is web-based.  Simply select which book size you want (in this case – 8.5 x 8.5 inches) and then (similar to Shutterfly), which style you would like.  I selected Blank Canvas to get my book as blank as possible to start.  Before continuing, I unselected the “Give me a book that is almost complete” checkbox, as I assumed it would either try to place my photos or give me pre-designed pages (but I’m sure this feature will be useful for someone else). 

I struggled to figure out how to get my pictures full-page in this software.  In fact, I just went back in to walk through my steps and spent another 15 minutes trying to figure it out again (including web searches).  There is an option to upload photos as a background which will work, but I knew that wasn’t what I did when I built the book.  (There is no full-page photo option in their layouts without a text box.)  Finally, I rediscovered it.  On their toolbar is a button that looks like “full-screen” that will stretch the photo to a full page.  Easy.  After the initial discover, anyway!

So, once that is determined, I’d say the software is very easy to use.  BUT the layouts aren’t very customizable, if you’re looking for that.  Then again, they do allow you to resize everything on the screen – just not change the layout starting point (so you’d have to do the same thing on every page, if that’s what you wanted).

I ordered this book on Saturday 5/19 and received it on Tuesday 5/29.  The box was very protective of the book.

Final page:

Back cover:

Spine (sorry it’s blurry):

Front cover:

End sheet:

Along with Shutterfly, this book was of the best print quality of the bunch.  Not too dark, not too light, and good colors.  I think the size of the book helped, too – the pictures were just a little bigger than the other books, and I preferred the way they looked.

Result:  I would definitely use Mixbook again for a family photo book.  I’m very happy with it.  I don’t think I’d use it for a kids’ album (for them to drag around), just because I’m happy with the cheaper options for them.

MyPublisher

I originally decided not to consider MyPublisher – even though they came highly recommended – just because they don’t offer a square book format.  And they only offer landscapes, which wouldn’t be my choice in a non-square.  But, after receiving a free book code, I decided to order one, just to add to my reviews.

Because the book was non-square (5.75 x 7.75 inches), I wasn’t able to use my existing pages that I uploaded for all the other albums.  In the last 10 years of marriage, I haven’t managed to do anything with our wedding photos, so I thought I’d put together a small wedding album for the kids to look at (and me, too!).  But, after doing 5 photo books, and just wanting to finish this, I decided not to scrap the pages myself but just to upload the photos and use their layouts/backgrounds.  (In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t done that, just for consistency.  Live and learn.)

MyPublisher’s software must be downloaded, so after installing the software, I launched it, selected Custom Publisher (more options), and selected my book size.  The next step is to select a theme (limited choices) or “Just Photos”.  Since it was a wedding album, I chose the Wedding theme.  The photo importer is one of the easiest – just select the folder on your hard drive, then drag the photos you want into the workspace.  (I don’t think there are any options beyond getting photos from your hard drive.)

Because I built this book differently, I feel much more strongly about the MyPublisher software.  I felt VERY constrained by the layouts available.  Like sometimes I wanted two vertical photos on a white page, but they only had vertical photos on a green-ish page.  Why??  Again, this is where uploading my own pre-built pages would have been a much more fair comparison.  I’m guessing using the “Just Photos” option would have made it very simple to drop in my full-page photo files.  So, to compare apples with apples, I’ll say the software is similar.

I ordered this book on Sunday 5/27 and received it Monday 6/4.

The box is nice:

Especially the inside – fun!

The book was not as securely packaged as some, but I didn’t see any problems with how it arrived.  It was wrapped in loose plastic, too.

Although, the corner was a little dented.  And, after opening just a few times for this review, there is a distinct white-ish crease down the left side of the book.  I can’t imagine it will look very good at all after being opened 100 times or so.  (None of the other books display any type of similar crease.  I did use a white cover for all of those, though and I think a crease will show much less on white – so that was a good choice.)

Last page:

Back cover:

Spine (sorry – blurry again!):

Front cover (text looked very nice – sorry it’s all whited out):

End sheets are vellum – very nice touch for a wedding album!

Random page:

I think the print quality is okay.  It’s too bad that I can’t compare the same images so I can really see if they’re darker/lighter than other books.  I think the images are pretty true to what I uploaded – maybe just a smidge dark?

Result:  While MyPublisher seems to be a decent product, I won’t be using them again without another free book coupon.  I really want square books and don’t see that these books will be a format I’ll choose.  But, based on print quality, I think they’re just fine.

Final Thoughts

I’m surprised by my major take-away from this experience.  That is that ALL of the photo books are basically fine.  If I’m ordering 12x12 photo books, I don’t think I’d mind mixing and matching brands, based on where I have a coupon.  I think they all stand up pretty well next to each other.

Here are a few photos of the same picture out of the books.

From ArtsCow regular book (very light):

From ArtsCow deluxe book (very dark):

Mixbook – middle of the road.  Although I’m surprised by how much noise I’m seeing in this photo.  Then again, it’s a little blurry, too, so maybe it was just a photography issue.  Let’s just look at the lightness/darkness of this photo, for comparison purposes.

Some of the details I noticed:
Least noise = ArtsCow Deluxe and Shutterfly
Best color = Shutterfly and Mixbook
Most noise = Blurb

Taking all of this into consideration, I think my preference will be Shutterfly or Mixbooks, based on how many pages I have (Shutterfly is limited to 100-ish) and what coupons/sales are available.  Kids’ books will definitely be from ArtsCow (inexpensive).  I would consider using them for a family album (12x12) and seeing if it comes out too light again.  If so, I’d probably stick with just using them for the kids’ pictures.  (They’re not as picky as I am.)

I hope all of this information is useful in your future photo book shopping!