Shutterfly Lay Flat Photobooks

[rach3975]

Have you done a Shutterfly layflat photo book? What did you think? I'm switching to photobooks for 2016 after always printing individual pages in albums. I noticed that the layflat books will probably only be $25 more than the standard ones during the 50% off sale, and given the cost of an 80-page book (my January to June ) it seems like it would be worth the upgrade.

[joelsgirl]

So I haven't used Shutterfly's lay flat feature, BUT I wanna say that I LOVE my Adoramapix lay flat albums! SO SO much! I will never go back. And I love having my layouts in a bound book, too. I've been pocket scrapping since 2012, so I am on my sixth album (I split 2014 into two albums). By far my favorite is the one I did as a bound book.

[jak]

I've never got one but I would love too as they look great, but they're prohibitively expensive here - about $300 for 100 pages vs about $150 for the standard book. The biggest discount I've ever seen here is about 30% so its still quite pricey.

[rach3975]

At double the cost I wouldn't be doing it either! I priced Adorama because I love the couple of small vacation albums I've done with them, but it works out to about double the cost of the Shutterfly layflat.

I think I'll love having photobooks instead of bulky albums, but I'll admit to feeling a little sticker shock! I've figured it out and I'll spend a little less doing it this way, but paying for a photobook once every 6 months is a bigger number than spreading out the album, prints several times a year, and page protectors as needed over the whole year.

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[kristalund]

i print a lot of photo books from Sfly but never the lay flat. Let me know what you think if you order one!

[Suzs]

I have printed a ton of book with Shutterfly but never a lay flat one. It is cheaper to print like that but the price all at once is hard to swallow. $20 here and there I don't notice but $200 I do. lol

[GraceLee]

I mentioned Photobook America in the other thread... they're cheaper and the books I've gotten from them is comparable in quality to Shutterfly. I like that their covers are matte at no extra cost, and the vellum page between the cover and the first page is a very nice touch. They frequently do discounts up to 80% on their photobooks and you can buy the credit and print the book when you're ready. Right now their layflat books are 65% off and for a 40-page 8x8 it's $47 before discount. I think it's worth the expense. I love my layflat books!

[lovely1m]

I haven't tried the lay flat, but it looks awesome.

[marlathrall]

I made a lay flat album of the pictures from Teddy's birth. It's gorgeous, but ended up costing me $80 and it's only like 30 pages. I had a bunch of $20 off things and they didn't stack, plus I'm not completely sure that sales apply to the lay flat additional charge. Saying that- if I print a long book with Shutterfly, I would probably go ahead and play the full $50 for the lay flat upgrade. It's fabulous and more worth it for longer books.

I generally go with Blurb because I like their uploading program more, but I might use Shutterfly in the future just for lay flat if I don't get over their minimum page limit.

I hope this helps!

[icindi]

The 50% off does not come off the extra $50 charge for a lay flat book at shutterfly. But I've printed 4 lay flats with them and I love them. I will never go back to their regular books. I've printed the max pages and it was about $200 for 135 lay flat pages I think, 12 x 12 with leather cover. So all the upgrades... It's pricey, but it is a BIG book. And the lay flat is sooooo nice! The books are much thicker than a regular book so keep that in mind. I still print as many pages as I can for our family year scrapbooks, they're just thick.

[rach3975]

Thanks everyone! It's too bad the coupon doesn't apply to the extra $50, but it sounds like it's still worth the upgrade. I'm going to bite the bullet and try it, but I won't have the book done in time for this sale. (I was originally planning to split the year into thirds and was ready to print January to April, but with the extra $50 for layflat I'd rather split the year in half.) I think it'll work out to about a 90-page book. It's probably good that the page limit doesn't let me fit a full year in 1 volume, because I don't think I could handle seeing the cost of that, LOL! I'll let you know what I think when I finally get it done.

[Kiana]

All good info to know.

[joelsgirl]

Rachel, I have never printed from AdoramaPix without a coupon, and their coupon prices beat Shutterfly's coupon prices. If you like their FB page, they are really great about posting sales.

[rach3975]

Originally Posted by joelsgirl

Rachel, I have never printed from AdoramaPix without a coupon, and their coupon prices beat Shutterfly's coupon prices. If you like their FB page, they are really great about posting sales.

Thanks-I'll give it a try. I used to be on their mailing list, but the coupons I got were never more than 20%. Maybe now that there's more competition they're offering bigger discounts. I'm not on FB that often, but I'll try to remember to keep checking in once I'm ready to print.

[LynnZant]

I'd love a lay flat book. I hope that you like yours! I'm wondering if they cut off much of the edges and you have to rework your layouts as much as you would with the regular books. I would go with any company that had a layout style with the bleed already accounted for.