Photobook printing

[Txcorey]

I've been working on a scrapbook for my son and his friends for months. He and his core group of friends graduated in May and thought it would be cool to have a scrapbook of all their adventures. I agreed to do it and I am finally just about finished. I haven't printed a photo book in ages, but remember the covers being difficult in the past. I thought I'd go down the rabbit hole tonight and play with adding the cover to a photo book. I started with a 12x12 jpg and kept having to resize the layout down to get it to fit on the cover. I'm already frustrated with putting this together and haven't really even started. I followed a link that said it had the dimensions of their photobook, but the dimensions are nowhere to be found on that page. Similar searches produced nothing. Does anyone have these dimensions or know where to find them on Shutterfly? And while I'm at it, are there any other good and reasonable options? I have to print 5 of these suckers and don't know if the other parents will chip in for their kid's book. I went over to Mixbook to compare pricing and had a similar infuriating experience. I was hoping the end was in sight on this project, but it looks like the printing of the books may be as big of a project as the creating of it. I really want this DONE and off my to do list! Any guidance or tips you can give me would me most appreciated!

[LynnZant]

I use Blurb and just put a border around all my pages and use the one photo option for the cover. It may be a little off center, but I'm not too picky any more. While I don't like the look of the border, I don't have to worry about gutters and bleed and all that. And, my fingers are touching the border and not the printed layouts when looking at the books. I did download their book making software which was free, so I'm not sure if you can just make it online.
Good luck with your project!

[Studio Liv]

It might be worth seeing if a local print shop would do a short run of books.

[kristalund]

I just printed my December Daily book through Shutterfly and for the cover I created a layout in Photoshop using a 12x12 piece of patterned paper with one of my layouts layered on top.
Is a bit off centered but you could fix that if you wanted.

[HavaDrPepper]

Originally Posted by kristalund

I just printed my December Daily book through Shutterfly and for the cover I created a layout in Photoshop using a 12x12 piece of patterned paper with one of my layouts layered on top.
Is a bit off centered but you could fix that if you wanted.

I do the same thing at Shutterfly. I make a layout for both the back and front. They don't fit perfect but you can adjust them if needed. Years ago Shutterfly had guides you could download for sizing of pages and I got the one for the spine so I could have it match the back and front. Don't know if they still have the guides. I don't put a title on the spine on mine though.

[Tree City]

I keep the background white for the front/back cover and the spine. That way I don't have to worry about whether stuff aligns correctly.
ETA: I meant to say that I wait to print until there's a sale, esp the unlimited free pages sale. As for the friends' books, you could "gift" the digital file to the friends' parents (I think Shutterfly let's you share project links?) and they can print the books. Then your gift is your time and creative talent on display in digital form, and they can print it.

[DawnMarch]

I found this
https://www.shutterfly.com/digitalsc...sign-specs.jsp

And there seems to be a cover template you can download here?
https://www.shutterfly.com/digitalsc...id=CELEBRATION

[Txcorey]

Thank you ladies for your help and tips. Krista, that was helpful. I messed with it again this morning and got the cover to work (resized a bit). My cover page was photo centric with a small border, so I had to make the border much larger to accommodate their dimensions. They just don't seem to make some things very user friendly.


Dawn, that is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much!

Originally Posted by DawnMarch

I found this
https://www.shutterfly.com/digitalsc...sign-specs.jsp

And there seems to be a cover template you can download here?
https://www.shutterfly.com/digitalsc...id=CELEBRATION

[jagruti patel]

I also use blurb and just make sure any details are cover on far from the edge and just plop it in. For book pages, I use the template with a border all the way around.

[joelsgirl]

I use Shutterfly, but I’ve also heard that photo book America is a good company.

For my covers, I always use a plane background, not necessarily white, but a pattern or solid, and then I shrink my layout down until it fits in the space. It’s really trial and error for me. I upload it then I adjust and re-upload.

[SeattleSheri]

Originally Posted by joelsgirl

I use Shutterfly, but I’ve also heard that photo book America is a good company.

For my covers, I always use a plane background, not necessarily white, but a pattern or solid, and then I shrink my layout down until it fits in the space. It’s really trial and error for me. I upload it then I adjust and re-upload.

I've been using Photobook America for year and I've been happy with them. There software has improved over time and I like that you can print 200+ pages (though I rarely finding myself needing that lately). I just looked at Shutterfly and it seems their software uses the same platform.