Photobook review...Apple photo book
Discussion
Just a post to comment on the Apple photo books I ordered and received today. Ordered 3 books, all the same and they are basically a collection of holiday photos (went on a big holiday with my parents, my girlfriend, my brother and his girlfriend which is likely not going to happen again for a long time given the cost!). As a nice christmas present I decided to arrange them in chronological order, with cool things like maps showing where we went.
There are cheaper alternatives for sure and likely ones that can print the same if not better, but I had all the holiday photos in iPhoto and the photobook maker in there is pretty sweet (if very laggy.... how un-apple). Plenty of themes to chose from, plenty of choice on how you arrange photos and how many you have on a page etc. Basic effetcs and image touch up can be done as well. A nice feature is the ability to put in maps (of differing styles) and have arrows to show how you travelled from place to place. Its a really nice touch I think and something that seemed to be missing from other photobook makers (certainly not impossible of course, you can replicate using google maps or something, but in iPhoto its just easy to drag an interactive map to the square you want and enter the place names). While there is lots of choice in how you lay your pages out, it can get pretty rigid in places... for instance there are only about 4-5 layouts where you can have a map, including a full page map which means you cant place a photo. Also some of the themes seem to leave a hell of a lot of empty space about the place. For most people its probably flexible enough, but for me it was on the border of being inflexible and I imagine for more seasoned book makers may turn out to be too limiting.
But overall its a very nice thing to work with. Import the photos, start a book, arrange photos with chosen theme, chose hard back, paper back or spiral bound and then click buy where you sort your payment out with your apple ID (though it doesn't just bill you like with iOS/OSX apps, you have to put in card info), sit back and await delivery.
As usual, they arrived impeccably packed and well presented. They are packed inside a thick, white card sleeve with a solitary apple logo in the centre and this is all inside a clear plastic sheath that has a folded over flap with a seam of glue to seal it all up. Its just packaging, but it does make un-boxing nice.
As for printing... well paper quality is lovely, it is nice thick stuff. Photos have come out a little less punchy/saturated than they looked on the screen however. A few do look a bit flat. But on the whole its very good and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend using Apple. It might not pass muster for some serious photography though. I went for hardback with a paper sleeve. Thankfully the front and back of the book are printed on both the sleeve and the book so you can dispense with the sleeve if you wish. I had 36 pages in total and this cost me just shy of £30 per book.... £88 delivered for 3 books. Possibly quite expensive but hey ho its done now and I am pleased with them.
Just thought I'd let you know in case anyone else was contemplating doing things through apples walled garden.
There are cheaper alternatives for sure and likely ones that can print the same if not better, but I had all the holiday photos in iPhoto and the photobook maker in there is pretty sweet (if very laggy.... how un-apple). Plenty of themes to chose from, plenty of choice on how you arrange photos and how many you have on a page etc. Basic effetcs and image touch up can be done as well. A nice feature is the ability to put in maps (of differing styles) and have arrows to show how you travelled from place to place. Its a really nice touch I think and something that seemed to be missing from other photobook makers (certainly not impossible of course, you can replicate using google maps or something, but in iPhoto its just easy to drag an interactive map to the square you want and enter the place names). While there is lots of choice in how you lay your pages out, it can get pretty rigid in places... for instance there are only about 4-5 layouts where you can have a map, including a full page map which means you cant place a photo. Also some of the themes seem to leave a hell of a lot of empty space about the place. For most people its probably flexible enough, but for me it was on the border of being inflexible and I imagine for more seasoned book makers may turn out to be too limiting.
But overall its a very nice thing to work with. Import the photos, start a book, arrange photos with chosen theme, chose hard back, paper back or spiral bound and then click buy where you sort your payment out with your apple ID (though it doesn't just bill you like with iOS/OSX apps, you have to put in card info), sit back and await delivery.
As usual, they arrived impeccably packed and well presented. They are packed inside a thick, white card sleeve with a solitary apple logo in the centre and this is all inside a clear plastic sheath that has a folded over flap with a seam of glue to seal it all up. Its just packaging, but it does make un-boxing nice.
As for printing... well paper quality is lovely, it is nice thick stuff. Photos have come out a little less punchy/saturated than they looked on the screen however. A few do look a bit flat. But on the whole its very good and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend using Apple. It might not pass muster for some serious photography though. I went for hardback with a paper sleeve. Thankfully the front and back of the book are printed on both the sleeve and the book so you can dispense with the sleeve if you wish. I had 36 pages in total and this cost me just shy of £30 per book.... £88 delivered for 3 books. Possibly quite expensive but hey ho its done now and I am pleased with them.
Just thought I'd let you know in case anyone else was contemplating doing things through apples walled garden.
i've bought a couple of books from apple.
the software is easy to use (aperture) and the maps are great - they were travel books, scandanavia/north cape on a bike and across europe to istanbul in a hackney carriage.
however they are expensive
i've just done one from photo box - an A4 hardback book with double thickness full double lay flat spreads. it is vastly better as the pages lay flat so you can have a full double page spread with no distortion at the spine.
£75 for about 28 double page spreads so expensive but makes a great coffee table book.
i make my own layouts in photoshop and upload them as highest quality jpegs.
the software is easy to use (aperture) and the maps are great - they were travel books, scandanavia/north cape on a bike and across europe to istanbul in a hackney carriage.
however they are expensive
i've just done one from photo box - an A4 hardback book with double thickness full double lay flat spreads. it is vastly better as the pages lay flat so you can have a full double page spread with no distortion at the spine.
£75 for about 28 double page spreads so expensive but makes a great coffee table book.
i make my own layouts in photoshop and upload them as highest quality jpegs.
I'm happy you wrote this review, as I've assembled a book, but thought it a little pricey. £45ish IIRC
I used Photobox plus a half price offer last time I did a book, and it worked out at around £28, I was very happy with this, however as you've written above, Apple does hand it to you on a plate with all its pretty maps etc.
I used Photobox plus a half price offer last time I did a book, and it worked out at around £28, I was very happy with this, however as you've written above, Apple does hand it to you on a plate with all its pretty maps etc.
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