Photo Books

Get ready for a big long post, and if you aren't interested in photo books just skip the whole post (well the last paragraph isn't about them) because you will be totally bored before you get very far. LOL

I am pretty happy with my new books. Course I'm sure for those of you who have gotten more books than I have you would know more what to look for. The square book (Kali's) was ordered from mypictales and the rectangle book was ordered from book1one. When it comes to price, mypictales was cheaper, because I could use a coupon and get 25% off of it, Book one seems to be about the same price wise I think, except for no coupon. However they will do over 160 pages both in 11X8.5 AND 8X8 books, so for those of you who have more pages you may want to check them out. I will be using them again, if I ever get another book finished...especially if it's over 160 pages.

I do want to apologize for my photos...I have to admit I didn't take lots of time trying to get them to look really good (you know things positioned just right and no glare...things like that), and I'm not real good at that type of photos. Maybe it's cause I don't try hard enough. LOL I don't have the best setup for taking the photos and there is a light right above them that likes to leave glare...but hopefully you can see see them well enough. You should be able to click on the photo and have a larger version pop up.


When it comes to putting the books together I liked mypictales better, because with book one I had to just make a pdf (not that that was all that hard once I figured it out LOL), but now that I have them, I like how the cover came out better on the book one book (placement wise anyway), so I'm thinking maybe the pdf is better. LOL I think I had better instructions with book one for making the cover, which is why I like how it's placed better. One thing I loved about book one is I could put something on the spine! I just put the year, since it was one of my yearly books, but with mypictales I haven't been able to put anything there.



The pages in both books look good to me, I'm not real good at deciding if the color if off. I think I like the color from book one the best, but without a comparison of the same book from the two companies it's hard for me to say for sure.


I just had to show the back of each too...again the one from mypictales isn't placed exactly like I would like it. The Book one book's placement came out just about perfect to me although I could have had the back photo moved over a little but the front is what I worry about the most.


When it comes to the binding, it's a toss up. They are both sewn, which is a big plus to me!! I like how book one has that little black & white cloth thing sticking up...kinda looks more like some of the nice hardbacks I've seen.


However I kinda like how mypictales did the binding on the inside. They have a cloth like piece that comes out from the binding and then the paper is glued over it, to hold it down. The two white (I chose white, instead of black because I like it better) over pages that are at the front and back of the book is sewn in just like a page, so it looks better (or neater)to me plus it seems like it would be a little stronger that way. On the book one book they have a white page that is glued to the first and last page so when the book is opened a little more of the first and last pages are covered on the binding side. it didn't hurt, since I had plenty of room at the edge of my pages, but it could be kinda bad for those who like to flirt with the edges of a layout, and I don't think it looks quite as nice, and it seems like that paper could tear eventually and then the binding would show. I suppose if I had to pick which sewn binding I liked the best it would have to be the one from mypictales.

There is only one thing that I really don't like (least as far as I've seen now) about the books and that's with the one from book one. It has some thread showing between a couple pages, kinda a mess of threads. It might bother me more if it was a special book, but since it's just a yearly one I didn't figure I'd bother complaining about it...this time anyway. LOL I doubt it's something that happens all the time, and isn't something that will bother me all that much I don't think.

All in all I like both books, and there are pro's and con's to both companies. This is the 2nd time I've used mypictales and this time the time it took them to print the book and get it to me seemed to take way, WAY to long, (I had my 2008 book from book one before the book from mypictales and I ordered it a week later!) but I think mypictales has had a few problems lately, so that could be why.

I am pretty sure I'll be using book one again, because of them allowing for more pages. They seemed really nice, and always answered my questions (which I had a lot of! *giggle*) in a timely fashion. Since I seem to need thicker books than most companies (including mypictales) want to deal with I can't see being able to use mypictales again, all that often anyway. I do like their new sewn binding though, so if they went back to allowing more pages I would think about using them again, even if their turn around time didn't improve...unless it got much worse. :)

Anyway, I just thought I'd show you what I ended up with, and give my opinions of them...although take my opinions with a grain of salt please, because what do I know. LOL If you are like me and need a 11X8.5 or 8X8 book printed with lots of pages in it then Book1one is a decent way to go. Their turn around time was better than mypictales was this time around, although maybe not as good as mypictales were last year when I got some books.

I think this was the first digital scrapbooking book that Book1One had done, because the guy I chatted with in e-mails called and told me it was being shipped and then asked what software I used for the pages and said he loved it. I had to laugh when he said he showed it to all the employees that came through his office, because there are so many better LO's out there, I've even done better ones myself (I don't try to hard with my yearly books) but it was really nice of him to call me so I just thanked him. Maybe there will be a few more people that work in his company discovering digital scrapbooking now. I guess they do yearbooks mostly, and maybe some plain photo books, but hadn't gotten into the scrapbook scene yet...but they did a pretty good job of it! :)

We are expecting company this weekend, although haven't heard for sure that they will be here or when, but just in case they do make it, I have a few things I need to do today. LOL It's cooler which is great, it was actually almost chilly this morning since I had the windows open all night letting that nice cool air inside. I'm looking forward to having a few cooler days, and am hoping that the weather people actually know what they are talking about this time and it really IS going to be cooler. I hope everyone has a good weekend! Take Care out there.