My Viovio Book

Well, I received my Viovio Book that I had printed.  Actually it came a week ago, but I didn’t have time to blog until now about it.  So the time from ordering to arriving on my door step was about the time I expected.   (Ordered book on Nov 18 and received Nov 30 so it took 12 days from order to arrival.)

I had a few surprises and let me explain.

Cover:

First I expected my cover image to wrap my book.  After going back to Viovio to reread, I have since learned that if you print a 10 x 10 book.  You get a case material with an embossed adhesive cover image on it.  I see they have now added some examples:  Square Photo Books

If you order an 8 x 8 book then your designed cover wraps around the book. 

"Our glossy 8.5" case-bound hardcover books allow you to wrap an image around the cover."

On my 10 x 10 book, I got the following cover and I do like it, just wasn’t expecting it.

And then since I did a cover, the first and last page of the book was my original cover.  It looks fine and it looks like I intended to do it, kind of like a title Page. 

Spine:

It turns out they print the info on the spine for a 10 x 10 book even if it says it doesn’t.  I am glad that I put in what I wanted to have on the spine even though I didn’t think it would print.  They used a silver ink that looks really nice although it smeared a little.

Quality of the book:

The book is put together very well.  It looks like it is binded by staples not glue or sewn.

Photo Quality:

All the digital kit materials printed well and looked excellent.  The colors were excellent!  The individual photos to me appeared a littly grainy.  I am wondering if its the nature of the paper and not the printing.   All the other books from that other companies that I have printed have used a glossy photo paper.  The paper user is described as:

"a 100# light gloss Photo Silk, 96 Bright. This is a phenomenal paper that provides wonderful color, a professional smooth appearance, and long lasting binding quality."

And here are some photos of the book:

Viovio’s stamp isn’t very big so that’s nice.

Some final thoughts:

This was my first 10 x 10 book.  I have usually printed my books at 12 x 12.  The 10 x 10 is a really nice size. 

Pay attention to the cropping.  I followed their template closely and nothing important was cropped.  But due to the nature of books, remember the curve of the page at the binding makes things difficult to view.  So I would recommend keeping any writing off the edge of the page that will be in the center of the book. 

The cost of the book was $26.19 and I paid $8.45 for shipping.  The shipping cost could easily be reduced to a few dollars if you had time to wait for the super saver shipping offer. 

I think navigating Viovio’s site and finding information is a little tricky.  (That would explain my cover misunderstanding.)

My Recommendation:

I would definitely recommend Viovio printing process.    If you are printing multiple copies of books, are giving as gifts and want to keep the cost down, then this is the way to go!   I don’t think its as a high quality of a book as Heritage Maker’s or Shutterfly’s books but its 1/3 - 1/4 of the cost also.   So for the price of the book the quality was great.    Only the graininess of the pics bothers me.  I think I should go print some of my layouts at Costco and compare the difference.  (Cause sometimes its the the photo and not the printing process.)  If I do the comparison I’ll blog and let you know what I discover.

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