I went through and updated the photo book printing and sizes and browsed to see what is new. Here is what I found:

WHCC now offers books in 3 sizes:

8.5 x 11, 10 x 10 and 11 x 14 with multiple cover options.

The pricing of their cute little proof books went up a few cents per page.

For more information on prices, sizes and reviews: WHCC

Walmart has added more photo books and now print 8 x 8 and 12 x 12.

For more information on prices, sizes and reviews: Walmart

Viovio, I blogged earlier about, added a 12 x 12 photo book size.

For more information on prices, sizes and reviews: Viovio

Picaboo has added custom image covers to their series of 11 x 8.5 and 8 x 6 books.

For more information on prices, sizes and reviews: Picaboo

Photoworks has added 7 x 7 soft & hardcover books

For more information on prices, sizes and reviews: PhotoWorks

Photobook Memories: prices have increased

For more information on prices, sizes and reviews: Photo Book Memories

Kodak added new 5 x 5 pocket books

For more information on prices, sizes and reviews:Kodak

and here is there current sale:

Heritage Makers you can now make books with smaller number of pages (21) and larger books (up to 99 pages).

For more information on prices, sizes and reviews: Heritage Makers

Shutterfly has started a new online book gallery so you can view other peoples books!

For more information on prices, sizes and reviews: Shutterfly

Shutterfly’s current sale’s:

Kodak

Get FREE SHIPPING all photo products, including Calendars, at the Kodak Gallery.

20% OFF photo gifts at the Kodak Gallery!

Shutterfly

Snapfish

FREE Shipping on all photo cards at Snapfish! (coupon code: CARDSHIP07, exp. 12/16)

FREE Shipping on all photo calendars at Snapfish! (coupon code: SHIP365, exp 1/8)

Special Holiday ‘Deal of the Day’ Promotion! >From Dec 1 - Dec 16, we will be offering a special deal every day. This promotion will be sure to catch the eye of every customer that comes to Snapfish. With offers ranging from BOGO, Free Shipping, and up to 35% off, you will be sure to capture that sale! Deal of the day promotion - Find a new product discount everyday at Snapfish! (exp 12/16)

Snapfish stocking stuffers - 25% off when you buy duplicate gifts

Photo Stamps

And for that hard to find person? What about some custom photo stamps just for them?

TogetherBook

[ together ] book featured on Oprah & Real Simple

What’s a [together] book(tm)? A bound book of your photos from digital prints or existing prints. Offered in 4×6 or 5×7.

One True Media

Here’s a new company that I haven’t looked. They have 10 x 10 hardcover photobooks and 8.5 x 8.5 soft cover photobooks. Or turn your layouts into a professional looking DVD. Or create a video montage of your layouts and share on Youtube, TIVO, blogger, or other places. They have calendars, posters, postcards, stickers, etc.. too.

Wallhogs

And if you want to print big (on vinyl, poster or canvas) this is the place to go at reasonable costs!

(text descriptions copied from their website)

Canvas: Decorate your area with a high quality custom canvas! We print on a artist-grade, 18 mil, semi-gloss, fine art canvas that is water resistant with a guaranteed 10 year indoor durability. This is a print only - these are not stretched or framed. From sizes: 11″ x 14″ to 24″ x 36″ and prices starting at $19.99

Poster: 24″ wide to 84″ wide and prices starting at $19.99!

Vinyl: Now you can enjoy decorating with reusable vinyl. This material has a semi-adhesive backing which means it will stick to your walls but can be moved anytime you want without damaging the wall surface or paint. The vinyl is very thin (3.5mm), durable as a tank, and will not fade. No more nails, glue, or tack! From sizes: 24″ wide to 84″ wide! and prices starting at $24.99

Okay, this is the last post. Like I said this is the easy part now because of all the prep work we did.

Create a book:

From my gallery, click on Order Photo Book in the top right.

Set your Book size, Make sure Full Bleed is checked, I checked No Captions, uncheck Auto Crop. and click Next

It its your first time, it will start generating the book and it takes a few minutes. If you have made changes and you want to update your book, scroll to the bottom and click RECREATE BOOK and it will start the book making process again.

Once done, click on preview your book and view your book in pdf format. In Adobe Reader, Viovio say continuous facing setting. I couldn’t find that option in Adobe Reader 8. The setting that worked for me in Adobe Reader was: View | Page Display | Two-up Continuous. Then I saw two pages, left and right next to each other just the way they will be printed.

PROOF your book. If you see any pages/misprints/mistakes. Now is the time to go correct that. I deleted any image that was wrong, made changes to it, uploaded the image again, and from the gallery click Order Photo Book again and Recreate Book.

Once you are satisfied, continue on by clicking on CREATE COVER NEXT

Setting Cover Options:

There are 3 tabs and I will tell you what I did on all 3.

Cover Text:

I deleted the Title Text & Author Text since I have that incorporated into my cover.

I didn’t put anything on my spine because I got this warning:

At least 35 pages are needed for your spine text to appear.

Their help states you need 40 pages “Note: Your book needs to be 40 pages or more in order for text to print on the spine.”

Which basically means my spine is going to be too skinny to print spine text since I only have 28 pages. But if your book is large enough, this is where you put the spine text info.

Colors & Images:

I made no changes

Advanced tab:

• I deleted the product URL
• Make sure you check “Full Wrap Cover” if you are using their template.

You should see the cover generated and verify it looks good.

Once the cover is to your satisfaction, choose Next.

Webstore Options:

I gave my product a name with the my photo books title.

Security level: Private (so no one else can see my book)

At this point you can buy or your photo book will be available in My Shop when you are ready to purchase it.

Purchasing:

When you purchase you will have some options for the cover:

• Embossed Hardcover gives you hardcover with your image in it.

Zipped & Uploaded Images:

I zipped up my files in ACDSee Photo Manager using the Create Archive feature.

Zipping up my images

• I selected about 5 images - 10 images and tried to keep the size of the zip file to 30 - 50 MB.
• choose Tools | Create Archive and created a zip file of those images. I numbered my zip files, Book1.zip, Book2.zip.
• Repeated this for however many images I needed to do.

Uploading them to Viovio

• Logged into Viovio.
• Click on [my] photos
• Clicked on Create Gallery and made a gallery for the book images.
• Clicked on Upload images, in the Upload Files section, entered in the name of my zip files.
• Made sure that “Add files to these Galleries” that the right gallery was chosen.
• Choose “Don’t Resize” and chose a private security level since I didn’t wish for others to view my images.
• Then click Upload Files.
• Then walk away and do something else for a while.

Note: Viovio only allows 200MB worth of images uploaded. So make sure your total book image sizes is less than this. If not, you may need to upgrade and get more storage.

Viovio Supporter
500 Megabytes
US $25 / annually

Quick things to do in your Viovio Gallery:

Once you images are in the gallery, there a few things I did to get ready.

View your images, by clicking on the appropriate Gallery

Here are 3 things I did to get ready:

Choose Edit:

• Changed the Security Level to private so no one else can see my gallery. Default is public.

Choose Image Order:

• Scroll to the bottom, and choose Re-order gallery by “filename”, the choose Save Changes. If you followed my advice from above, your pages should be ordered correctly now. If not, you need to manually change the position numbers of every page and click Save Changes.

Choose Cover Image:

• Find the cover image, and check that it is a gallery image. This means it will be used for the cover.

• Once done, Save Changes

Okay, all we have to do is create the book and checkout and we’ll do that in the last blog entry. Everything should be ready so this part goes quickly.

Putting your pages in the right order:

Most online printing places allows you to order pages when you upload and Viovio does too.

I just find it easier to order my pages before I upload in Photo Manager. Here’s what I do:

• So I look in my folder where I saved all my pages.
• In ACDSee Photo Manager, I drag and drop my thumbnails to reorder them in the order that I want them to appear in the book.
• Things to remember in printing books:
  • The first page will be by itself on the right side of the page.
  • If you continue counting, even page numbers are on left and odd are on right side of pages.
• So the easy way, once you have your pages in the correct order, is to rename them with the page number in front. To do this:
  • Select All Image (Ctrl-A)
  • Choose Tools | Batch Rename
  • The template will pop up.
    • Change Start at: to 1
    • Delete anything in the Template: box
    • Click on Insert Metadata, choose File Properties, select Filename w/o extension
    • Right before <File Properties:Filename(w/o extension)> insert ##. This will be your page numbers.
    • Here all the settings changed:
    • 
    • Click on Start Rename
  • All my pages are numbered in order.

Another option to manually rename them. This is for people who forgot if even or odd are right and left.

• So for the first page, rename (right click thumbnail and choose rename) the file to 01_filename.jpg.
• The next two, I am going to name 02L_filename.jpg & 02R_filename.jpg, followed by 03L_filename.jpg & 03R_filename.jpg.
• And luckily L comes before R in the alphabet so the 02L page will come before the 02R page.
• That way I know for sure which is going to be left & right hand side of pages.
• This method has to be done manually those with renaming each file.

Create Cover:

Viovio provides a cover template also. It’s interesting that it is formatted for a 12 x 12 book when they print their books at 10 x 10. Anyway, I opened the template which is 7200 x 3600 with 300 dpi.

Square format wrap cover:

I placed in 2 of the same papers to cover the entire space. Made sure everything stayed within the Casewrap Hardcover Fold Line. (In my example, I wanted part of the scroll to go off the cover.)

Due to the size of this file, I didn’t save it as working file (apd, psd, pspimage file) but just saved straight to a jpg with compression of 90%. Do not resize this image. It needs to be this size to work.

Trying to get text on the spine in this image is really tough so I didn’t try. There is an option in their interface to add text to the spine if your book is large enough and I recommend you doing it that way.

Okay, the book is almost ready to go! Next, we will get it uploaded! That’s easy just takes time (your computer’s time, not yours.)

Once I had all my working files (apd, psd, pspimages) ready to go and PROOFED, I need to create JPG’s. I never make JPG’s until I am ready to print or share on the web.

How to Convert all your files to JPGs in one step:

1. I open up ACDSee Photo Manager and select all my working files. (I selected all my apds but if you use Adobe products (psds) or Corel products (pspimages).)
2. I choose File | Batch Convert
   1. Choose JPG
   2. Select Format Settings and make sure it is setting to Best Quality
   3. Choose Next
   4. Usually I choose to place files in the same folder, but when I am getting ready to print a book, I place them in new folder for easier ordering of pages and uploading. So choose Place modified images in the following folder and select a folder below that option.
   5. Choose Next
   6. I leave the defaults which is Input: All Images (this doesn’t apply since I only have one file per image) & Output: Split (I want to create separate jpgs of all the files I chose.)
   7. Choose Start Convert
   8. When it finishes, choose Finish

Batch Resize

Next step, is resize them for you book size. I am printing a 10 x 10 inch book. The official specifications say they want a 10.25 x 10.25 image. So I am going to use ACDSee Photo Manager to resize all of them.

1. in ACDSee Photo Manager, I select all the jpg’s of pages. (Mine are convenient because I placed them in a separate folder.)
2. Go to Tools | Batch Resize
3. Check Actual Print Size
4. In the boxes, set the following: Units: inches, Width & Height: 10.25, Resolution: 300 in. check Preserve original aspect ratio
5. 
6. Click Options
7. Choose Rename modified images & place in source folders
8. Click on JPEG compress options,
   1. Choose 90% Image quality to reduce the size slightly.
9. Click OK, OK, and Start Resize

You should now have all your images in jpg format and resize to the expected size. I would just like to comment that the Viovio software would resize the images themselves. But since resizing the images is easy and then it takes less time to upload the images to Viovio, you might as well do it yourself.

In the next blog entry, we will talk about ordering your pages and making a cover. Unless that is too much.. We’ll see.

It is always fun to get to the point of enough layouts to create a photo book. I love photo books and don’t print any single images anymore. This does cause problems when my child comes from school and say “Mom, I need a picture of this or that.” But then I just go through my photos, get the one they want, print it on my home computer and they can do anything they want with it. Anyway, back to photo books. Photo books make such a statement. If you have never seen one, you should do a test one. I think I have got many people digital scrapbooking by showing them the finished product. I have books printed from Shutterfly, Winkflash and Heritage Makers. Each company has their pros and cons.

For my next book, I am going to try Viovio. I am going to do a 10 x 10 book (since they don’t have 12 x 12 books) but the price is very reasonable. So I am taking you along on my process of taking my layouts to a book. I basically typed up this process as I was doing it and then it got really long so I am going to give it to you in a series of blog entries.

Proof your book

Enough said? Well, not for me. This is probably the biggest downfall of printing a photo book. If you find an error on page 5, you can’t just slip out that page, reprint that page and slip it back in. If you find an error you a) live with it or b) reprint it. So that is why I stress go proof your book. Later on in the series, you will find out Viovio creates a pdf of your book for you. I gave that pdf to my husband to proofread. In the last book, my son found an error that both myself and my husband missed, so I might just have him read through it too before I print. Nothing like having a 8 year old perfectionist son proofing your book.

Verifying nothing important will be cropped in your layouts:

The first thing you should do when you are creating a Viovio book, is make sure that if you are going to do full bleed, that none of your images are going to be cropped badly. Viovio provides a template to do this:

Crop Guideslines

One option in your Editor:

1. I opened up my layouts in my editor.
2. Placed the Viovio cropping template over each image.
3. 
4. Looked to see what would be cut for sure (red) and what might be cut (orange.)
5. I then rearranged my objects (or layers in some editors but ACDSee Photo editor calls them objects) so nothing will be cropped that is important. This is especially important for journaling & titles. A photo cropped might look intentional but journaling or title getting cut off looks bad.
6. I then deleted the Viovio overlay and resaved my file.

A second option to doing this in Photo Manager:

1. Double Click the image to open in the Photo Viewer
2. Select the crop button
3. By Looking at their template in the editor I have estimated on: (Red portion is the first number which will be cut and they say up to orange position which is the second number)
   1. A 12 x 12 inch image at 300 dpi, which is really 3600 x 3600 pixels, about 75 - 150 pixels may cut off. So I subtracted 115 pixes off and get a 3485 x 3486 image will be printed.
   2. A 10.25 x 10.25 inch image with 300 dpi, which is really 3075 x 3075 pixels, it looks like 60 - 120 pixels would be cut off. So I subtracted 90 of that to be safe. and got a 2985 x 2985 image will be printed.
4. So for a 12 x 12 inch image, I made a cropping template of 2985 x 2985 and now I can visible see what will be cropped.
5. So for a 10.25 x 10.25 inch image, I made a cropping template of 2985 x 2985 and now I can visible see what will be cropped.
6. Once I see how much will be cropped I just cancel out since I really don’t want to crop it. I was just using the crop tool to what the printer will crop. If you need to then you open up the file in your editor and adjust the layout.

So those are some tips for seeing how your images will be cropped!

Soon, I will blog about the next steps.

Shutterfly Sale:

Picaboo Sale:

Kodak Sale:
Save 20% on all holiday gift products at the Gallery!

Snapfish Sale:

Winkflash.com:

Is having a sale of 40% select cards through Nov 21, 2007

Printing:

AdoramaPix is now printing 12 x 12’s on metallic paper! Cost is expensive but if you had a special layout it might be worth it.

Costco is now showing that they print 12 x 12 images. It’s the same price as 12 x 18 images at $2.99. The benefit is you don’t have to figure out how to put 3 layouts together to print a 12 x 18 page.

SB To Share has reduced a few of their prices but increased shipping and handling.

Scrapquick has also reduced their prices but increased shipping and handling.

Winkflash is printing 10 x 10 images for $3.39. They are also offering customize photo book covers for $31.95. Winkflash also raised their prices on shipping for their books. And lastly they have a $19.95 flat-rate book sale going on. A flat-rate sale means you can put as many pages as you want and the book will still cost $19.95. Only available on the classic hardcover 9 x 12 book.

BellaScrapbook is a newcomer to this market.

Bella Scrapbook offers an affordable solution for Quickpage selection and printing. We print on Archival photographic paper that will last for many generations. Your pages will be beautiful & vibrant showing all the details on your print.

Dotphoto has 10% off order plus 50 free prints for signing up:

• Get 10% OFF your order with coupon code PHOTO10OFF

Heritage Makers raised the price of the 12 x 12 books by $5 to $79.95 and Beginning October 1, 2007 all books will include 21 pages.

Kodak has a new Martha Stewart book

Lulu

Has increased their prices for their photobooks but they also are offering a new improved interface. Their description:

To celebrate the introduction of Lulu Studio™, as the web’s premier Photo Book building application, we’re also happy to announce a higher quality photo book print product will to going along with this release as well. The Photo Books coming out of the new Lulu Studio™ will have better color reproduction and clarity resulting from the latest state-of-the-art digital printing.

MyPublisher

Is offering new book jacket covers for the photo books:

Photo Book Memories

Has increased the cost of their Photobooks by $20 each. So a 12 x 12 book is now $100 and a 8 x 8 book is now $80.

Shutterfly Prints

Offering new 8×8 & 12×12 Scrapbook Page. Cost is $6.99 for 12 x 12 pages and $3.49 for 8 x 8 pages.

HP Snapfish:

Has a great deal on Photo Books but you have to hurry since it expires Oct 1.

50% off Photo books! Coupon code: FALLBOOKS

Sony ImageStation

has closed. They suggest transferring any photos you may have to Shutterfly.

Top Line Creations

Have REDUCED their prices for their books. See the link for current prices. They also have some cute board books for children. A great present for a special child:

WHCC

Did you know you can create small spiral bound proof books!

I updated my resources at my website:

A while back I had collected the information on online places to print your layouts (either in individual prints or books) into a pdf file. I have now converted all that information into an online digital printing resource:

Online Photo Printing Services

Online Photo Book Printing Services

For each service, I have listed the price, size and specifics for each print or book. In addition, I added a poll so you can rate your experience with that service.

example of a poll:

I am hoping that everyone will create a great resource for others. I know I always like to know what people think of a online company or product before I purchase from it. In addition, you can leave comments on each service if you want to share something about it (whether good or bad.)

So if you have had prints from any of these, please go and rate it. It takes 2 seconds & 2 clicks to vote.

• Costco
• MPix
• Photo Book Memories
• Polka Dot Potato
• SB To Share
• Scrapbook Pictures
• Scrapquick
• Smugmug
• WHCC

I know there are other online printing of individual prints but I am only providing info for the ones that print special digital scrapbooking sizes (8 x 8, 10 x 10, etc.) If you have add prints from any of these, please go and rate it.

If you have books printed from any of these, please go and rate it. It takes 2 seconds & 2 clicks to vote. If you have done a review or posted images of your photo book, please leave the url in the comments section. I will periodically go through and create clickable links for them.

• Archivers
• Blurb
• Clark ColorLab
• Creative Memories
• Dotphoto
• Fast Back Books
• Heritage Makers
• Kodak
• Lulu
• MyPublisher
• MyReflections
• Photo Book Memories
• PhotoWorks
• Picaboo
• Ritzpix
• SharedInk
• Shutterfly
• Snapfish
• Sony ImageStation
• Viovio
• Walmart
• Winkflash

If you are aware of more printing places that print digital scrapbooking sizes or other places that print photo books, please comment on the main pages and I will get them added when I have time. Or leave a comment on our blog. Or email us info@digiscrapinfo.com