TallCool69 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I've been reading so many posts all over the digiscrapping community about different places to print books, and their pros and cons! Living in Sweden, my first priority has always been to find a company that actually delivers to Sweden! There are a couple of businesses that do photobooks here, but I find their quality quite poor, and since I do my pages from scratch in Photoshop, I also need full bleed-pages and a square format. Not an easy order in my country... In 2007, I ordered my first 12x12 Photobook from Shutterfly in the States. It was beautiful, but a couple of pages came loose right away. I contacted Shutterfly, and their customer service arranged for me to have a new copy a.s.a.p. Over the years, I've stayed with Shutterfly and the main reason has been their excellent customer service! Because I have had some problems with some of my books - like wrong color and glue on the pages - but they've always taken care of me! I've made 7 different books with Shutterfly and I'm very happy with the results! I heard of Blurb several years ago, but at that time they didn't make a 12x12 book. Now they do. They also make books bigger than 100 pages! I haven't had the need for that yet, but I will as I'm working on books covering entire years and not only special occasions/trips. So, I decided to conduct my own, very personal, survey. I simply ordered the exact same book from Blurb, as I had recently ordered from Shutterfly! I figured that would give me the best insight... With Blurb, I chose the ImageWrap Cover and Premium Paper (Lustre finish). It came to 94 pages, since they add some copyright- and logo-things. This is the only thing I dislike about Blurb... The book-total was $113,95. The same book at Shutterfly (90 pages) was $159,99. This is without shipping. Shipping from Blurb was much less, since they printed and shipped within Europe (for European customers). Shutterfly prints and ships from the US. So, Blurb is cheaper! BUT - I ordered two copies of that book from Shutterfly (for family) and got a 50% discount on the second book, which made them cost $119,99 each instead! Only $6 more than Blurb... And when it comes to shipping within the US, I don't think it differs too much between them... Now to the quality: The Premium paper I chose with Blurb feels just like the Shutterfly-paper. I think the colors came out just the same in both books - no difference at all! The binding seems to hold up just fine in both. My husband and I have both looked through them a couple of times and given a little tug here and there! I really like the matte cover of the Blurb-book and find the images a little bit sharper than the ones on the glossy Shutterfly-cover. But my husband is sceptical to the matte cover and thinks it will stain and become more worn, quicker. The verdict: I will stay with both! Shutterfly will still be the place where I print my books on special occasions and trips. Books that are less than 100 pages! I don't mind paying a little bit more, and with Shutterfly's frequent coupons and promotions - you can easily get very good prices on your books! And dear husband will get his glossy covers! Blurb will be the place where I print my Yearbooks! But I will have them made with the black linen-cover and printed dust jackets. I will also use Blurb if I need to do a book on a special occasion that requires more than 100 pages! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Thanks for the helpful analysis! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angleigh Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Thess I have to add that Blurb has great customer service. I did a photo book for a friends who's wedding photos I took. The first book came back and on 1 page there was a small dot of black on one page in a white section. Now I was being EXTREMELY picky since I had paid so much and it was a gift, if it was mine I would of kept it (that's how small it was) I contacted them and immediately they sent me a shipping label to send the book back and sent a new one. The second one came back and it had another mistake. It was like right after printing 2 pages got stuck together and part of one peeled off onto another one. Again I contacted them (I have to say each time I heard back from them within a couple of hours..they were very quick) This time they apologized, let me keep the book, sent me a new one and refunded my money. In the end it worked out because the girl I gave the book to used the one with the mistake to take around and show to people..that way if they got fingerprints on it, or it got messed up it didn't matter..LOL And the 3rd book came out perfect. I have done 2 other books with them, and they both came back perfect the first time. So while I did have some problems with them the first time, they made it correct very quick and went above and beyond by giving me a full refund. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallCool69 Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 Thess I have to add that Blurb has great customer service. I did a photo book for a friends who's wedding photos I took. The first book came back and on 1 page there was a small dot of black on one page in a white section. Now I was being EXTREMELY picky since I had paid so much and it was a gift, if it was mine I would of kept it (that's how small it was) I contacted them and immediately they sent me a shipping label to send the book back and sent a new one. The second one came back and it had another mistake. It was like right after printing 2 pages got stuck together and part of one peeled off onto another one. Again I contacted them (I have to say each time I heard back from them within a couple of hours..they were very quick) This time they apologized, let me keep the book, sent me a new one and refunded my money. In the end it worked out because the girl I gave the book to used the one with the mistake to take around and show to people..that way if they got fingerprints on it, or it got messed up it didn't matter..LOL And the 3rd book came out perfect. I have done 2 other books with them, and they both came back perfect the first time. So while I did have some problems with them the first time, they made it correct very quick and went above and beyond by giving me a full refund. That's good to know, Angie! The book I just received was perfect, so I've had nothing to do with their CS! I really like the matte ImageWrap covers on the Blurb books. But I guess DH can have one thing to say about my scrapping - as long as he keeps it that way and sticks to only having an opinion in this matter... I'll definitely use both in the future! My just finished book on Rhodes is being printed by Shutterfly, but my nearly finished book on 2010 will be done at Blurb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArizonaAngel Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Thanks for the reviews. It is very helpful to hear from my trusted SG friends about the quality available out there and CS is SO important to me. I have used Shutterfly for 2 books and was extremely pleased. I used My Publisher once and was not as pleased. The color was off. It was probably my fault since it was the first book I had printed and I didn't think to look and see if I can turn off the automatic editing feature. My guess is that was the problem. I choose them because I was looking for a sturdier binding than just glue and they do offer that. They do not do square books so I had to redo all my pages to fit their size. I won't use them again primarily because I scrap 12 x 12 LOs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bride Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I printed my sons and hubby's book from the backpacking trip with blurb and was very pleased with the quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheri T Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Thanks for the most excellent (and reasonably scientific:) review! I've done a few 8 x 8 books at Shutterfly and have always been happy. And I do wait for sales and coupons...very smart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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