I'm putting together my first photo book thru PrestoPhoto, and I was wondering about the option to upgrade to the pro-binding (8.5x11 case-wrapped hardcover). Can anyone who's ordered before comment on this? Is the price and additional production time worth the pro-quality binding over the normal binding?

Also, I don't have a high-speed internet connection at home, so I'm going to have to take my laptop to the library to upload (they LOVE that, so I try to go at off hours ). I want the best quality pages possible from PhotoShop Elements, but file size is also going to be a concern. What would you recommend for quality level creating .jpgs?

Thanks!

Hello Kmk_01kmk.

I just received my first PrestoPhoto book. It's an 8-1/2 x 8-1//2 photo book with text [each page is about 1/2 photos and 1/2 text]. It's 84 pages long. The pages range between 75 MB to 118 MB. The average being close to 85 MB. I made all my pages 12-1/4 x 12-1/4 and 300 PPI. With all 84 pages the file size was just under their 500 limit. I used PrestoPhoto's pro-binding [case-wrapped hardcover] and I'm very happy with it. Having said that, I haven't seen the other types that PrestoPhoto offers, so I can't compare.

BTW: PrestoPhoto did an excellent job with my book.

Hi, as Russ said, make the pages 300ppi. What ever size you are making making the page at least 1/4 inch larger and anything you don't want to take a chance of being cut off the page do not put within 1/2 and of the page edge. So if you do an 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 your page should be 8 3/4 x 8 3/4 and any photos or elements should be 3/4 of inch in so they don't get cut off. If you upload from home you can do it over time since the pages need to be in your PrestoPhoto gallery to make your book.

As for binding, I have done soft cover and pro binding hard covers. I have several books from PrestoPhoto from over the past 4 years and all books are excellent quality and the binding is still perfect on them all. I think the only binding I haven't done is the spiral.

Has anybody had the chance to compare the PrestoPhoto books with the Blurb counterparts? I saw a Blurb book this evening for the first time - excellent reproduction and well made...... except that the paper was, I thought, quite trashy, like cheap magazine paper rather than pages in a coffee-table book. I mean one of those lightweight weekly magazines and not a quality item.

Geoff, I did use Blurb once a few years ago. It was a free offer for a soft cover. I never used them again. The book cover was thin and the page quality was terrible. They may have changed since then but I don't know.

Just to reference some others, I have also used Picaboo, not bad but binding came apart on hard cover and quality was the best. Some pages were even cut at an angle and not straight in the book. I have used Shutterfly, very good. Closest to the quality of PrestoPhoto I have seen yet but PrestoPhoto doesn't cost as much. I have also used Artcow. Had a lot of freebie books. Not quite as good as Shutterfly but still good. Until recently only had 8x8 books. Freebies made great Christmas presents last year. I have used one other company with a freebie offer and it was an OK book as well but again not as good as PrestoPhoto and pricing higher as well on books you pay for. I can't remember right now which company that was.

I'll be able to compare to MyPublisher after I get this book! I was very happy with the MyPublisher paper quality and binding, but the difference in cost per "extra page" really adds up (since I can't seem to limit a book to 20 pages).
I've read good reviews about PrestoPhoto, I like their pricing structure, I like the case-wrap option on the smaller books - writing on the spine is a *huge* plus, and I'm really determined to make it work for me. (I liked Blurb's pricing structure, too, but I didn't like the book sizes offered. Thanks for the review of Blurb paper quality, Geoff! I'd also be interested in a comparison to PrestoPhoto.)
Thanks for all the tips. In particular, thanks Russinator for the file size which produced good reproduction for you. That will help! And it sounds like most people just get the upgraded pro-binding with no regrets.
Thanks!

Thanks Kim...

I'm planning to make a 'yearbook' for my Photo Club and thought Blurb might be the one - until I saw the paper quality. So it looks like PrestoPhoto may well get the business - could be worth a few dollars, as we have about 50 members who have all contributed to the pictures I'll be using. I'm thinking of using the top 10 or 12 from each of eight monthly competitions, so there could be over 80 pictures. I need to check out the prices today.

The pages range between 75 MB to 118 MB. The average being close to 85 MB.

Could anyone double-check the size files they've used with good results? I'm assuming Russinator is just off by a decimal point above (7.5MB to 11.8MB) or he'd be WAY over his 500MB limit, and I know he said they were 12x12 images, whereas I'm only using 8.5x11(also +.25" at 300dpi), but even so I don't seem to be able to get comparable file sizes (I'm getting < 2M). I'm using the "process multiple files" option in PSE7 and the maximum quality setting to generate my .jpgs.

I think the max quality setting is only 10 if you use PSE7's batch process, but if I save each one individually, I could select 12 as the quality setting. Is there any way to increase the quality of the batch setting? When I'm looking at 72 pages, I'd rather use the batch process to create the .jpgs, but I want good quality reproduction as well!

Thanks for any insight you can offer!
KMK

Here's a photo of a few of the pages I used.

I hope it's large enough to read.

Surely that's the answer, then. The screenshot shows (or nearly shows) "Adobe Photoshop File"...... so I assume that's a PSD..... huge files and way more than is necessary for a book.

And kmk_kmk........ the quality level is 10 is more than adequate. It only compresses the file a little and you won't see a difference unless you were printing a book about 5 foot high.