The Big Photo Book Faceoff

Golden Boy

My mission was to create a photobook documenting my travels in 2008. I decided that it would contain only pictures from Boston and Hawaii. It was a long and arduous journey to create the final product. First I had to select the pictures, then correct them in Photoshop and finally decide on how to lay them out in a book format so that the order would make sense. It has probably been a 1 month project with me working on it in my free time.

Anyway, I decided to use Blurb to make my book because MyPublisher is insanely expensive. My creation arrived today, so I was so excited to see it and rip open the packaging. After reviewing it with a critical eye, I noticed some things about Blurb. Firstly, their printers don't print at high enough a resolution, so all of the pictures are kind of dotty and pixelly. It's not my camera because I submitted high res photos. Secondly, their paper is not glossy, despite the fact that I selected premium paper! In my opinion, the positive things that Blurb does better than MyPublisher are the customizable book jackets and the huge layout options.

Lulu is another book printing option, but I've never used them before.
My conclusion: If you want a premium finished product and price is not an issue, go with MyPublisher. Blurb might be cheaper, but the cheaper paper also shows because the pictures are printed on more matted paper.