Print on-demand Photobooks.

I have been using Photobox for some time now to print out my collection of holiday photos and more recently my collection of street photography and I have really enjoyed the process of curating my images and layouts. I don’t print them out that often, maybe once every 6 months or so, and do it when I feel that I’ve not only got something worth showing, but when photos that are good enough to justify the cost of printing them out in a hardback book.

Most recently I printed out an A3 photobook (11.2 inches * 14.5 inches) in landscape orientation, with the best paper and Laminated Cover , which would have been over £160 (US $270), had it not been for the fact that I had a 65% off discount code, bring it at around £65!!!

Still quite a hefty price, so it’s definitely a luxury item reserved for when I’ve got comprehensive narrative running through a series. I normally print out A4 books (8.2 inches * 11.7 inches), and again I wait for the offers to come up, and recently bought 2 credits for 100 page A4 books, for £37.50 each, with the added option of being able defer the printing process for 3 months to allow time to build your photo collection.

Producing the layout can take me weeks to perfect, as during the process I’m often out photographing and find an image which compliments another that hasn’t yet been included into the long-list. Meaning that the new ones often bump out my initial choice of images. Generally I stick to the format of one photo per page, and the interface tells you the quality of the image for that particular size of print by display a J smiley icon for good quality, straight faced icon K for average quality, and a sad L for poor quality images.

Next up, I’ll try using Blurb, as it has the option for you to sell your creation through them, and if anyone has had any experience of selling your books through Blurb, it’d be good to hear how you got on, and if you have any tips that you could share with me.

It is a fun process, one that I’d recommend attempting, but only if there is a discount code / voucher and you have decent collection of photos to print.