Printing a Photo Book

Beans27

Morning all, I would be grateful if anyone has any advice - I want to create a photo book with messages from people for a hen do.

All the online sites I can find to create them are very static, i.e. photos and text cannot be moved.

If I create the book in indesign and save it as a pdf, could I take this to a printers on the high street and have them print it? I don't know if they print from pdf's.....or whether they need files as jpegs to print?

Any advice gratefully received!

ih8stress

Are you sure you can't move the text and photos around? I've done a couple of photo books in the past and been able to place photos in various positions, and add text where-ever I want it (top, side or bottom of the photo), including adding extra boxes for text in two places on the same page.

I would re-check on the sites you have looked at - you need to look at the options when creating the photo book.

I've recently used Albelli (their customer service is excellent) and I think it was Snapfish I used previously.

Beans27

Thanks Ih8stress, I will have another look at Snapfish - I think the problem is I want to design it myself rather than held to there templates maybe. I've found a site called blurb that lets your download a plug in for in design so might give that a go as well and see how easy it is to use, prices look about the same as other sites for the actual book.

Big_Graeme

http://www.loxleycolour.com

They will guide you through everything, I've used them for years.

ih8stress

It may be possible to re-jig some of the templates anyway - e.g. select a suitable template then add or remove some of the photo and text boxes.
As I said earlier, there will be additional options to try too such as changing the colour, font, size of photo, text etc. not just the repositioning.

Don't forget to check out any current deals on prices too:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/free-photo-prints

Bonusprint and Albelli have offers on at the moment. Also look at the other sites - the Snapfish one shows the Father's Day Cards but if you read further it also quotes this code can be used on photo books too.

Also, if you register with a site, they might just email you an introductory code if you're lucky

Beans27

Thanks all, will have a look into these as well

macman

Printers invariably use a PDF workflow. They can accept application files (e.g InDesign or Quark) and convert them themselves, but it will cost you extra. Image files should usually be .tiff. If you use JPEG's, the result will be awful, as the resolution is far too low. Decent 4 col printing requires a minimum resolution of 300dpi. JPEG's are a lossy format used for screen display only.

espresso

macman wrote: »

Printers invariably use a PDF workflow.

Not for printing Photo albums etc.

They can accept application files (e.g InDesign or Quark) and convert them themselves, but it will cost you extra. Image files should usually be .tiff.

File Preparation
Information on preparing your files.
This information applies to sending files on disk, e-mail or FTP. Our file format is RGB JPEG (.jpg) maximum quality in the sRGB colourspace. Please DO NOT use illegal characters in filenames or folder names. Please only use Alphanumeric characters. Please also ensure that you have the correct file extension on your images (.jpg).

If you use JPEG's, the result will be awful, as the resolution is far too low. Decent 4 col printing requires a minimum resolution of 300dpi. JPEG's are a lossy format used for screen display only.

Simply not true!

..............

macman

Can you expand on what is 'simply not true'?
I'm not clear where that file prep advice has come from, but why would any printer ask for files saved in RGB, when 4 colour printing is based on CMYK?
You might get away with using JPEG's image files if you aren't picky about the end result, but if you save the whole page as a JPEG, text included, the result will usually be awful.

espresso

macman wrote: »

Can you expand on what is 'simply not true'?

Most of what you have posted, the OP wants to print a Photobook.

"If you use JPEG's, the result will be awful"

Simply not true.

"as the resolution is far too low"

There is no reason that the resolution will be far too low, it is up to the customer what resolution files are uploaded.

"Decent 4 col printing requires a minimum resolution of 300dpi"

Yes and I always upload .jpg images of at least this resolution e.g. 4896 x 3672 Pixels (17.98 MPixels) (4:3)

"JPEG's are a lossy format used for screen display only"

Simply not true, however the dpi required for screen display use is obviously much less. Nobody requires .tiff files to print a Photobook, in fact .jpg are requested by these companies e.g. Albelli, Huggler, Loxley, Snapfish etc.

PDF's are for documents not pictures. You would not put images into a Word document and expect good printed pictures.

JPG's are certainly not "used for screen display only", I have today uploaded approx 200 high res jpg's for another Photobook from Huggler, who always get good reviews.

Marty999

I work for a commercial printing company and almost all our work is printed from high res PDFs. Having said that, I have also created a photo book online via Tesco recently, I uploaded my own jpegs and the finished result was excellent. The Tesco website does allow quite a bit of re-formatting to suit your own requirements.