Help for the Clueless: Bound Books - Tips/Tricks

[DawnMarch]

Thank you for the tips, Sara! I might give Shutterfly another chance using your tips. I've been using Shutterfly since around 2006 or 2007. I've only printed 8x8 books with no more than 24 pages. The quality is just not that good anymore, in my experience. The pages are fairly dark and very uneven. By that, I mean that what is printed is not even. If I had a page with a 1/2-inch border all the way around, the border in the gutter would be totally not seen - it would be hidden by the binding. You would see 1/8-inch on the bottom and 3/8-inch on the top. Just horrible! This was last summer. The customer service was great, but when they redid the book it was the same and a few pages were worse. I tried Mixbook, and that was a disaster for me, as I thought I was following the bleed lines, but I guess not. Some pages I saw a white border, other pages were cut off.

I may also try some of the other companies mentioned. I would prefer putting them in 8x8 3-ring binders to avoid all the border/gutter issues, but those are to find. Persnickety Prints does a fabulous job printing. I've got oodles of print credits.

To those of you who videotaped your books, what awesome books!

Edited to add that I have never scrapped chronologically. When I've made books, they are by theme: Cousins, School Days (even before my son was out of high school), water fun, Christmas, scouts, Firsts (and not just baby's firsts), etc. The layouts within each book are in chrono order. I even did a book with my layouts from SSD's 13th and 14th birthdays! Those layouts are in the order that I created them.

I had exactly the same experience on my last Shutterfly book -- the page crops were all over the place. And when they redid it, it came out exactly the same. I don't know if they are using some new technology that attempts to assess and "correct" the cropping, but whatever the reason, my pages were unevenly cropped on many pages. It was very frustrating and has me looking for alternatives. I might try Photobook America.

 

[lizziej]

Mary, thank you for your post! I always use the full-page layout, and I've paid attention to the boundaries. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention. One time I submitted 7.95x7.95 photos, and I think it was worse as far as how much was cut off. I'm guessing I just don't understand bleed. The thing is that the gutter side is always cut off a lot, because it is all in the binding. If I have a half-inch border all the way around, most of the gutter side is in the gutter.

I decided to measure a book. The pages are 7.75 inches high and 7.5 inches wide - the other .25 inch is the binding. The hard cover is 8 x 8, and 3/8" of the width is the binding. Therein lies one big problem - we don't get a square page.

I just measured the one softcover 8x8 book I got at Persnickety Prints. The book (and pages) are 8.125 x 8.125, with only about 1/8" gutter. The big difference is that the part that is cut off is actually the side opposite the gutter - about 1/4"!

Maybe I need to quit my job as a paralegal and open up a store that addresses all our needs. LOL

 

[HavaDrPepper]

A 10x10 SF Layflat Book has page sizes of 9 3/4 H x 9 5/8 W. The cover is 10 H x 10 3/8 W.

The gutter issue is not a problem with layflat books which is why I will always pay the extra for them.

What it all boils down to for me is not putting anything close to the edge of a layout so that it doesn't get cut off no matter where I print or whether it is 12x12 single prints from PP or a book from SF. Learned that 13 years ago! So no photos or journaling within 1/2 inch of the edge of the layout. Elements are not a problem to me because most people will just figure that is how the page should look.