Shutterfly book resolution

[kelley]

Okay, so I got my pages all uploaded at full resolution and am putting them in my book. When I look at the preview of the book, the pages don't look nearly as crisp as my files do in photoshop. I am worried that I'll get a blurry book. Has this happened to anyone? Do the pages always look somewhat less crisp in the shutterfly preview? I got a book printed last year, but it was just snapshots using smaller files, no scrapbook pages, and that book turned out less than crisp. I figured it was my file size and wasn't worried - they were okay. BUT I do not want to end up with less than perfect for this book - I mean, its going to be a lot of money and a lot of work - I want it to look amazing.

 

[clearskies]

I have about a dozen books from them and have never had a problem with resolution looking fuzzy. The few problems I have had (not resolution related) they have sent a new book quickly.

 

[kelley]

I was chatting with their live assistance, and the person is telling me I should lower my resolution to 2000 to make them sharp. That sounds like bs to me. Why would a 2000 resolution image be better than a 3600x3600?

 

[farrijc]

I've been afraid to order for the exact same reason... everything looks blurry to me! And, I know in the past that wasn't an issue. Why would it be now? It's very frustrating and makes me not want to order from them again.

 

[clearskies]

Mine are 3600x3600 at 300 dpi.

 

[kelley]

Okay that is what mine are too Amy. Maybe I'll order a cheapo "sample" with just a few pages. I feel like they weren't very helpful - telling me to reduce the resolution of my pages. So I am supposed to individually go into each of my 259 files, reduce the resolution, and re-upoad. Yeah right!!

Maybe it will turn out fine - I'm just worried about it with it looking blurry!

 

[farrijc]

Read this over again and wanted to say, if you are looking for crisp, sharp images the way they appear on your screen, shutterfly is not the best place to have your book printed. Even when the images look the way I want on the screen, the images in the book are not as sharp because the book is press printed. If you are willing to spend more for higher quality, you could try adoramapix, persnickety or blurb. I'm in the process of finishing up a book at viovio.com based on recommendations here. They are less expensive than the other places I mentioned. I ordered a mini album from them as a gift, and I think the quality is better than shutterfly (which I have also ordered in the last couple of months). Anyway, that's my two cents!