Wedding "Books"

[Petera]

Hi
been asked by a potential client to source what she describes as a wedding book ......ie pics are printed onto book pages..........

Ive seen a couple of examples of this but to me they looked a bit cheap and nasty lol

Can anyone reccomend a good supplier / printer of these tat wont break the bank ??

Thanks

[BarryM]

Hiya.

2 options i can think about, Graphi which are expensive but stunning and ive just received a couple from photobox.

Photobox ones are nice, if its for weddings u can get white books, they have a square hole in middle of cover for a photo to show through, a 20 page book costs 19.99 if u want to add more pages, its easy but costs per extra page.

You also get a little comment u can put beside each photo, such as names of whom is in photo or whatever, u decide the layout by picking and choosing for each page, (must have photos up online though at photobox), then send to order, prices drop the more you buy, i love the couple i got. great quality.

[Smee23]

Hi

You can look at www.graphistudio.com and also at Loxley Roes. We do our printing with Loxley and they have recently brought out a range of Storybooks that are said to rival Graphistudio. They are running a special at the moment.

Hope that's helpful.

[Stemmy]

www.graphistudio.com (http://www.graphistudio.com) - no other even comes close in my opinion.

Dear - I dont think so - 40 page book designed by Graphi - stunning cover - £190 - Bargain !!!

[Petera]

Graphi is looking good !

Have signed up with Loxey ......very impressed with the site . will send a test order off shortly

Thanks guys!

[lostmysnorkel]

I've started using Loxley for a few things, but the books I will still get from Graphi. Their current 50% offer is too good to miss out on.

Digistyle are also highly spoken of, but I can't vouch for their product as I have yet to handle one.

[David Worthington]

Digistyle.......... nice company but product is way too expensive or at least it was when i got my sample set last year.......... its an OK product but there is better esp from Graphi.

[Wineman]

DigiStyle make me laugh - all I wanted for a sample was a book but they insist on selling these "packs". You get some free marketing stuff or soemthing with it which contains marketing for trade and how it will increase your profits. i pointed this out to the rep as it was crazy. £99 for a book isn't bad so sell me a sample for £50 and not whatever you are charging for crap that I don't want!

[england1965]

so how does Graphi work ?

Do you upload images and lay them out online ?

I have applied for a password so am prepared for some investigative work when it arrives.

Cheers

Mark

- I do like the Photobox Photobooks (20 pages for £19.99 and 50 pages for £37.99 both plus p&p of £1.50) lots of nice layouts and more in the pipeline (or so I am led to believe). Might be nice to offer these as an option for those couples on a real budget ;-)

[Stemmy]

2 options with graphi.

Option 1 - you design the pages in photoshop and send them the pages to print and bind.

Option 2 - You send them the images on cd and they colour correct them and design a layout for you. They send you a pdf proof which your customers see and make any corrections then they print and bind.

For option 2 Graphi charge an extra £40 on their standard album.

As I do 60 wedding per year and most of them are the Graphi I have to use their design option.

[england1965]

Thanks for that Martin

[feathers]

Hi there,
I'm in the research phase for photo books for portfolios, so I've been through all the comments in this thread, thanks for the input.
Anyone have an update as the thread is 8 months old? I'm looking at Yophoto site, came up on google. I have in the past used photobox for my printing and I've been happy with their quality- but this from a hobby perspective ; ))

[randalls]

I have used Graphi -BUT to get the albums at the prices , that were mentioned here earlier (I think) , you are supposed to book the wedding albums with graphi before the end of each year -for the next year to get the 50% discount. I dont know how flexible they are if you dont follow this procedure, & want an album this year, if you need it ?

Also worth looking at sim2000imaging.com, I saw some of their coffee table albums recently, and they looked good. You will need to register with them to get prices etc.

Still cant beat a Graphi for feel & quality tho IMHO

[lostmysnorkel]

Yup, I'm still using Graphi for mine, although if the wedding was registered with them in '06 you still qualfy for 50% off that particular book.

The Bellisimo albums are looking good as well, from Loxley Colour, although I would really like to pick one up and handle it before I consider changing supplier. Also, I haven't yet costed one out to compare with Graphi.

As for designing the layouts, there are a number of software packages around that will help.

Yervant's Page Gallery
Schembri's 'You Select It'

are two of the maiin ones - very quick as they work with low-res versions of your images in the design stage, and only output the hi-res to be printed.

A cheaper option is Pixel Creator Pro, which works as a Photoshop Plug-In, but does run with the Hi Res files so takes a bit longer than the others to design te books.

There are more out there, doesn't Gary Fong do one? Graphi are rumooured to be bringing their own out soon as well, but these three are the ones I have had any experience with!

[redbeard57]

in mho you cant beat graphi for this type of product. I had a good look around at focus again this year and graphi are still market leaders.
i had a look at the sim package, and their costs work out higher than graphi and i dont think the quality and feel of the finished product is as good

[feathers]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess this will be an ever changing market place.
I'll follow up on the companies mentioned- ta

[Stemmy]

If you are an existing customer of Graphi the deal has changed.

It no longer matters about booking the weddings in a year earlier. They have a set discount scheme that applies to all books new and old.

Im not going to divulge all the details as I was asked by graphi to wait until its announced. Check your trade area on the graphi website - the deal will appear there.

[GlenJDiamond]

Try albumfactory - they give measurements of their "fun" album - it is at this link ALBUMFACTORY (http://www.albumfactory.co.uk/uk/produkte/softcover.php) 21cm x 27,5 cm per page, £32.80 and that includes postage to the UK.

in old money each page inside the coffeebook is approx 11 inches by a little over 8 inches (A4'ish)

To see my design prototype go here (http://www.professional-wedding-photographer-kent.co.uk/photobook.htm) (but that design is without text and without seeing the front of the coffeebook).

Albumfactory have a downloadable to produce the album. From experience I would take down the opacity of the internal pages to around 85 percent otherwise the ink will be too dark. I also use Photoshop, new document, set to 42cm x 27.5cm. I am then free to design a double page spread and set the crop tool to 21cm x 27.5cm that I use to save the left and right sides as separate jpegs. That way I can extend a picture across two pages or partially across two pages and design absolutely anything I want!! Then I import the left and right jpegs into the albumfactory double page design as a "background image". You do not need to use their templates. You should also squeeze your photoshop page content slightly inwards towards the middle of your 42cm composition to allow the middle of the pages to be sucked into the binding - otherwise you will end up with images that spread across two pages not quite looking right because you need to allow for the "bleeding" at the centre of the pages.

The outside of the "fun" book is hardback and can be one image (larger than 42cm) can;t remember the exact proportions, but again you should be careful to remember that the edges of the image will get tucked in so you have to allow for that by reducing your image or positioning it so that the important items are not at the edge. You can use either Photoshop or the Albumfactory executable to create text using your windows fonts. I guess that you can also use any other product like the Microsoft Office products, so long as you can save a 21x27.5 jpg you should be laughing.

Hope that makes sense. I have one prototype that I sent off and for £32.80 it is an amazingly good quality "coffee-book". I displayed it at a wedding fair and everyone who thumbed through it was delighted with the cost and the quality and the design flexibility. It does take a month from sending off online before the book arrives. There is plenty of scope to add more pages at £1 per double sided page - the absolute minimum is 30 sides (included in the £32.80 cost)... that means you have to design a front inside page and a back inside page, then 14 double spreads (which is more than enough for most weddings) although you could add another double spread by adding £1 at a time if necessary.