Photo book of DC's first year--did you do it?

[babylove]

I'm considering making a photo book of DS's first year. I have a few questions for anyone who has done this?

1. What site did you use? (i.e. Shutterfly, etc.)

2. Did you include just pictures, or text with information about your DC's milestones, special moments, etc.

3. What would you do differently if you could do it over again?

Also, does anyone know of a site that allows you to design the layout of the page from scratch (i.e. choose how many pictures, choose the layout, add text blocks, etc.)? I like Shutterfly, but the page layout choices are somewhat limited if you want text (more than just a caption) on every page.

Thanks!

[twinnyme]

Not for DD's first year, but I did make a book for her for her 2nd year - and had it as the guest book for her 2nd birthday party.

1. Shutterfly.
2. Mostly just pictures with a little bit of text on each page.
3. a - I really like how it came out - though for this year, I may start organizing the photos a bit earlier. I was down to the wire getting it done. I am now keeping a "Favorites" folder in each month's folder of pictures so that I can upload more easily when the time comes to do the photo book - as I plan to do it each year. b - I did an 8x8 story book last year and I liked that size in the end, but I *may* try to do a 12x12 one this year.

I believe that you can do pages with more text on Shutterfly. One of my friends did a 12x12 for her DS's 2nd birthday and the last page has a half-page of text with photos on it. I believe there is a "Add Text Page" option (though I just checked and all the text page options allow only one photo. Hmmm....)

[scarlett]

I did one for DS's first year and it was a big hit with DH and the grandparents.

1) I used Shutterfly.
2) Mostly pictures. There are maybe 3 pages that have text on them.
3) The only thing I would do differently is change the date range I put on the title page. I put DS's birthday as the date range, but we had his 1st birthday party on the day after, so those pictures are actually outside of the date range that's on the title page. It's such a silly little thing.

When I started looking around at doing the photobook, I looked at a lot of different sites. Shutterfly had the best and widest selection of layouts. I didn't see anyplace that let you create your own layout.

[solongtogo]

Sharedink.com has a great photo book software with lots of choices of layouts ...I found it quite easy to use. Shutterfly quality compared to places like sharedink or mypublisher is less than top notch

[DaNiGaToR]

I haven't used this company, but have heard really great things about them. They def. have more flexability with the layouts and pictures and are pretty reasonably priced (not sure how much the shutterfly ones are though).

http://www.mypublisher.com/

[Kates]

I highly recommend Blurb for creating photo books. I haven't created a photo book for DS with Blurb yet, but I did create a photo book of a trip DH and I took to San Francisco. I was very pleased with the way it turned out. The software was so easy to use and the quality of the finished book was excellent. The colours were true and the pictures looked crisp and clear. I also love that they do jacket covers for books. The only thing I didn't like was that they didn't have as many choices for templates as I would have liked, but I believe they have more now.

I used mypublisher.com for our wedding pictures and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. The colours weren't true and the pages felt a little flimsy. I also found the price to be quite expensive (I don't live in the US, so shipping had a lot to do with that). This was over three years ago, so I'm sure things have changed.

[ellidew]

I have been searching HIGH AND LOW for a website exactly like you are looking for. I want to be able to place pictures and text boxes where ever i choose and have the book printed hard back. I don't want to be limited to templates. I want to print ds; entire blog at the end of his first year and although blurb is compatible with blogger it's just not what i'm looking for because you are limited to their templates and the formatting between blogger and blurb isn't very precise. I know the formatting of his blog will have to change a little but when i was using blurd i felt like i was dismantling and redesigning entirely.

I'll have to check out mypublisher.com

Does anyone know if i place pictures and text into InDesign or Photoshop is there a website where those pages can be uploaded and printed into a book? That would solve the template problem.

[Kates]

Does anyone know if i place pictures and text into InDesign or Photoshop is there a website where those pages can be uploaded and printed into a book?

ellidew, yes funny enough, Blurb.com.
I used this technique (how to import your custom design into Booksmart) when I couldn't find the right template I was looking for.

[ellidew]

Thanks Kates! You ROCK! I thought i was limited to their templates. So pleased that i can do it on my own and then upload! Now, i just need to find the time to do it.

This might not be the right place for this type of question but maybe someone will know. I want to use the same background as is in the blog on blogger. Can this somehow be used in InDesign or Photoshop?

ETA: I'm a little nervous about putting this altogether after reading the comments on the page Kates posted. Kates, how did yours turn out? Did you follow all of the instructions?

Also, i'm VERY new to adobe software (currently enrolled in a CS2 class). Are all files saved as PDF? If i'm understanding this correctly the files need to be resaved as individual pages in jpeg form. My brief experience with photoshop prior to this cs2 class tells me that if you save the file as a jpeg it can't be edited, correct? BUT, the pdf can still be altered, right? So if the first book went to print and didn't come out correctly i'd have to go to the pdf files, edit, resave as jpeg, upload. Am i understanding this correctly?

Sorry for hijacking your thread babylove.

[babylove]

WOW! Thanks, ladies! I knew I could count on the resourceful CC ladies

So, if I were to buy a program for my computer to design my own layouts and download those pages onto blurb, what program would you recommend? It has to be compatible w/ a Dell and very user friendly.