iPhoto Book images

I didn't bring my rig into work today, but I will when I get home.

Color matching is good, as is the quality. I use them for portfolio books in the stores that sell my images. Price is right, too.

I'll post some tonight.

Cheers,

Gary

AL-FAMOUS said:

as i cant find (and believe me ive tried) to find the thread that had a picture of the iPhoto books after they have been printed, i thought i would kindly request some good clear images from you guys

many thanks in advance

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Do you want a picture of the outside of the album or pages from within the album? I've got three of them sitting here waiting. I think Apple's subcontractor does a nice job on these (some of my images aren't good and clear but tell a story nevertheless.)

I've only done one book thus far, and that was right after iLife '05 came out so it is a newer one. I made the large 11 x 8 1/2" picture themed book with the hard black cover. I just tossed a bunch of pics together of me and my friends from over the past year, and I think it came out very well...I plan to make another one shortly. But here are a few shots of my book:


This is what the book comes in, this handsome looking box!


As we can see how it fits in there when the box is opened


The book itself comes in a protective plastic envelope which has a sticky sealant that can be resealed to keep it protected


Here is the book opened on end...just another pic


Some inside photos, I could pick the layout of the photos and how many photos to put on the page anywhere from 1 to I think 16, but this is all pre-specified settings you can choose from, and you can't deviate. For example they do not have a layout page for 5 photos to a page, so you can't do that. But it may be different for other sizes or styles I am really not sure.


And here is another sample page.

Hope that helps you out some!

With Deefuz and iGary providing their books I won't photograph mine but share one caveat about the printed pages--unless you have framed or limited the size of the photo deliberately Apple will probably give you a full page print (full bleed, is it called?) Sometimes you may want that; often I do not, yet got it. I haven't done a book recently but only when they first provided the service.

Good Thread!! I was woundering about it too, once i update to Ilife 05 i want to make a book from my travels. I have like 300 pictures and i never got around to printing any of them..so this would be a great way to share them....

(don't get me started on my videos either 12 hrs of tape total.... )

Here are the three books that I have on hand. I'm not good at lighting this kind of shot but hopefully you can get the idea. When iGary posts I'll be saying "we are not worthy" because he's got the gear and the goods!

this thread is awesome - these books look so sweet

can anyone give me an idea on how much they cost ?

thanks!

-c

Best you get on short notice...hope they help.

puckhead193 said:

Good Thread!! I was woundering about it too, once i update to Ilife 05 i want to make a book from my travels. I have like 300 pictures and i never got around to printing any of them..so this would be a great way to share them....

(don't get me started on my videos either 12 hrs of tape total.... )

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The books are great. This 20-page hardbound is 29.99, softcover 19.99. Very reasonable and good quality.

I'm totally doing these as Christmas gifts this year.

Quality not good

I recently got a book printed up by apple. I used the travel theme and all and I mean all of the photo's that were rotated slightly came out terrible. It's a long story but here goes........... Well I exported the pdf from iPhoto5 and all of the pictures print fine at good resolution on my laser printer yet the book from apple was terrible. When I tried to talk to someone at apple about it I found out that iPhoto has no phone technical/customer support only a website where you can send an email. I emailed asking if I could return the book with the pages printed out from my laser so they could compare them and then print me off another book with pictures of a decent resolution. Needless to say I had no joy. They gave me 50 dollars refund and that was it.

At the weekend I went into the apple store in Pasadena and looked at one of the example photobooks they have on show and it suffered from exactly the same resolution problems on the rotated photo's so either they have a problem with their printing process or with the theme. (Note. all of the full page photo's were printed fine.)

as an aside when uploading my book from iPhoto I noticed that only 80 MB or so was uploaded, however the exported pdf file weighs in at around 200 MB. Where is this difference coming from, are they lowering the resolution of the photo's before the upload. I am very suspicious about thses apple photobooks and will not use them again and would not recommend them to anyone. It was a very expensive mistake to use apple photobooks.

I have read advice online and a lot of people are recommending sharedink.com so I will try them next time. You can upload your iPhoto exported pdf file directly to them to be printed so the book design will be just as nice. My girlfriend is on at me to get the next book printed so I will be doing this very soon. I will report back on the quality and service from sharedink.com

jhar257 said:

as an aside when uploading my book from iPhoto I noticed that only 80 MB or so was uploaded, however the exported pdf file weighs in at around 200 MB.

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There's a lot of discussion about this on the iPhoto board at Apple. The exported PDF is at 300dpi. The version that iPhoto sends to the printer is, by default, 150dpi. It's been suggested that this is to make the upload time more palatable to those with slow connections.

The solution suggested there (which apparently works) is to edit iPhoto's preferences (with it closed) with a little app called Pref Setter. You can go in and change the 150dpi resolution up to 300dpi (you can't get the file size larger than 250MB tho or the upload will fail). Apparently, this improves the quality of the books

Applespider said:

There's a lot of discussion about this on the iPhoto board at Apple. The exported PDF is at 300dpi. The version that iPhoto sends to the printer is, by default, 150dpi. It's been suggested that this is to make the upload time more palatable to those with slow connections.

The solution suggested there (which apparently works) is to edit iPhoto's preferences (with it closed) with a little app called Pref Setter. You can go in and change the 150dpi resolution up to 300dpi (you can't get the file size larger than 250MB tho or the upload will fail). Apparently, this improves the quality of the books

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I still wont use apple photobooks again as I am disgusted by their lack of phone customer/technical support for iPhoto photobooks. You'd think they would offer the service as these photobooks are not cheap!

Thanks for the info though

I've had several photos printed in a tilted or oblique format in the Apple albums and not had any problems. Their regular customer support took care of an individual print problem when I called one time, not concerning an album.

From an album, a photo joke or sorts:

iGary said:

The books are great. This 20-page hardbound is 29.99, softcover 19.99. Very reasonable and good quality.

I'm totally doing these as Christmas gifts this year.

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These books look amazing.... iGary, you got some awesome pictures. This thread inspired to get off my lazy butt and upgrade to Tiger tomorrow and update to ilife 05

iGary said:

Best you get on short notice...hope they help.

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WOW.........amazing photos you have taken.... What is it laying on....cloth or a table

Platform said:

WOW.........amazing photos you have taken.... What is it laying on....cloth or a table

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It's woven sisal. Great background (use it a lot) but as you can see, with no post processing, it makes the images too warm. Thanks for the nice comments.

iGary said:

It's woven sisal. Great background (use it a lot) but as you can see, with no post processing, it makes the images too warm. Thanks for the nice comments.

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Yeah...it gives it a nice "boatish" look

Made on a Mac?

I noticed in one of the above images that there is a page at the beginning called Made on a Mac, with the apple logo. Is this on every book or did the author make this page themself. I am seriously considering using iPhoto for puting together my interior design portfolio.

Does anyone have any pictures of the really small book? Or the second smallest? I'm looking to make a few of these books to sell some pictures in, and these seemed to give the best profit. I'll be selling them for cheap, probably $15-$20 dollars, so the $4 one looked good, unless the pictures are tiny.

Thanks for any pics, JM

AdamZ said:

I noticed in one of the above images that there is a page at the beginning called Made on a Mac, with the apple logo. Is this on every book or did the author make this page themself. I am seriously considering using iPhoto for puting together my interior design portfolio.

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I think this is standard and no way of taking it off - Gary did you take it off?
Why should it bother you though? It WAS made on a Mac, and that's the truth!
People shouldn't mind what computer/program you're using if the quality of your portfolio is good. Plus, it could be a benefit.

Gary - is the black background a standard option? It's so super-fly!

iGary said:

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Gary, I hope you don't take offense, but

"uses only the highest quality imaging technology available today with a 100% digital workflow...to capture the most dynamic, sharp and captivating images available on the market"

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isn't strictly true. This guy - Ken Rockwell says you need "25 megapixels to simulate 35mm film's practical resolution, which is still far more than any practical digital camera". So the shrpest images will still be made by conventional cameras.

Not to take away from the great pictures and awesome book! What font did you use BTW, or was that chosen by iPhoto?