I've had an interesting few days, spending long hours in front of my iMac, putting together my first book of photos. I wanted to try two services and two pieces of software for comparison. The first was Aperture, the Apple photo management program that I use, This has a book making facility integrated into the program, which makes the creation of a book very straightforward, you then click a button and, providing you have an account set up with Apple, upload and order your book.
Good bits of using Aperture:
Easy to do
Easy to order
Bad bits:
Very slow to upload
Text options limited (somehow couldn't use different fonts very easily, or choose different sizes within the same block of text - did I miss something?)
Seems expensive (but haven't got the book to inspect quality yet)
The second service I tried was Blurb, using their free software Booksmart. This involved exporting all the photos from Aperture (which took time), but I found the layout options very flexible and allowed some 'creative' options which I enjoyed. Maybe I didn't fully explore the possibilities with Aperture, but there seemed to be more options (especially with text!) in Booksmart.
Good bits about Booksmart (and Blurb):
Easy to do
Lots of options
Easy to order
Cheaper than Apple (but haven't got the book to inspect quality yet)
Seemed to upload more quickly (but see below)
Being able to sell to the public with a profit :-)
Bad bits:
Having to export photos from Aperture was time consuming, even when all photos were selected en masse.
First attempt to upload failed.
I will report back when both books arrive for a comparison of speed of delivery and quality of product.
By the way, I have entered the Blurb Book Contest, so please vote for the book from the 23rd October onwards :-)
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