I've been on quite a few adventures with my son and have taken quite a few photos. I'd like to make a hardcover book to give him and I'd like it to be high quality. Anyone have a company they like that uses quality paper, great printing, and is durable?

I've been looking at these:

Blurb
Mixbook
Printique
Milkbook
Artifact uprising

As with every internet search, I'm getting mixed reviews so I have come to Texags, where people know stuff.

Look into Persnickety Prints. I have not made any of their hardcover books but I love the quality of their prints. They have really good customer service too.

It's been a few years, but I've used Shutterfly to make three different books for various vacations.

I used to enjoy scrapbooking (back when I had more time), and the Shutterfly process is very similar to that. In addition to selecting the photos, you can select colors, art, graphics, borders, "stickers", etc, for the cover and every page.

It's easy to spend hours on one book. Mine are from 2015-2017, and they have held up well. Covers and paper are high quality, and I've had no issues with the binding.

Keep an eye out for discounts...much like CVS, Shutterfly regularly has 40% off coupons/sales.

I've had a similar positive experience with Shutterfly. The person I made it for still flips through it fairly often over a decade later.

My wife uses Shutterfly to put together albums of our big vacations. It's not too pricey, and their customer service is great.

Used to do these when the kids were little. Digital pictures eliminated the need for us.

Mixbook is fantastic. The lay flat upgrade (thick pages) makes them very durable.

Shutterfly is great for standard picture books.

But I definitely would not classify them as "high quality."

Broussards, Antoines or Revolution?

htxag09 said:

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Shutterfly is great for standard picture books.

But I definitely would not classify them as "high quality."

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Agree, but when it comes to mass market stuff like that they're pretty good. If you get too much nicer you end up in wedding album printer territory where they just add a zero to whatever price you were hoping for.

bthotugigem05 said:

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htxag09 said:

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Shutterfly is great for standard picture books.

But I definitely would not classify them as "high quality."

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Agree, but when it comes to mass market stuff like that they're pretty good. If you get too much nicer you end up in wedding album printer territory where they just add a zero to whatever price you were hoping for.

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Sure, but OP specifically asked for high quality

We have several Shutterfly books. We also have books a photographer made from the photo sessions we had w/ her during the first year of each of our kids. The ones from the photographer are exponentially higher quality. Yes, more expensive. And up to each person if it's worth it.

Thanks y'all, but I'm looking for something a step or two above Shutterfly. I've used them and it's a good product, but not what I'm looking for on this particular project. This one is special.

78669AG said:

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Broussards, Antoines or Revolution?

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Revolution has a great gumbo but I'll save that for another book or the New Orleans thread. We'll actually be there next weekend!

BSD said:

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78669AG said:

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Broussards, Antoines or Revolution?

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Revolution has a great gumbo but I'll save that for another book or the New Orleans thread. We'll actually be there next weekend!

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Dang it! Wrong thread. We will be there this weekend too

My wife made one of the Artifact Uprising board books with pictures of our daughter and me for Father's Day. It was a good quality product and stands up to a toddler tearing at it. I bet their higher quality photo books would be great.

She also put together a hardcover photo book using MPix for her grandmother recently and it turned out spectacular.

I bet either company would have the quality you are looking for.

I've done a lot of books in Shutterfly over the last 20 years. They have been my "go to" for photo projects, but in my opinion they've gone downhill recently. Their system was "WYSIWYG" for a long time, but it isn't anymore. Pics that are full-page on the website sometimes don't print full-page. I've seen some other issues, but that's the most consistent problem. It's to the point that I'm looking for another photo book source, so this thread is timely for me.

Interesting you said this. I haven't used Shutterfly for a picture book since 2017 (have used them for other things). I'm super happy with the ones I made. I did hardcover books, and the pics printed great, and the paper is very nice. Some of them are full sheet, edge to edge. My only "complaint" is the book doesn't open completely flat, but I knew that would be the case when I selected the cover. I'm sure I didn't purchase their highest quality paper, but for memorializing vacations, I was very pleased.

Disappointing to hear they aren't as good as they used to be.

I seem to recall when I used them last (for something else), their website was kind of difficult to use.