No matter the occasion, a personalized photo book always makes a wonderful gift. But how do you start turning your photos from a summer trip to Italy or a surprise birthday getaway to the beach into a stunning present?
For over five years, we’ve been comparing the most productive photo book by doing exactly what you would do: create a photo book. Throughout this process, we evaluated which service was the easiest to navigate, which had the maximum features for features like clipart and binding, which provided the highest productive symbol quality, and which offered the maximum productive value.
Our top choice is once again Mixbook, which has consistently ranked among the best for several years now. Its software is not only user-friendly, but it also allows for a high level of creative freedom. Additionally, it offers live chat support in case you need assistance. With competitive pricing and frequent discounts, Mixbook’s photo books also look fantastic.
If you’re looking for other photo-related gifts, be sure to check out our picks for the best photo calendars and best photo cards.
Great features, perfect symbol quality, the easiest-to-use software, and even online chat make it our most sensible overall pick.
For more information, click below.
If image quality is your number-one criteria when choosing the best photo book service, go with Printique, which also has powerful design software.
Learn below.
While not the flashiest service, Vistaprint featured quality and costs smart enough to make it a solid selection among photo books.
Learn below.
Over the years, we’ve done around 50 photo e-books from a dozen other companies to find the best photo e-book printing service. This is what we are for:
Our opinion:
Simply put, Mixbook remains the best service of the five we tested for making photo books. While some competitors excelled at one thing or another, Mixbook does just about everything right. Its software was refreshingly easy to use and also a lot of fun. Beginners will love it, but at the same time, advanced users will appreciate the range of ways they can customize their photo books. Most importantly, the image quality of our book was excellent, coming in a close second to Printique.
Last year we named Mixeebook the best photography e-book service, but the company is resting on its laurels. It continues to add editing equipment to its software, some of which is powered by artificial intelligence. We also liked the new Mixeebook Movies feature that automatically turns our photo book into a video slideshow with music and pan and zoom effects to give photos a sense of movement.
If you’re feeling daunted by the idea of creating a photo book, Mixbook simplifies the experience with its user-friendly and engaging software. It makes the whole process easy and enjoyable. Plus, there are countless customization options available, including 644 design templates for those who want to explore more. Among the services we evaluated, Mixbook stood out for having some of the most attractive and intuitive editing tools, rivaled only by Snapfish. The interface is packed with features yet remains clean and organized, giving you a clear preview of your project.
Regarding image quality, our completed book from Mixbook tied Printique for the best cover and took second place for the interior pages. During our testing, we used a sunset photo of a waterfall we captured at Yellowstone National Park. Mixbook did an impressive job capturing the details in both the bright areas at the top of the waterfall and the shadowy sections in the valley below. On the interior pages, Mixbook’s standard Everyday Semi-Gloss finish provided strong, appealing contrast, accurately reflecting both light and dark skin tones in our portraits.
We also appreciated Mixbook’s well-crafted mobile app, which allows you to manage your projects online or create products using photos from your phone. Additionally, Mixbook offers convenient 24/7 chat support integrated into the design interface, so help is always available if you run into trouble while creating your book.
Read our full Mixbook review.
Our opinion:
If the quality of height symbols is your top priority for photo books, you definitely deserve Printique. Although some competitors have moved forward in other aspects, Printique still produces the most visually and tactilely beautiful books. However, its overall rating remains second behind Mixbook. This is basically due to the Printique software which, despite some recent improvements, still feels outdated and can be tricky to navigate, possibly putting off less experienced users. Additionally, Printique photo albums tend to be much more expensive than those from other vendors.
For serious photographers and professionals, commitments to Printique probably don’t matter much. One of the standout features of Printique books is their exceptionally thick and rigid pages, reminiscent of those found in high-quality wedding photo albums. Even the basic features come with flat binding, which eliminates any creases at the junction between the pages, which is ideal for photographs that span spreads. The pages feature perfect color accuracy, skin tones, contrast, and sharpness. We were also inspired by the black and white images included in our book, which looked eye-catching and retained fine detail.
While Printique software offers maximum performance from the features we tested, it is more suitable for complex users than beginners. Experienced designers will appreciate the diversity of rulers, gridlines, submenus, and toolbars found in Printique’s comprehensive interface, while newcomers might find it a bit overwhelming. The software has improved since we last tested it and now includes an Easy Books editor, which will automatically position and design your eBook in seconds. We also liked the company’s new live chat. assistant, which gives you real-time answers to Printique’s visitor service design questions.
Printique’s point of quality is not cheap. The company does not offer an affordable entry-point eBook option like other services. Instead, it exclusively offers premium flat binding with luxurious, thick pages, which cost more.
Read our full Printique review.
Our opinion:
Vistaprint offered the best value of all the services we tested. The photo book we created looked surprisingly good despite being the least expensive in our testing. The only issue is that Vistaprint still prioritizes the range of marketing materials it makes including, of course, its popular business cards service. While the book-making option may be a bit hard to locate on Vistaprint’s extensive website, once you find it, we believe you’ll be satisfied with both the process and the outcome, as we were. Additionally, the prices are truly hard to beat.
In our testing, we created hardcover books, all in landscape format of approximately 11 x 8. 5 inches, as we felt this length would be the most popular with customers. Vistaprint’s book, priced at $30, was the most affordable of the five companies. : $5 less than Shutterfly, the second lowest, and $45 less than Printique, which was the most expensive. Additionally, Vistaprint’s basic books have 24 pages as standard, while competing books have Started with only 20 pages.
Given the affordable price, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of our Vistaprint photography e-books. The immersive waterfall matte policy shows stunning details, even in highlights and shadows, with intelligent dynamic range. The white endpapers on the front and back inside covers added a touch of elegance, as did the solid, well-stitched binding. However, the quality of the e-book’s internal symbol was inconsistent: while some of our landscape and cityscape images appeared bright and sharp, some portraits appeared flat and overexposed. .
Vistaprint’s software may not be flashy, but it gets the job done. While it appears simple and somewhat outdated, it offers a more user-friendly experience compared to Printique’s complicated and antiquated interface. The software makes creating photo books relatively stress-free, as long as you don’t need a wide range of advanced features or extensive editing tools. Keep your expectations low, and you won’t be disappointed.
Read our full Vistaprint review.
Our opinion:
Shutterfly is a user-friendly and reliable service that gets a lot of things right. The overall paper quality stood out, and the photo printing was decent. Although Mixbook remains the top choice for its superior quality and better software, Shutterfly is a good option if you want a straightforward, stress-free experience from a trusted brand.
We thought Shutterfly’s software struck a smart balance between giving users control of their projects without overwhelming them with too much information. If you would like help, you can easily access the overlay by clicking the query mark icon on the back left. The only issue we found was that the software can be a little slow, with a slight delay before the photos look like they’re in the design.
Despite the intuitive software, the resulting photo books were hit or miss. The page quality was excellent—the best of all the services we reviewed—but the color performance was underwhelming. Lighter skin tones tended to look washed out, while darker skin tones appeared oversaturated, losing some detail.
On the plus side, the default glossy hardcover was visually appealing, with our waterfall image looking natural and detailed. However, the shiny surface was prone to glare. Inside, the pages had a nice weight, and the smooth matte finish reduced reflection, though some of the brighter images looked a bit washed out. We were also disappointed with the binding, which felt flimsy and caused parts of images to be cut off at the center crease.
In short, while Shutterfly offers mediocre performance, it has enough drawbacks that it doesn’t compete with smarter ones like Printique and Mixbook.
Read our full Shutterfly review.
Our opinion:
Despite the intuitive and easy-to-use design of the Snapfish software, we found ourselves less likely to take advantage of this service than we were. The process of creating photo e-books, calendars, and cards with Snapfish was so fun that we thought the final products would be just as impressive. Unfortunately, their photo e-book ranked last among the facilities we rated.
From a distance, the bright, glossy hardcover of our book looked fine, but upon closer inspection, it lacked detail in the flowing waterfall image. While it wasn’t terrible, it also didn’t impress. The print quality of the interior pages was where Snapfish really fell short. The floppy pages of our standard 8 x 11-inch book were the thinnest compared to those produced by other companies. However, although the stitched perfect binding looked somewhat cheap, the crease between the pages only slightly obscured the images. In contrast, most of the other books we tested covered significant parts of photos in the binding.
We need all photo printing brands to emulate Snapfish’s elegant software. Not only is it easy to navigate and well organized, but it also makes the procedure of creating a photography ebook fun instead of a tedious task. When creating an eBook, you can smoothly scroll through a visually accurate representation of the entire eeebook to view all pages. Snapfish eeebook author also featured the fastest loading times among the corporations we tested, with minimal lag when dragging and dropping photos or scrolling through layouts.
Overall, Snapfish presents a headache. While we propose it for those who might feel defeated during the product creation process, consumers with higher criteria for the quality of symbols in books deserve other options.
Read our full Snapfish review.
*decreasing numbers is better
For testing purposes, we created similar custom books from the five facilities in our review, Mixbook, Printique, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Vistaprint, which we consider the most productive corporations on the market. We created 20-24 page hardcover books with all layouts in a landscape format of approximately 11 x 8. 5 inches, as we imagined this length would attract the maximum number of users. The only major difference between the five books is the one created with Printique, which only offers high-quality flat binding and thick, professional-quality pages, even as a basic option.
When creating our books, we also chose similar layouts and layouts across all five. For the photographs, I used my own portraits, landscapes and cityscapes, which were photographed in the studio or with natural light. For portraits, subjects spanned a variety of skins. Tones. The 3 most sensible points on which they were evaluated were software, symbol quality, and value.
SoftwareFor the book-making software, we considered both the levels of customization offered and the ease-of-use. Some services lock you in to just a few templates, while others give you free rein to make your own designs. The better services also let you more freely edit photos (though you should use the best photo editing software to really make them shine), and also give you a greater variety of options when it comes to things like borders, clip art, fonts, and colors.
Image qualityFor image quality, we compared photos across the selection of books, as well as against the original digital images displayed on a MacBook Air retina display. Criteria for judging included cover quality, paper quality, color, skin tones, contrast, and sharpness/detail.
ValueFor cost, we think about the value of photography e-books and the quality of the finished product. So, for example, a good quality e-book at a low price would have a higher price than a low-quality e-book at the same price. The same cost scale used for more expensive e-books in our tests.
This year, we evaluated Mixbook, Shutterfly, Printique, Vistaprint, and Snapfish. However, in recent years, we have also tried several other Arrays, none of which have reached our next level. If you need to read those old reviews, they are indexed below. Just keep in mind that the quality of some of them would have possibly changed since our last review. Pattern Review | Artifact Survey Review | Amazon Impressions Review | Mpix Review | Picaboo Review | Blurb Bookify Review | CVS Photo Review | Walmart Photo Review | mimeograph review
Procrastination is a natural human instinct, but it will cost you dearly when it comes to photo ebooks. In particular, if the e-book is a gift for the holidays or you just need to get it temporarily for yourself, you’re going to pay more. for express delivery services, which may especially increase charges. And, in our experience, fast delivery is the one thing that is rarely done through eBook publishers.
Therefore, try to order your e-books as soon as possible. This not only saves you time, but also gives you the ability to browse the ebook and request a reprint if there are any errors. Another explanation for why to order as early as possible is that many of the most productive photoebook facilities offer huge discounts all year round – up to 50% off in some cases, or with other added extras.
Image Quality The most important thing for most people is that their book looks good. But what does this mean exactly? Simply put, this means excellent image quality: skin tones are accurate, lighting is adequate, and key points are sharp. In the most productive photo e-books, it has smart contrast, deep blacks, and overall uniformity in color grading. .
Book constructionA photo book should also be built well. You shouldn’t see pages coming free from the binding, the paper itself should have a substantial weight and feel, and images and text should be aligned properly.
Book-making software If a business has poor software, they may not be able to create the photo book they need or they may become frustrated with the process and give up. While ease of use is a key factor, customization is also vital and our favorite brands offer a clever combination of both with their software. You deserve to be able to fully edit eBook templates, seamlessly place background illustrations, and more, and also make exact changes to your photos.
CostPrice is also a vital factor. Except for the most and least expensive features, you may not find much variation between ebook printing. However, some offer features like larger paper, other size ebooks, and things like flat binding, which means you can open the ebook flat. on a table without worrying about breaking your spine.
Which is better, Snapfish or Shutterfly?
Owing to their popularity, many have asked if Shutterfly or Snapfish is the better service for photo books. While neither made it into our top three, based on our testing over a few years, we can say that Shutterfly is the better service. We preferred Snapfish’s book-creation software over Shutterfly’s — it’s well organized, easy to use, and makes the whole process fun — but unfortunately, the finished photo book was the worst among the services we tested.
If it wasn’t already obvious, we think Mixebook is the most productive photography e-book service. However, Shutterfly has a few things to recommend. On the one hand, its software is easy to use (although not as comprehensive as Mixebook) and offers a huge variety of clipart and stickers. We were also fans of the perfect quality of Shutterfly’s paper.
Still, Mixbook surpassed it in symbol quality, its software was superior, and it was presented online in case we got stuck.
In addition to photo albums, we also tested photo card and photo calendar services. Unsurprisingly, Mixbook also leads among them.
While all of these services have basic photo editors, you’ll want to check out our guide to the best photo editing apps to make sure that your images truly look their best.
Going beyond physical media, the best digital photo frames are also excellent gifts for parents and grandparents, which you can keep updated with the latest photos of your kids.
It’s also a good idea to back up your photos, in case you lose your phone or computer. That’s where the most productive photo saving and sharing sites come in: They can keep your images safe and let you access them from anywhere.
Dan Havlik has worked in the photography industry for more than decades and is most recently the editor-in-chief of Wild Eye (www. wildeyemag. com), a new magazine committed to celebrating nature, wildlife and underwater photography. . He was previously editor-in-chief of Outdoor Photographer and Shutterbug magazines. He has served as an editor for other publications and websites, including Photo District News (PDN), Rangefinder, Wired, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Consumer Reports, Maxim, Men’s Journal, Imaging Resource, and LAPTOP. Dan is also an avid runner with 3 marathons under his belt and has written fitness reviews, including guides on the most productive running shoes and GPS watches, for Business Insider.
I photographed Christmas with two film cameras: here’s why I left my smartphone behind
Kodak Ektar H35 Half Frame Review
Are latex mattresses for side sleepers?I’m a sleeping writer, here’s my opinion.
Tom’s Guide is from Future US Inc. , a foreign media organization and leading virtual publisher. Visit our corporate website.