I love making photobooks - especially of the grandchildren. All the pictures these days are on digital storage media to which the great-grannies neither have access nor could they do anything with it if they did. A book is ideal for them. I've taken to making a copy for the parents, too - they enjoy having it there, and looking through them with their little ones who are fascinated by pictures of themselves!
I can't tell you who makes the best ones in the UK, but here in Germany they were tested by the equivalent of Which?
Their criteria were somewhat different from mine, though. Price is easiest to compare (although many of them have special offers once you're on their mailing list).
What the professional testers were comparing were things like quality of picture. If a snapshot which you did on your phone is just the perfect picture of a baby or child, then you're going to put it in there, fuzzy or not. So that wouldn't bother me.
What they didn't test was the choice of background colours, cliparts, and little extras for designing the pages, which I consider very important.
Tips for making the books: Be sparing with your choice of pictures - don't cram them in. Like with a well-dressed shop window, a single item will look far more elegant, presented simply on a page with plenty of space around it. Four pictures on a page, enlarged to fill the whole page with not even a border around them, are very difficult to take in.
Give each picture a title, date, caption. People will appreciate this if they are going to be looking at the books when you're not there to explain things to them. You can write quite a lot of text. Be consistent in your use of fonts.
Don't vary the backgrounds for every page - it will look more professional and is easier on the eye if you use the same background colour or pattern for the whole of the book. The background and the cliparts, text boxes etc shouldn't detract from the actual pictures.
Allow plenty of time for uploading your books once you have compiled them - don't do it late at night! It can take up to 2-3 hours sometimes. Best to save the book (always save them on your hard drive anyway), have another look at it the next morning, show it to someone else, perhaps, then upload it once you're sure you're happy with it.
I could go on but my posts are always far too long. Sorry.
So: Criteria for a good photobook service:
- price
- Delivery times
- Choice of design items, colours, etc
- What an independent comparison says, if you can find one
- what real people say about the services (ask friends, too)
