[Rob Barron]

I have been pondering the idea of putting together a photo book for a while and seeing the special February offer of 30% off persuaded me that now was the time. I now have my book so if you read on, you'll find out whether it is worth doing or not.

I'll give you a clue - WOW!

Downloading Software:

You download the software from the PhotoBooks site here: Pixalo - digital photo processing, poster printing, photobook, photo calendars, photo gifts

It is extremely easy to download and install, with broadband it takes seconds, dial-up probably a couple of minutes.

Ease of Use:

The software is extremely easy to use. The window is divided into various key areas:

1 Along top: A page selecter showing a thumbnail of every page at a glance so you can drag and drop pictures from one page to another very easily. You can also add pre-designed backgrounds by simply dragging and dropping them from the Backgrounds Tab in the left window (See below).

2 Top left: A file browser allowing you to look on your computer for the folders where your photos are stored. This works just like Windows Explorer so is completely intuitive. The Images tab shows the folders view, and then there is a Backgrounds tab with various pre-designed backgrounds which can add colour and patterns to each page. You can have a different BG for every page if you really want to (I wouldn't recommend that though!)

3 Bottom left: Picture viewer shows thumbnails of all your ictures in the selected folder, again just like using Windows Explorer. You can view them very small or by movement of a simple slider make them larger for greater detail, useful if you have pictures that are very similar.

When you hover the mouse over a thumbnail it shows you the file information, including the pixel size of that file. I found this invaluable as I have a lot of high res and low res versions which sit next to each other so I could see easily which picture I needed.

4 Right-middle: Main screen showing the pages you are working on (double-page). It can have pre-defined picture holders but these are fully adjustable to any size, you can delete any you don't want, add images if you need more on one page. You can resize your images to the size of the frame (right-click and select zoom to fit frame) and you can move your picture around within the frame if you want to crop it.

You can also add text to anywhere on the page in a resizeable box with full font formatting facilities as well. You could use this to write a book, illustrated with your own photos and designed exactly as you wish.

5 Right side: There are other buttons on the right hand side, for adding ictures, text, etc and also an all-important 'Quality' indicator. This will check your picture resolution and give it 1-5 indication. If it is 5 or 4, it will be fine, if it is 3 or below you will get a message warning you that the quality is not going to be as good as you might like. Basically if you put a picture that is sized for the web at 72 dpi instead of a pic sized for printing at 200-300 dpi, you will not get a very good print reproduction unless you put the picture in much smaller.

This isn't a tutorial so I am not going to give you blow by blow detals of how to do every little thing, suffice to say I don't need to! It is VERY intuitive and you'll get to grips with how it all works in minutes.

Ordering:

This is very easy to. Just click on 'To Order' and you'll go through a fairly typical process of giving your CC details and you can order as many or as few as you want. If you haven't got an account with them, you'll make one by entering an e-mail addy and a password.

When I ordered I did not get an email confirming my order but the order DID go through without any problem. This is something they are looking at but no need to worry in the meantime. They will send you an email when your order is despatached.

Delivery:

WOW, WOW and WOW again! I can't believe how fast they were, genuinely the fastest company I have ever ordered from in my long history of buying on the internet!

I ordered at about 10pm on Thursday night. My book arrived beautifully packaged this morning, Saturday! Yes, that is under 36 hours from ordering to receiving it in my hands! I am not saying they will always go that fast but they do promise despatch within 7 days. From other people's comments, they have received it faster than that as well. I had a special need for the book and did mention it when I ordered so it might be they got it out specially quickly (I wanted it as a special present for my wife on our 20th Anniversary this week!) but that simply adds to how fantastic their customer service is.

Quality of product:

There is no way you could look at this book as in anyway less quality than any hardbacked bok in a bookshop, it is beautifully made, properly bound, a superb quality product.

The printing is superb and the paper is thick and glossy so the pictures are reproduced as good as I have seen on some fine art posters! I assure you, this is a FANTASTIC PRODUCT and I wish I had done it ages ago!

Is there ANY bad point?

Well frankly I'd have to be unbelievably picky to find fault with this but ok, this is a review and I want to be as honest as you deserve a review to be. There is one TINY issue, and it most certainly doesn't bother me enough to stop me ordering again (planning a much bigger one for next time!)

The font you use for the spine (yes, you even get to type a title and author along the spine of the book!) can only go up to size 8 font and when printed it looks rather small. I am guessing this is because of smaller books that wouldn't be quite as thick along the spine but I would have prefered it to look bigger.

But if that is the worst thing (and the only negative thing) I can think of then frankly you shouldn't be sitting there reading this review, you should be straight over to the sight to start making your own.

I promise you, you will NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!

Thanks,
Rob

[Dabhand16]

Thanks for that Rob - always nice to see a satisfied customer, and I know you have high standards.

One thing I would suggest that I think makes the process even easier is to move the pictures you are going to use into a dedicated folder before you start. You can still go to other places if you want to include a picture that is not in the dedicated folder - the explorer is, as Rob says, very easy to use - but having the pictures in one place to start with makes it even easier.

[Rob Barron]

Yup, I didn't do that but totally agree that it wuld have made life easier. I am just too disorganised so was finding pics as I went along. I sort of knew which ones I wanted to include but there was also an element of 'Ah, i know, how about....' LOL

I showed my book to a few people yesterday and they were amazed at the quality of it so it is not just my opinion! They really are well worth having.

Cheers,
Rob

[Dave]

Glad you found the service good Rob . I've done 5 different photobooks now & am still amazed at quality of them If you need to let people know of URL for photobooks, point them to pixalo.com/photobooks

[Rob Barron]

Thanks Dave, I am getting asked that question every time I show my book so I'll give them the details. Like you, I am getting fantastic responses, people really delighted with it and asking for details. One lady at church just said 'I want one!' I smiled and said, thanks for the encouragement but they're a bit expensive as it isn't a published book so will cost about £18. She stopped, took out a £20 and said 'Keep the change!'

I'll be back for a new version, bigger and better, very soon

Cheers,
Rob

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Rob Barron

T One lady at church just said 'I want one!' I smiled and said, thanks for the encouragement but they're a bit expensive as it isn't a published book so will cost about £18. She stopped, took out a £20 and said 'Keep the change!'

Excellent

[M0TFT]

My book as prize for last months competition, arrived yesterday, but I wasn't in so the postman took it back to the depot!!!!! Arrrgh!!!! So I had to go fetch it today. Wow, amazing, I had one shot, as a full image cover, and several as full two page prints. I would recommend them, the software took a little getting to terms with, but worth the effort.

Great product...

[lifethrualens]

ive had a few photobooks done elsewhere and never been happy, but never one linked to a forum before and thought it probably would be better, tried to do one but wouldnt accept my card, visa electron ?????

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by lifethrualens

ive had a few photobooks done elsewhere and never been happy, but never one linked to a forum before and thought it probably would be better, tried to do one but wouldnt accept my card, visa electron ?????

Will get this checked out.

[Dutchie]

Quality is fantastic. I've had mine in yesterday and i've had some good responces too.
I'm busy with another view. It is certainly worth it, and great to do something with my photo's at last.

[fgates]

What about orders outside the UK?

I notice that the site has a German domain name, I already order camera equipment from Germany, as it considerably cheaper than in Finland. A Euro price option would be great.

Fred

[Rob Barron]

I can confirm that it DOES accept Visa Electron, it accepted mine without any problem! It just treats it as a VISA card. I just checked my bank statement online and it is clearly showing there as having been taken as usual.

Cheers,
Rob

[lifethrualens]

Originally Posted by Rob Barron

I can confirm that it DOES accept Visa Electron, it accepted mine without any problem! It just treats it as a VISA card. I just checked my bank statement online and it is clearly showing there as having been taken as usual.

Cheers,
Rob

cheers rob ill try it again bank server may have been down or something