Software to create photo books, with PDF export?

[Robert Blanko]

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Howdy,

Which software do you recommend for preparing a photo book?

Before switching to C1, I used the functionality of Lightroom to do so, even though this had same limitations regarding design and format.

The last photo book I prepared with the software of one of the large photo book providers in Germany. However, the quality of the printed book was rather disappointing. On top of that, the huge downside of said approach is that I cannot recycle the photo book file / project for another provider which offers photo books on real photo paper.

Thus, long story short: I would prefer a stand-alone software on my Mac which allows to comfortably design photo books and which provides a universal PDF export that I can use for basically any professional photo book provider.

Any suggestions are highly welcome!

[LocalHero1953]

I've used Affinity Publisher but now use Adobe Indesign. Affinity Publsher can do almost all that Indesign can, though the latter can print double sided signature pages for folding, stitching and binding yourself - unnecessary unless you want to make your own physical books by hand.

[Ouroboros]

Affinity Publisher user here, currently in the process of producing a zine.  

[rogxwhit]

Essentially you need a page layout program.  I have successfully used Quark Xpress in the past.  Affinity Publisher (as mentioned above) is my current choice.

There will be a learning curve.  Such apps can natively export pdfs, though. 

You will have the option of being able to stick with srgb, or going the whole hog of converting images to a given cmyk profile and soft-proofing.

Layout & design will be infinitely adjustable.

Good luck!

[andybarton]

All of the Forum's books have been made via the Blurb platform, using LR as the starting point. They have all turned out extremely well (even if I do say so myself).

[jaapv]

I have excellent results with Albelli https://www.albelli.nl/fotoboek-maken

who offer online software which won’t clutter up your computer. And photo paper. 
 

https://www.fotofabriek.nl/fotoboek-maken/

is the highest quality over here ( but still within EU)  and offer a choice of paper types. 

[M11 for me]

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Am 12.7.2023 um 11:45 schrieb andybarton:

Blurb platform

Indeed BLURB is easy and I used it a lot in the past. But to me the print quality is not satisfactory. I try to avoid it recently. A while ago I wrote directly to BLURB: And they answered as if I came from the moon . . . 

 

But sorry: A bit off topic.

[M11 for me]

vor 44 Minuten schrieb jaapv:

I have excellent results with Albelli https://www.albelli.nl/fotoboek-maken

who offer online software which won’t clutter up your computer. And photo paper. 
 

https://www.fotofabriek.nl/fotoboek-maken/

is the highest quality over here ( but still within EU)  and offer a choice of paper types. 

Thank you for that. I like to get to know tools for high quality printed books. But when I have to "Alle cookies accepteren" I am easily able to do that but that's the end then . . .

[jaapv]

Your browser probably has a translation facility. 

[Robert Blanko]

vor einer Stunde schrieb M11 for me:

Indeed BLURB is easy and I used it a lot in the past. But to me the print quality is not satisfactory. I try to avoid it recently. A while ago I wrote directly to BLURB: And they answered as if I came from the moon . . . 

 

But sorry: A bit off topic.

That’s exactly the point: As long as the quality of the final photo book matches your expectations, there is no need to worry too much about their (mostly online) software.

If you are however not satisfied, it can be a mess, as usually you will not have a „neutral“ PDF - if you have a pdf at all - that you may use with other providers.

I prepared a photo book with nice memories from my last holiday in Norway and gifted three books to relatives- each had stripes on some pages originating from the printing process. The designer3 software they used worked fine, but looks like I have to start from the scratch when changing to another provider.

That‘s why I simply prefer an independent stand-alone software on my computer with PDF or postscript or whatsoever export.

[Alexander-HH]

Am 13.7.2023 um 13:55 schrieb Robert Blanko:

That‘s why I simply prefer an independent stand-alone software on my computer with PDF or postscript or whatsoever export.

That’s my preference as well. I am using Swift Publisher for Mac 👍

[Gibbo]

I use Blurb via Lightroom Classic and have been very happy with the results so far. Received the latest today which will be a birthday present for our son in law and am delighted with it. 

[Robert Blanko]

Thank you all for your kind recommendations. I have now bought the affinity suite after watching some YouTube tutorials about photo books with the affinity publisher. I‘m optimistic that said software will satisfy my needs, but let’s see…

[Mr.Prime]

thanks - good thread, I've had the same question on my mind. I'll take a look at Affinity.

[IkarusJohn]

Once you have processed your book with Affinity, where do you print it?

I was going to give Whitewall a try.

[Robert Blanko]

I actually plan to order a photo book based on photo paper and not printed.

Before switching to C1, I did this several times and had good experience with Digitalfotoversand.de and some years ago also with Photodose. (Well, as I live in Germany, those are German providers supposedly not well-known elsewhere.)

[David Cantor]

On 7/11/2023 at 7:21 PM, LocalHero1953 said:

I've used Affinity Publisher but now use Adobe Indesign. Affinity Publsher can do almost all that Indesign can, though the latter can print double sided signature pages for folding, stitching and binding yourself - unnecessary unless you want to make your own physical books by hand.

Thumbs up from me for Affinity Publisher.  There is an excellent tutorial on Youtube by Affinity Revolution 

[TheLaird]

We did a couple of safaris last year (non Leica kit so will not post here) and wanted to document the trips. Not for sale just something to share with friends or for us to us to remember when we are "older and greyer" We have coffee table photo books but wanted something more wordy with some photos rather than photos with some captions. Tried various things and then ended up in PowerPoint.

I just created a basic template, dropped the images in, added some text and moved it around. 1 "page" per slide. You can Print to PDF of course but you can also output each page a JPG image .... I then just uploaded to Adobe Portfolio and shared the link. Not as sexy as a real book but has all you need.

 

[hirohhhh]

I've tried almost every print-on-demand company, and in terms of quality, it comes down to Saal Digital and Milk Books. Although Milk's online software is much easier to use, Saal's printing quality is a little bit better, but the software is a bit clunky and requires installation on a computer. I last used them two years ago, so perhaps something has changed since then.

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[Robert Blanko]

I have now finalized my first photo book with Affinity Publisher. Worked quite well and I so far only used a fraction of the functions that are available. Nevertheless, the result is more appealing than when I was using the software of the various providers I tried in the past.

And once you have made your first photo book with Affinity Publisher, you may easily „recycle“ the design for future photo books.

A point of criticism though is that the software does not seem to fully benefit from the CPU resources of my MacBook. Generating the PDF of about 130 pages 30cm x 30 cm at 300 dpi took some minutes although the utilization of CPU resources was below 10%.