Which photo book software to use? Your reviews?

[lunababy]

Hi. I have two books I want to make for my DS. I did them both by hand for DD and so glad I figured out I can do online now! One will be baby's first year and 2nd will be ABC's for him. (ie, the E page will be Elmo, G will be Grandma, etc.)

I started a book on Picaboo which I loved. But it made my laptop unstable at shut down and print. (I am running Vista on a Dell Inspiron.) I tried Shutterfly since it's web-based but found the layouts sort of limiting.

Anyone know a nice photo book software that is OK w/Vista? (I hate Vista btw!)

Also curious...for the sites/software you have used...?
Is it web-based or software download? If download did it work on Vista?
Pretty easy to follow?
Fast or slow to edit, save, etc?
Good value?
Good variety of page designs?
What else did you like, not like?

Thanks!

[Radosti]

The quality of shutterfly is phenomenal. I'm now a shutterfly only girl. Everyone loves the books of my DS that they get as gifts and I just gave out two Sesame Street Adventure personalized books from shutterfly as birthday gifts. Both parents could not stop gushing about the quality.

[DebbieJ]

I just made one on Shutterly and it was super easy. I haven't received it yet, but I've seen others from Shutterfly in person and they look great! They have a great sale going on right now too and if you go through Ebates there's another coupon code plus 8% back.

[Neatfreak]

I've made books with Blurb, Shutterfly and My Publisher (running Windows Vista for both). I think that the final product from My Publisher is a little higher quality - the paper the photos are printed on is a little heavier, the printers used are newer. I think they are one of the more expensive companies to go through for this kind of product, but they regularly have buy-one-get-one sales and 40% discount codes if you subscribe to their mailing list.

The thing that I really liked was that you build the book in software that you download to your computer, so I didn't have to rely on the quality of my internet connection to make the book.

[ebarretta]

a professional photographer told me the best by far was My Publisher. She said it was easy to use and had professional results. HTH!

[shaee]

i registered with mypublisher and got this offer:

Buy 1 PhotoBook and
get an extra copy at no cost

Coupon Code HOME241
at checkout.

not sure if it works but try and see!!

Enjoy!

[mattiew]

I just finished a book with Picaboo and am very disappointed. The software ran painful slow on my computer so it took hours and hours to make a book. The book just arrived and some of the pages were wrinkled, stuck together, and the black background not printed fully on most pages. I've asked for a refund but am sick because of all the time I spent on it.

I'd love to hear of good experiences with other companies!