It seems like most people prefer to print individual layouts 12x12 but I'm wondering why more people don't have them printed into photo books? I find persnickety's website a little confusing but it says a 12x12 hardcover base price is $60 with additional sheets $0 (???) With a maximum of 100 sheets, so wouldn't that be up to 200 layouts in 1 book for $60? I feel like I'm definitely missing something!
I am a Shutterfly girl. I go absolutely bonkers to see that orange box on my doorstep! I print at 10x10, and collect coupons. Every year, I do about 5 or 6 books. I am a very uhm prolific scrapper. (7 kids, and a clicker of camera) So I split the year into quarters, do a week in the life, and December Daily. Sometimes just a summer book separate, or vacation if we go on that year will make a full book too! The ones I print are now about 40-50 pages, and with coupons, I can get that down to about $30. I figure, developing prints was pretty pricey, and albums to put them in...yada yada...so I justify the cost!
Em, I think when you add in more sheets, you'll see the price start to go up. I find printing Photobooks much cheaper (and take up less space) than printing each page, buying a page protector and buying and putting them in binders. Here in Canada, the cheapest I can print a page is at Costco for about $2 each page, and in bulk I can get page protectors for about $1 each. Since my books have upwards of 100 pages in them, that would end up costing me $3 a page or $300. With a coupon I can print a the same pages in a photobook for about $125 so there really is no contest. Plus I love the slim profile of a photobook compared to a scrapbook binder. I'm waiting (somewhat impatiently) for my latest 2 Shutterfly books to arrive - one for my pages done in 2011 and another for my pages in 2012. I splurged and bought the lay-flat pages. They should get here in another 2 weeks.
I prefer books ... but I am really bad at printing in general ... most are on my computer. I should just order credits and print pages already!
I print in 8x8 - some in Shutterfly books, some printed single for in books. I like the versatility of sliding in pages where I want them versus having to print in a bound book. My books are mainly for a theme - like a vacation, a camp, or a journal theme, everything else goes in a page protector book so I can move things as I create!
I had a lot of trouble doing photobooks at first because I wanted a "complete" book, and there was always something left to scrap but no time to get it done. But then someone suggested their approach - to simply bind in a book all the pages they've done in a year, rather than all the pages done about a particular year. The freedom to print a book that isn't going to be complete was liberating!
I struggle with this. I print 8x8 layouts to give my mom, and I have about 20 12x12 printed. I'm thinking about trying out Artifact Uprising's 8.5 x 8.5 soft cover books. They're cheap so I think I'd feel ok to reprint a more "complete" book later. I want books, but I can't commit! I've designed at least two different wedding photo books and I have still yet to order one. Ugh!
I do single print-outs... in A4 they cost 0.48 Eurocents, that's okay for me. I've just never been content with the photo paper they use for their photobooks, so it was a one-time-experience for me. Since I print in A4, the albums are very cheap, so that's affordable, too. I print once a month, always on the 15th.
I print pages. I love the idea of printing books, but I don't scrap chronologically. And having multiple years of things in one book would drive me batty.... and who knows when I'll finally be "caught up" and ready to print a book.
I'm another Shutterfly girl, but I do the big beasts of 12x12. It's all about the cost factor for me. I do also love the side effect of having smaller books, but I did start doing the layflat pages and that more than doubles the book size. I didn't know that Persnickety did books. I'm going to have to check those out.
I would prefer books as well, but always print pages. I print twice a year during the PP sales (or get credits). And I buy PL albums and page protectors online when they are on sale, usually getting a 60 pack of protectors for $20-30. So yes, each page is about $2 in total but I put it in my budget and use my stash over and over to save costs. My books are all a hodge podge of pages, all scrapped about the same time but with all different themes - putting older photos/school/vacations/art journal pages all together. It's a mystery what you will find in each book and I'm OK with it. I think books would stress me out, although they would certainly save space on my shelves. I may have to resort to them one day just for that reason.
Yall raise some excellent points I hadn't even thought of. Those that print 8x8 or smaller, do you find you lose quality or readability? I thought about printing smaller than 12x12 but having never printed any scrap page I'm not sure what to expect, it would be nice to save space though or print smaller versions to send to my mom.
I don't scrap chronologically, but I like my layouts to be in a book chronologically. It drives me bonkers to have things out of order once they are completed. So I like the ease the d-ring binder provides when I need to slip in a layout I made from an event or photos years ago.
I also print pages individually and put them into a 3-ring album. It allows me to slip in pages where ever they need to be chronologically. Next year, I'm going to take on PL and I will print that as a bound book.
I personally have no problem with the 8x8's - I can read them just fine, but I don't generally tend to do teeny tiny print or teeny tiny pics in my LOs for that reason. My husband likes to see the picture not just the art of the page, so I am generally pay attention to that when I create a page. For me they are just easier to store and not quite so cumbersome, but they are a bit smaller, so I think it is just personal choice and can depend on how you scrap!
8x8 is a nice manageable size, and as long as you don't create using a smaller than 12 point font on a 12x12 it is perfectly readable when reduced. I like the freedom of D-ring binders, and printing at home. I keep up pretty well printing once a month or so. But I am terrible at getting the pages into their books, they are all stacked up waiting. Lots of times I create a page thinking it will go in one kid's book and then when I get around to putting it in I think oh I should put that in the full family album too! If I printed in a bound book I'd be miserable when I decide to add in pages.
I put my digital layouts in the same books as my paper layouts, sometimes on facing pages, so printing page by page works better for me. When I do gifts outside the house, I print books, but I don't like them for myself because they remind me of the picture books my kids read. (I occasionally gift 8x8 books to my children, and for those I print pages to put into page protectors in an album.)
Same here. Another thing with books - I have tried setting one up and that process alone just seemed annoying. Like having to worry about bleed and if parts will be cut off. I just want to scrap it how I want it and then have it printed without worrying so much about the placements of the things on my page. I also like the control I have with the album. If there's a page I don't like, I can re-do it and not have to re-do an entire book.
