Question about photo books/shutterfly/others

My go to photobook site has always been mypublisher.com . Unfortunately, they are closing their website and will not take new orders after sometime in April.

For those that you use shutterfly or blurb, or any of the sites really....

1. Do you have to use pre-set pages? Or can you make your own text boxes and your own photo boxes, and move them around the pages?

2. One thing that I liked about mypublisher was that they would sometimes run a sale where all of the "extra pages" were free. Instead of charging $1 or $2 a page, you could make a book of 100 pages and have 80 of the pages be free, paying only the original price of the book. I really, really liked that because my vacation albums tend to have 100 pages in them. The book, with the shipping, would end up costing around $45-55. Do the photo book sites that you use have coupon codes that work like that? In other words, an 8x11 book with 100 pages costing around $45-55?

3. Mypublisher would also let you reorder books for $25 + shipping. Do the sites you use do anything like that?

Thank you so much in advance!! We are leaving for vacation tomorrow morning, and I'm hoping that when we get back I'll be able to find a new photobook site to use.

Not sure about all your questions but just wanted to let you know that there is a Groupon today for over 60% off Shutterfly albums (depending on the size). I have used Shutterfly for over 10 years (even made our Disney Wedding Album through them).

There are preset pages, but you can also add photoboxes and text boxes to each page. You used to be able to make a picture a background page - not sure if you can do that any more. While I do not know if they run specials with your additional pages free - there are usually great coupons out there for Shutterfly that you can use. Also I have found if you are making a book and then stop working on it for a while - they will sometimes send you an offering for a discount for you to continue making your book.

I would definitely give them a try - they also have special Disney layouts and pages and clipart.

lpizzuro123 said:

You used to be able to make a picture a background page - not sure if you can do that any more.

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I can't seem to get the picture as a background to work anymore. I really don't like the "upgrades" to the interface since some things I used to be able to do are either not possible or much harder. But overall I still like Shutterfly and continue to use them a lot.

Moomduck1 said:

2. One thing that I liked about mypublisher was that they would sometimes run a sale where all of the "extra pages" were free. Instead of charging $1 or $2 a page, you could make a book of 100 pages and have 80 of the pages be free, paying only the original price of the book. I really, really liked that because my vacation albums tend to have 100 pages in them. The book, with the shipping, would end up costing around $45-55. Do the photo book sites that you use have coupon codes that work like that? In other words, an 8x11 book with 100 pages costing around $45-55?

Click to expand...

Extra pages is where Shutterfly can get pricey quick. You can find free book codes (normally for the 8x8 size, but upgradable for the cost difference to 8x11). But the pages are always extra (I want to say $1.29 per page, but I'm not quite sure). And watch out -- some of the sales are only on the book, not the extra pages. Some of the 40% or 50% sales include the extra pages in the sale, but some don't. You need to read the fine print. So let's suppose best case -- free 8x8 code, 50% off books includes the pages, free shipping because the book will be over $39 even after coupons... So that's $5 upcharge for size and 80 pages at 65 cents each -- $57 plus tax for a 100 page book. Actually, if you were expecting up to $55, this really isn't that much more so if you really watch the sales, coupons, and fine print, you can probably come out pretty close.

its been a while but i used to use winkflash.

I use shutterfly for our Christmas cards, and a few other times. There are always some type of coupon for them. I have been happy with the end results.

About the pages as background. Yes, I believe after one of the upgrades you can no longer do this. I was really upset about this and have actually called to complain about this. It's been a while since I have made a book. I'm sorry to hear this has not been fixed.

You can use pictures as backgrounds on Picaboo. You can pretty much do anything you want to the pages--rearrange pictures, resize, add borders, text, insert additional pictures...

Regular prices are kind of high, but they are constantly running some kind of special.

I have used Mixbooks also and they are amazing. There are so many backgrounds and clipart and you can arrange pictures and add pictures and text boxes to your pages. I did one book with them and loved it but all my pictures are stored in Shutterfly for the past 9 or 10 years so I hate the thought of changing now. I also have the Shutterfly app on my phone and any pictures I take with my iphone I can download into my Shutterfly account - and even put them in separate folders by date and name. Unfortunately I do not use my camera as much since I got my iphone 7 plus so this is a great timesaver.

I use picaboo exclusively. I have also tried Shutterfly in the past, but wasn't that impressed by the ease of completion or the finished product.

Picaboo runs a new special every week. The 'unlimited pages for free' discount is offered every so often. If I have a book that I want to order and the unlimited pages special is not on, I can almost always find a Groupon which provides a significant discount off their regular price (never, EVER pay regular price....there is virtually always a way to save). Then, I can usually reduce the Groupon price even further by stacking a Groupon discount code (plus if you have Ebates, you can earn cash back on the Groupon purchase).

The site is easy to use and my hardcover books always turn out beautifully. I create one after every Florida trip, and they receive rave reviews from everyone who sees them.

1. Do you have to use pre-set pages? Or can you make your own text boxes and your own photo boxes, and move them around the pages? - no you don't have to use preset pages but they have them. Generally what I do is use the storyboard feature and put whatever I want on a page, then they pop them in for me and I change boxes/add embellishments/borders as I want. You can change the size, location and orientation of any photo or text box.

2. One thing that I liked about mypublisher was that they would sometimes run a sale where all of the "extra pages" were free. Instead of charging $1 or $2 a page, you could make a book of 100 pages and have 80 of the pages be free, paying only the original price of the book. I really, really liked that because my vacation albums tend to have 100 pages in them. The book, with the shipping, would end up costing around $45-55. Do the photo book sites that you use have coupon codes that work like that? In other words, an 8x11 book with 100 pages costing around $45-55?
Sales are constantly changing and I've never seen them offer free "extra" pages. I know that I've heard that there are sales that don't include a % off each extra page (only the book itself) but I've never had that experience and just finished a book a month ago and had no problem using a sale code on everything. I would have a hard time comparing my books to yours because I do 12x12 almost exclusively so those are more expensive but each page also holds more if you want it to. I always wait for at least 50% off photo books and free shipping over $39.

3. Mypublisher would also let you reorder books for $25 + shipping. Do the sites you use do anything like that? No, they don't offer anything like that.

To those talking about a picture as a background, yes you can still do that. I just signed in to a book I'm working on and did it with no issue. If you click on the book you want to work on, go to "backgrounds" on the left and then at the very bottom it says "use a picture as a background" and click that. I was able to add a picture as a background. I don't remember ever having a problem with this feature even after they tweaked the system but maybe I just didn't use the feature during that time. It's working now.

I chose Shutterfly for their quality but their customer service is another one of the things that keeps me coming back. I had ordered a calendar for my FIL and it got stuck at the post office around Christmas. They rush shipped another calendar, this time changing the address to ship directly to him (since I didn't realize it until the day they were visiting) free of charge, no questions asked. One time I had even put the wrong address for shipping and the mailman delivered it to someone else and they sent me a new one free of charge (an entire 12x12 book), even though it was my mistake.

I use Shutterfly for my books and have liked the quality. They are always running sales, so I don't order a book until there is the sale that I want (usually 50% off of EVERYTHING). Check retailmenot . com for coupon codes. You can always stack many of them. I am almost done with my book and they currently have a $10 off $10, 50% off books (only the first 2ish pages) and 30% off of everything else (this would be for the extra pages), free shipping, free book (the cost of the 8x8 will be applied to my order,) free card, and sometimes 101 free prints. They don't always run the same promos, but more often than not, you will find something. I have also bought coupon codes from eBay for really cheap if it makes sense, and I cannot wait for a sale.

They have been upgrading their site in the last 6 months or so. In the beginning, it was awful. So many bugs and "fixes" that made working on projects so annoying. They SLOWLY have been adding some of the features back and fixing the "enhancements" so it is not as bad as it was when they first rolled it out. There are things that I find annoying (like the Timeline feature - but that is slowly becoming more user friendly).

You CAN use a pictures as a background.

No, you don't have to use the preset pages at all. I do choose a "theme" for a book, but I customize it completely and use the "find more Idea Pages" a ton. Even with the preset idea pages, I change the layouts frequently. I spend SO MUCH time on my books (I do yearly albums and I am just finishing up 2016), and change pretty much everything except the initial idea that I picked (a page for vacation to the beach, or school, or Christmas, etc.). You can easily add text boxes, change photo sizes, crops, layouts by using the Advanced Editing tool.

I used Snapfish once and it was ok, but that was years ago.