Today we will take a look at our third book publisher, appropriately named, MyPublisher. Their layout software is called BookMaker and is available for both the PC and Mac. As with most of the previously reviewed applications, the software beings with a wizard type application to guide you through the process.
You begin the process by deciding the size, style, and cover style of the book. There are 10 different styles to select from. I chose Just Photos for my layout. For the cover, you can select between a dust jacket and a picture window. All of the medium and large books are hard cover only.
The next step in the process is to add the images you want in your book into the workspace. I have to admit that I was very impressed with the variety of import options. Because I was working on a Mac, iPhoto was one of the import choices as well as the usual ability to import from folders on my hard drive. The thing that surprised me was the Lightroom option. This is the first publishing program I have seen that actually ties into Adobe Lightroom and allows you to add images from your collections.
After adding my 94 images I was presented with a warning dialog box that said my BookMaker book can not contain more than 100 pages. This led me to believe that the default layout is for one image per page. Once the images were imported, they are displayed as thumbnails and the program allows you the opportunity to rearrange them. From here it’s on to the layout pages. The layout begins with the cover image and title. After dragging the photo thumbnail into the page, the image sized itself to fill at full bleed. I then clicked in the title section and was pleasently surprised that the text section actually enlarged and opened the text options without having to search for them. This was very cool! The disappointing thing was that there were only 12 font styles to choose from.
The default page flow is setup alternates between single image and two images per page. To change a page layout, just click on the Page Type drop-down and select the number of images that you want on the page, from 1 – 12. Once you have selected the number of images, you can select from multiple layout options for the number selected.
To make adjustments to your images such as zooming, rotating, or doing some minor special effects, just click on the image to make the Image Control tools appear. I did notice that the software has a tendency to make single images full bleed so I had to use the slider to reduce the size.
Inversely, if your image is sized too large for the resolution to print well, a red border appears around it with a warning to reduce the size. I think this is a great feature that will help keep printed images looking their best.
There is also an auto-fill feature in the software but if you have already begun laying out images on the pages, it might move images that have already been placed into the empty spots. It is also undoable so if you don’t like it, you’ll have to start over from scratch.
Once the book is arranged, it’s off to the printer. I did find it interesting that you have to check a box that says that you have reviewed all of the pages and they appear exactly how you want them to before the book is published. I am guessing that they had a few problems with folks not being satisfied, only to find that it was operator error (shocking).
As for pricing, the hard cover books in the 11×8.5 size are $29.80 for the first 20 pages (99¢ for each additional page) plus $4.95 for a printed book jacket. The Deluxe 15×11.5 size will run you $59.80 for the first 20 pages ($2.99 for each additional page) plus $8.95 for the printed book jacket. This seems a little steep to me but I did notice that on the MyPublisher homepage that they are running a special promo to buy one book, and get the second one free. That’s two copies of the same book, not two different ones. Even still, that deal alone makes the prices seem pretty reasonable (at least for the first book you want to make.
So to wrap things up with my likes and dislikes:
Likes –
- The software is great, at least on the Mac. This package rivals the iPhoto for ease of use and layout changes.
- The ability to tap into my Lightroom images is huge.
- The zoom feature for working on text and images.
- The resolution warning is great for ensuring images will print at their best.
Dislikes -
- The lack of usable fonts.
- No large soft cover book options.
- The inability to move images around on the page so that I can completely customize my page layout.
- The prices, they do seem a little on the high side.
- Software crashes. The software crashed on me 3 times but never lost the work that I had done up to that point. This could be because the Mac version is a new release and still has a couple of bugs to work out.
So all in all, I was very impressed with the BookMaker software from MyPublisher. It seemed to be very well thought out, had great integration with my other software management applications, and was a breeze to design the book. I haven’t received any feedback on how their actual printed pages look but if their software is any reflection, I am betting they will look pretty nice. If you would like to check out the products and software for yourself, head on over to the MyPublisher website.
*As a follow-up to yesterday’s review of Blurb, I received a comment from blog reader Amanda Kern who had some really great feedback concerning her printing experiences with Blurb (you can read her comments here). Also, head on over to her blog (click here) to see some examples from a recent book she had printed. It really did look nice. Thanks for sharing Amanda.
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Hi Jeff. My name is Paulo Jordao, and I am a Photographer here in Miami – Fort Lauderdale area http://www.paulopics.com. I have used this software few times already and I have to say… It is a very good deal for the $$$. They have a great deal for orders over $100 (you get 40% discount), so your $100 order is realy just $60, and sometimes they have a special 2 for 1 (buy one get one free). But you are right about the limit of page layouts. I wish I could use panoramic, or move few pictures around.
Anyway… My Publisher is a great option for people that don’t need a extraordinary costume designed album and for a good price. You also can try Picaboo.com.
Paulo