Since MyPublisher use the same interface as Apple they are really only able to differentiate themselves on two grounds: print quality and delivery times. How did they do?

Well, the dispatch notification came on the 29th June which is quick but not as fast as Apple. Unfortunately the book arrived on 8th July, which was five days behind Apple and a full week behind PhotoBox.

But what is the book like now that it has arrived?

It’s nice. In fact, if you go read my comments on the Apple book you’ll have a very good idea of what MyPublisher have done. The presentation is very similar, and, in terms of quality, it’s not easy to tell them apart. The main differences are that the MyPublisher has a vellum-like page before the photo pages, while Apple has a patterned sheet of paper. It’s a nice touch. And secondly the branding is slightly less obvious. No logo, just a bar code on the penultimate page and the website URL on the last page, no “Made on a Mac” text or logo.

So, given that the quality is broadly comparable and the delivery is slower, what reason is there to use MyPublisher rather than Apple? I’m still wondering. There’s nothing really wrong with the final product but currently they appear not to have any compelling advantage over Apple.

See:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Apple were the first off the block. At 9am on the 27th June I receieved an email noting that my photo book had been dispatched. For some reason they are printed and mailed from “abroad” (with a Dutch customs declaration, the value in US Dollars and a German postmark) which explains why it took until 3rd July to arrive. Unfortunately I was out when it first came, so I didn’t actually pick it up until the 5th.

So how does it compare with the PhotoBox book that arrived last Saturday? It arrived in typical Apple fashion. Inside an ordinary card box is a white card box with the normal Apple branding. Inside, wrapped in clear plastic, is the book.

The book itself is black and nicely bound. Rather than having a hole in the cover showing a print on the first page, Apple chose to have a photo (and some text) bound to the cover. Since this is a book of our wedding, it’s nice to have a description of what it is on the front. Similarly, the first page is a text page of credits, an option that wasn’t available with PhotoBox.

The photo’s are pretty much as good as those in the PhotoBox book, and possibly higher quality than the Vietnam photo-book from last year (but since they’re different bindings — hard cover as opposed to soft — it’s difficult to give a direct comparison). The problem with the varying colours seen in the PhotoBox book is still present in the Apple version but not as pronounced. The Apple branding in the book is more pronounced than with PhotoBox but it still fairly subtle: the very last page has an Apple logo and says “Made on a Mac.”

Overall this is the best of the two books seen so far. The quality is at least as good, if not better because the colour balance, and the presentation is better. MyPublisher will have to be very impressive to beat Apple’s efforts.

See:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 4

PhotoBox in many ways have the advantage. Not only were they working with the full resolution images, but they are also a completely UK-based organisation. Their offices are only on the other side of London which has to help delivery times!

Nevertheless, at the risk of giving away some of the results from the other two vendors, they were the last to send a “dispatch notice” email, on the 30th June.

The next morning we were woken by the post-man ringing the door bell. It was sent by first class recorded post. Since we took advantage of the “Two for One” offer there were two books. They arrived separated by a card insert and surrounded in a durable card sleeve and, therefore, in immaculate condition.

First impressions of the books themselves are good. Hard-back and nicely bound, they look more expensive than they actually are. Opening them up is no less impressive.. The text on the opening page looks much better than the website preview (although possibly not the typeface that I would have chosen) and there is little Photobox branding (just a “printed by” line on the very last page). The lack of captions on the other pages — something we were slightly worried about — turns out not to be a problem. Sure, there are gaps but it doesn’t look like there should have been something there.

It’s quite difficult to objectively judge the quality. The images are all from different cameras with varying settings so my only benchmarks are the book of Vietnam I made last year, my eyes and my expectations having seen prints of some of them. With those caveats in mind, I have to say that I am impressed. The photos are generally of a higher quality than the Vietnam (iPhoto 5) photobook but, arguably, not quite up to that of a normal print.

The colours are a good rendition of those in the original images. This means that a lesson for next time is to try to balance the colours over the whole set of pictures. The Vietnam book looks more consistent because all of the pictures were taken on the same camera, with the same colour saturation settings. As a “photographer” this detracts from the book as a whole, but this is not something that PhotoBox should have done anything about, and nor does it make is any less of a good memory and record of the event.

The main criticism I can level is that there was no option to enter a page of text. As these are books of our wedding, it would have been nice to list the people who were there, the location and the date. Of course we could have added some of this information as captions but I didn’t think that was a reasonable substitute.

But overall these are just nit-picks. The books are beautifully presented, well printed and, especially given the special offer, very reasonably priced. If the other two books are anything like these I’ll be a very happy man.

See:

• Part 1
• Part 3
• Part 4