We were pretty happy with our Snapfish photo book, as it offered fairly accurate color reproduction and good value for money. We felt that the general quality of the book could have been better, but overall this turned out to be one of the better photo books that we reviewed.
Pros
+
Fairly accurate colors
+
Often runs good deals
+
Good design tool
Cons
-
Cover was slightly wonky
-
Overall quality could have been better
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Investing in a photo book is a fantastic way to make the very most of your favorite photos. Whether you want to create a slick portfolio showcasing all of your best snaps, or a sentimental collection of your favorite family photos, we’ve been reviewing the best photo book providers on the market to help you decide which is best for you.
Snapfish is one of the world’s leading photo finishing product providers, serving eight countries including the US, the UK and Australia. Snapfish offers a wide range of products, including photo books, photo calendars, canvas prints and novelty photo gifts such as a photo chopping board! We tested out its online photo book creator tool and reviewed the A4 landscape photo book we ordered. Discover the results below!
Specifications
Book shape: Landscape, Portrait, Square Book size: 5 x 7”, 6 x 8”, 8 x 11”, 11 x 14”, 7 x 5”, 8 x 8”, 12 x 12” Paper: Semi-gloss Style: Soft cover, hard cover, layflat hardcover, linen hardcover, leather hardcover,matte cover Extra pages: $1.99 per two pages Shipping: UK, Europe, USA
Snapfish's online photo book creator tool had some interesting design options to choose from (Image credit: Snapfish / Louise Carey)
Ease of use
Many of the photo book manufacturers have such similar online book creator tools that we can’t help but think that they must be using the same third party company. Snapfish’s creator tool is very similar to Photobox’s, and both function well.
You can choose a variety of designs, backgrounds, embellishments and borders to adorn your photo book creation with, which means that you can design yourself a totally unique book.
Quality of results
We were fairly pleased with the photo book we received from Snapfish. The color accuracy was good throughout the book - and even on the cover too. In other photo books that we reviewed we tended to have trouble with the cover printing the colors of our image accurately. Either the skin tones would end up as a muddy red tone, or they’d be so overly saturated with orange that it would look ridiculous. However, we also noticed that the cover of the Snapfish photo book was wonky, with the two pieces of cardboard slightly askew.
It’s also worth noting that while Snapfish’s offering was probably the most accurate color reproduction for the cover out of all the photo books, it was still quite heavily saturated. To ensure you’re happy with your photo book front cover, we recommend avoiding images that are already highly saturated.
In terms of the rest of the book, the printing quality inside the book is fairly good. The color accuracy is decent and, although the prints could be sharper, the image quality as a whole is fine.
Conclusion
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The photo book cover compared with the original digital image(Image credit: Future / Louise Carey)
The photo book cover compared with the original digital image(Image credit: Louise Carey)
Overall, we were happy with our Snapfish photo book. It’s probably one of the better photo book manufacturers in terms of value for money - especially if you take advantage of one of the periodic sales that Snapfish runs.
There were other manufacturers who offered slightly nice paper stock and slightly more substantial covers, but not only were these more expensive, the color accuracy wasn’t as impressive.
With over a decade of photographic experience, Louise arms Digital Camera World with a wealth of knowledge on photographic technique and know-how – something at which she is so adept that she's delivered workshops for the likes of ITV and Sue Ryder. Louise also brings years of experience as both a web and print journalist, having served as features editor for Practical Photography magazine and contributing photography tutorials and camera analysis to titles including Digital Camera Magazine and Digital Photographer. Louise currently shoots with the Fujifilm X-T200 and the Nikon D800, capturing self-portraits and still life images, and is DCW's ecommerce editor, meaning that she knows good camera, lens and laptop deals when she sees them.
