Spain book

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, but for whatever reason, haven't had a chance (I have a lot of such outdated posts; thinking of making them into a series of hideously irrelevant posts...). In any case, in September I finally finished my photobook of my trip to Spain in the summer of 2010 (yup, I'm a delinquent photobook maker, a sad trait I've come to terms with).

I had a Groupon for Photobook Canada, and even with the discount, it was exorbitantly expensive. I don't even want to tell you how much; I'm a little embarrased about it. (However, you might recall that I am slightly addicted to making photobooks... ahem...) Anyway, for the price I paid, I wanted to be blown away. I mean, jaw-on-the-floor, tear-in-the-eye blown away. Reaction: underwhelming. The quality falls within the Good to Great range, but I was hoping for Excellent to Superb.

The linen-bound book itself was lovely; perfect-bound, complete with headband (nice touch!), but the slipcase was not worth the extra dough, and the photo quality was only ok (I might even describe it as "meh"). There is a dullness to the pages (which feel somehow waxy) that makes the colours slightly muted, and the photos have this softness that makes them all look slightly blurry, whereas the same photos on Blurb's Proline papers are super-sharp. And there is banding on the pages of solid colour, as well as some slight show-through. Note with all of my criticisms that they are slight. But when a book costs this much, it needs to be perfect.

I found their downloadable program a bit cumbersome and not as user-friendly as others I've used. They don't support PDF to book (though not many do), and don't offer an online preview. So, in lieu of that, here are a few snaps: