online photo books

[dacar]

Hi AusPhotographers!
Does anyone know whether any company offers printable photobooks which are also stored online?
I want to compile some historic family photos and make the book accessible and editable by distant family members. In other words, a collaborative compilation.
I have tried SnapFish but found their layouts too restrictive. I like AlbumWorks, but the books are not stored online.
Any ideas?

[ricktas]

Not sure if momento offer anything like this, but you could have a look. www.momento.com.au

[gary]

I have used Momento for two books and very happy with the results but i think they
only store the book online once you have purchased a copy of that book.

If you don't purchase the book they only keep it online for one month and then delete it.

[Old Skool]

Albumworks now have an online feature with their V3 software, but it is only available after you upload and order a book. They then send you a link to the book. I've just done one, you can have a look at the link below here to see if that suits. Once completed that's it though, you can't edit it online. Your family can only view it and email suggestions changes for another book that would have to be uploaded and bought.

http://bit.ly/AwsaFc

[Tommo224]

I used www.blurb.com for my photo books when I printed up my Photo of the Day project in sections.

They store them online and have an online preview (you can select as many individual pages or ALL pages to preview), as well as giving you a URL to send to everybody. If you want to, you can even make profit on your books without paying them an extra fee (if you want to sell your books for higher to other people for whatever reason).

Postage is reasonable per book, and delivers quite fast. Plus the quality and extra options they offer are fantastic.


Their help/service:
Very happy with their service! There was a mistake on their behalf which they resolved by sending me a number of free books, one other time printing was delayed by 1 single day (I wouldn't have noticed, but they emailed me), and they gave me free postage for that lot as well.

Another time I lost the stored files on my computer (pc died), they went to the effort of getting their IT department to search for my profile and uploaded everything to a private server for me to download too


Bookstore Link:
Here is an example of one of my books on Blurb.com, so you can see what it will look like when you send it to others:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2709662

And here is the online preview link:
http://www.blurb.com/books/2709662

[bowjac]

I was after the same thing.

Thanks for the links, everyone.

[SirLozalot]

I too was after these links.

Co-incidentally I just read an article that Lightroom 4 has a photobook option. I do not know about online option.

Previously the only photo book app I knew of was the one I downloaded from OfficeWorks. It was ok and easy to use but I felt there must be better out there.

Thanks for info.

[rodw]

I just sent a book to photobookshop.com.au yesterday because I was given a voucher for Christmas. The software was easy to use. I am looking forward to seeing the final result.

Lightroom 4 was released today and it includes a publish module that sends your books to Blurb which when I looked yesterday offered much better value.

[dacar]

Thanks for all the prompt replies everyone. It looks like there are quite a few peole after the same thing, and it looks like it doesn't really exist - or we haven't found it yet. Maybe there is a business opportunuity there!
having said that, I don't want to consider the thread closed - iot's too soon. So I hope someone else has found what we are looking for and is ready to share it.
cheers
david

[rodw]

Thanks for all the prompt replies everyone. It looks like there are quite a few peole after the same thing, and it looks like it doesn't really exist - or we haven't found it yet. Maybe there is a business opportunuity there!
having said that, I don't want to consider the thread closed - iot's too soon. So I hope someone else has found what we are looking for and is ready to share it.
cheers
david

They do exist. Try http://www.lulu.com/. They let you upload a print ready PDF file (eg prepared in InDesign) and the service even included issuing an ISBN Number and a listing on Amazon (Amazon only available for US customers but that may have changed).

I think the fact that you said photobook made us think of a different type of service that was template based. I think if you Google "Self Publishing" and "On Demand Printing" you will start to home in on what you are looking for.

Once you are using a page layout program, there is no restriction on the layout (but bleeds, gutters, creep and a whole host of technical things need to be considered). Hopefully the publisher you choose will provide good guidelines to follow and enforce standards if this takes you out of your comfort zone.

have fun!

[dacar]

Thanks for the pointers, Rodw. I will chase them up.
The major sticking point seems to be online editing - I would like inpput from family members in Brisbane, Melbourne, Darwin, rural NSW and rural Vic. Hard to get us all together in one place at one time AND with all our relevant photos!
David

[rodw]

Thanks for the pointers, Rodw. I will chase them up.
The major sticking point seems to be online editing - I would like inpput from family members in Brisbane, Melbourne, Darwin, rural NSW and rural Vic. Hard to get us all together in one place at one time AND with all our relevant photos!
David

Have a look at LuLu as it might suppport what you want. I posted my comments based on a look I had quite some time ago and I have a printing background so I would control the layout completely. But after my post I had a look and I think it will do it for you now!

Failing that maybe look at using Flickr to collect material but I am not familiar with it. I think it now allows some big files so everbody could run their own account and you could pick the photos you wanted from the list. This is probably better and give more control rather than each contributor editing the main document. I would be afraid of this scenario

If you found a solution that generated PDF proofs you could share the document for comment on Google Docs from time to time. I think Lulu may do that..