Saturday, March 01, 2008

VioVio Book printing











Ok. So, I am sooo excited! Here is my first VIOVIO book. It won't be my last. Some things to note about viovio....
This is the Perfect bound, photo silk paper, scale to 8.5 x 8.5
I wanted to compare this book with the Shutterfly books. Now, you can get hardbound books, but not knowing how I would like the printing service and overall look, I went with the cheaper one.... and actually, I really like it.
The paper weight is very similar to Shutterfly. I couldn't tell a difference...
This book cost me $25.58 + 8.45 priority shipping for a total of $34.03 to my door. It has 69 pages in it! That is a HUGE savings over Shutterfly (sorry, I LOVE Shutterfly too and highly recommend them as well). I also liked the options with viovio. I could choose mini book, this size, and 12x12, all in paperback or hardbound. Some of those even have more binding options.
At Shutterfly a 8x8 20 page book is 29.99 and is 1.00/page extra. Now, that IS hardbound. And viovio does have that option. They have a 10 inch hardbound alubm and at my 69 pages it would have run me 42.59 without shipping. But that is still cheaper, and bigger.
Viovio shipped VERY quickly. I ordered my book on the 22nd and got it yesterday, the 28th.
Now, they're site is NOT as easy to navigate and "work" as Shutterfly but, hey, I did it.
I was VERY impressed with their shipping. They shrinkwrapped my book around a piece of cardboard and a layer of padding, and then they placed that into a sturdy priority box.
So, overall, I love the quality and price of viovio books. They could improve their site a bit in ease of use, but once you've done it once, it's no biggie.




3 comments:

Danielle said...

Thanks for your comments on Viovio. I have most of last years layouts uploaded and having been trying to decide if I had the nerve to order from a company I hadn't heard any reviews about. One question....I ran out of space at their site and will now have to buy more space before I can continue. What was the file size of the jpgs you uploaded for your book. I am worried if I decrease the file size the pictures won't look at good, so I am just curious what you did. It sounds like you have a similar number of pages as I will. Thanks so much and thanks for another template!!

HML said...

huh. that's strange. I didn't even notice if I was close... I just did a batch file format convert in ACDSee over to jpg. at 3200x3200. I didn't go to max size, but it was like 10 or 11 that I stuck with on the save as option in elements... good luck!

Danielle said...

Oh good, I used 10 rather than max size as well. Now I won't worry about the quality. I unfortunately hadn't really considered the fact I needed to leave space around all the edges for the professional printing. So I have spent considerable time fixing the layouts...but it will be worth it and lesson learned :) Thanks for your advice! Danielle