Has anyone used Loxley and Blurb?

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neilem

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Hello, I'm creating a family album and wanting to hear from people who have used both Blurb's premium paper option on their photobook, and Loxley's coffee table book.

From what I understand the pages are 10gsm heavier on Blurb premiem paper, but what is the better overall end product? Is it still a nice glossy finish? Loxley is more expensive, but I don't mind that as long as I get what I'm paying for... any reasons why it's better than Blurb would be great.

Most of the images I have are manually scanned photos, so they aren't taken with super-duper futuristic camera's.

Thanks for any helpful and honest opinions.
 
I have not used either, but had a couple of things done with Photobox. The Smaller books were not as i expected, i was expecting them to be hardback. However the larger book (hardback) was pretty well finished.

My only gripe is the limited page formats so you have to make sure your images fit into their format as opposed to dropping the images on the page where I would like.
 
DiddyDave said:
:popcorn:

Just facing these same questions myself shortly as a 60th birthday Shoot may go into a 'book' form. Hope you don't mind me tagging along for the info
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Not at all :-)

eeverson said:
I have not used either, but had a couple of things done with Photobox. The Smaller books were not as i expected, i was expecting them to be hardback. However the larger book (hardback) was pretty well finished.

My only gripe is the limited page formats so you have to make sure your images fit into their format as opposed to dropping the images on the page where I would like.
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Yeah Photobox is out of the question, their software and layouts are stuck in the stone age. I have listed only two sources after good research, hopefully someone out there has used both to give me feedback on the differences....
 
neilem said:
From what I understand the pages are 10gsm heavier on Blurb premiem paper, but what is the better overall end product? Is it still a nice glossy finish? Loxley is more expensive, but I don't mind that as long as I get what I'm paying for... any reasons why it's better than Blurb would be great.
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I cannot comment on Loxley but I used Blurb for the second year in a row to do just that - an annual family album of my daughter photos to her grandparents and grandgrandparents. The first time I used Blurb a year ago the quality was ok but not great - all B/W photos were not neutral with very noticable colour cast on them and some colour photos were unexpectedly dark even though they were of the same levels with the others on my calibrated monitor. Their paper was also pretty thin. I was slightly disappointed but then decided to give them another chance this year having heard a lot about improvements.

I just received albums last week and they all were absolutely fantastic. The B/W photos are now perfectly neutral, the annoying occasional darkened photos problem is gone and their basic paper is now much thicker. I had not opted for their premium paper because the album then has a limitation of 160 pages but the basic one is much improved. This is apparently a location based thing - European customers being served by Blurb printers in Netherlands are having much better basic paper than any other Blurb facilities say in US (I found it somewhere on their forums). I can only imagine that their premium paper is much better - will try that next time.

Their book layout software is now also much better than before - it allows you a free layouting of text and images on the page not constraint by any set of templates (it is still templetised but you can edit any of them or create a totally new one). This is something I have not seen before in any other photobook makers. The will also accept a PDF books and provide page layouts for something like Adobe InDesign to do the books completely on your own.

With that recent experience, I'd definitely say that their quality if now way up from what it was before and I would not hesitate to use them again.
 
dalex_257 said:
I cannot comment on Loxley but I used Blurb for the second year in a row to do just that - an annual family album of my daughter photos to her grandparents and grandgrandparents. The first time I used Blurb a year ago the quality was ok but not great - all B/W photos were not neutral with very noticable colour cast on them and some colour photos were unexpectedly dark even though they were of the same levels with the others on my calibrated monitor. Their paper was also pretty thin. I was slightly disappointed but then decided to give them another chance this year having heard a lot about improvements. I just received albums last week and they all were absolutely fantastic. The B/W photos are now perfectly neutral, the annoying occasional darkened photos problem is gone and their basic paper is now much thicker. I had not opted for their premium paper because the album then has a limitation of 160 pages but the basic one is much improved. This is apparently a location based thing - European customers being served by Blurb printers in Netherlands are having much better basic paper than any other Blurb facilities say in US (I found it somewhere on their forums). I can only imagine that their premium paper is much better - will try that next time. But with that recent experience, I'd definitely say that their quality if now way up from what it was before and I would not hesitate to use them again.
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Thanks Dalex. Blurb are extremely cheap and that worries me slightly, might be a sign they are skimming on quality compared to Loxley. Sounds like a win-win situation, but just thought to ask around.

I'd like to reiterate this is for Loxley coffee table book, as their other books available are at the top end of the market.
 
I have just ordered one from the Artemis range (is currently 40% off the first one) from loxely.
When I receive it I will let you know what I think, I suspect though that this is not the range you are thinking of?
From what I have heard of loxely, they are very very good, and well worth the money.
 
I have not used Blurb, but do use Loxley regularly and cannot speak highly enough about the product, the quality and the speed of delivery.
The coffee table is good, the Infinity is better because the pages open flat.
I use Belissimo for wedding albums and they are brill but probably a bit expensive for what you want.
Hope this helps.
 
coldpenguin said:
I have just ordered one from the Artemis range (is currently 40% off the first one) from loxely.
When I receive it I will let you know what I think, I suspect though that this is not the range you are thinking of?
From what I have heard of loxely, they are very very good, and well worth the money.
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Unfortunately not, even though I'd pay up to £200 for a photobook. The coffee table book is the only one that has over 40 pages available, and I reckon that limit would easily be surpassed.
 
Goneforagasper said:
I have not used Blurb, but do use Loxley regularly and cannot speak highly enough about the product, the quality and the speed of delivery.
The coffee table is good, the Infinity is better because the pages open flat.
I use Belissimo for wedding albums and they are brill but probably a bit expensive for what you want.
Hope this helps.
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The Infinity only has 30 pages maximum, otherwise I'd consider jumping on that. Have you had many coffee table books before? What is the quality of those like? The pages are 170gsm, but I don't know what that means... hopefully not as thin as a catalogue. In seriousness, can you see the reserve page when holding a page up?
 
coldpenguin said:
I have just ordered one from the Artemis range (is currently 40% off the first one) from loxely.
When I receive it I will let you know what I think, I suspect though that this is not the range you are thinking of?
From what I have heard of loxely, they are very very good, and well worth the money.
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You won't be disappointed, just had mine delivered, quality is excellent!
 
dalex_257 said:
This is apparently a location based thing - European customers being served by Blurb printers in Netherlands are having much better basic paper than any other Blurb facilities say in US (I found it somewhere on their forums). I can only imagine that their premium paper is much better - will try that next time.
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I ordered a Blurb photobook on 2nd Nov and even though I am UK based the book has apparently been printed in the US. I say apparently because I still haven't received it yet. I've chased them up several times but I on;y ever get very short responses back from them. They said that if I don't have my book delivered by 8th December then they will reprint it. I imagine I'll then have to wait another couple of weeks at least before getting it. This is a wedding album so the bride is getting a bit frustrated by now. It had better be bloody good when it arrives.
 
I got the Artemis, but am soon going to be ordering a Belissimo as well...

I'm really impressed with Loxley, and whilst they probably aren't the cheapest, I've never had an issue with the service, in fact, they got my album back within about 4 working days.

EDIT: You're reasonably local, I'm in selby / York if you ever want a nosey before you order :), just PM me
 
mattyh said:
I got the Artemis, but am soon going to be ordering a Belissimo as well...

I'm really impressed with Loxley, and whilst they probably aren't the cheapest, I've never had an issue with the service, in fact, they got my album back within about 4 working days.

EDIT: You're reasonably local, I'm in selby / York if you ever want a nosey before you order :), just PM me
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Cheers matty, I actually work in harrogate, so I might take you up on that! Can you PM me how much the Artemis cost ? I have an account with Loxley but wondered how much a finished album would cost ?
 
robbys82 said:
used loxely for a couple of years now, you get what you pay for
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Have you had many coffee table books before? What is the quality of those like? The pages are 170gsm, but I don't know what that means... can you see the reserve page when holding a page up for example?
 
I don't mean to be patronising here, the gsm stands for Grams per Square Metre, if that is what you are asking?
Normal copier paper is usually in the region of 80gsm, so you can get a rough idea what 160 gsm would be like by holding up two sheets of copier paper. (I say rough, because obviously two sheets are going to be stiffer than a single one).
 
mattyh said:
You won't see through a 170gsm paper, it's fairly thick, although not as thick as photo paper, which is usually about 230gsm (I think, off the top of my head!)
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coldpenguin said:
I don't mean to be patronising here, the gsm stands for Grams per Square Metre, if that is what you are asking?
Normal copier paper is usually in the region of 80gsm, so you can get a rough idea what 160 gsm would be like by holding up two sheets of copier paper. (I say rough, because obviously two sheets are going to be stiffer than a single one).
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Thanks for the information, no you weren't being patronising coldpenguin... because I genuinely did not have a clue :-)
 
You cant see through the page and the quality is good, far,far better than photobox but more expensive.
The loxley coffee table books are worth the money imo
 
I ordered two books earlier this year, one from Blurb and one from My Publisher (US based). Delivery for both was about 10-14 days and the quality was spot on against some of the other photobooks I had seen.
I had a issue with the Blurb one, it was as the pages were cut for the binding process, they had a slight white edge to some of the pages(ordered full black surrounds) four emails later (2 from me, 2 from them) across three hours I had been told there would be another book printed for me and delivered via an express delivery. When I got this one, the book was perfect.
I will very happily use them again.

Another to throw into the mix is BobBooks, I had a look at their products at focus and was impressed. Also if you do order from them add METRO into the order process somewhere and get 5% discount.
 
neilem said:
Thanks Dalex. Blurb are extremely cheap and that worries me slightly, might be a sign they are skimming on quality compared to Loxley. Sounds like a win-win situation, but just thought to ask around.

I'd like to reiterate this is for Loxley coffee table book, as their other books available are at the top end of the market.
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They are cheap but they do it by printing in huge volumes. As I said, I'd say their quality is great - on par with printed coffee table style books and albums.
 
-Rob- said:
I ordered a Blurb photobook on 2nd Nov and even though I am UK based the book has apparently been printed in the US. I say apparently because I still haven't received it yet. I've chased them up several times but I on;y ever get very short responses back from them. They said that if I don't have my book delivered by 8th December then they will reprint it. I imagine I'll then have to wait another couple of weeks at least before getting it. This is a wedding album so the bride is getting a bit frustrated by now. It had better be bloody good when it arrives.
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That is weird - both my orders last and this year were printed and delivered from Netherlands. Each time it only took about 8-10 calendar days. This also corresponds with the experience of others I know about. May be they don't print certain formats there - son only delivering them from US?
 
Having seen the quality of Blurb at a recent Canon event in London - I wasn't impressed - the Loxley coffee tables are pretty good - however another option to consider is that of the Jessops/Cewe photobook that comes in at 30x30cm - can take up to 82 pages - and is produced on photo quality paper. It has a real thickness to it. It has a hardback cover with a gloss print finish - and is available from around £50 upwards depending on the number of pages you use. The distinct advantage they have here is the photo paper - it's not printing on what seems like magazine paper in the Blurb books - each page has a rigidity to it - and feels like it will withstand families flicking through for years to come.... (They do a standard paper book as well - so make sure you do specify the photo paper).

I've used them and they're pretty good - quick turnaround - but their software is a little cumbersome...
 
mattyh said:
I got the Artemis, but am soon going to be ordering a Belissimo as well...

I'm really impressed with Loxley, and whilst they probably aren't the cheapest, I've never had an issue with the service, in fact, they got my album back within about 4 working days.

EDIT: You're reasonably local, I'm in selby / York if you ever want a nosey before you order :), just PM me
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Can you tell me how thick the pages are in the Artemis album please. On their website it looks like they are nice thick card with the picture/print attached to it/in it.?? Can you tell me if I am right or wrong please.
 
cymruchris said:
The distinct advantage they have here is the photo paper - it's not printing on what seems like magazine paper in the Blurb books
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That's simply not quite true. Blurb paper even basic non-premium is nowhere as thin as magazine pages. It is more like in the photo albums you can buy in bookshops (you know those with photos and little descriptions of places - like say Rome, London etc). It is really a book quality and is printed the way books are and that's the reason they can print large number of pages and do it cheaper. I would not say that the quality is on par with photo inkjet printing but then it would not be that cheap if it was.
 
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