I did the same thing for my photos from my trip to Italy with the blurb software that Flickr offers. I was so pleased with it that I'm planning to make lots more. They also offer cheap paperback options that would make great gifts or party favors.

I'm glad to know (and see) that these photo books actually look great. I'm going to make one very soon.

nothing compares to seeing your pics printed

These books from Apple are incredible. I received one as a gift for Xmas that is a keeper!

I know a lot of photogs that use those as proof books. It's amazing what stickers cover up.

Apple uses MyPublisher.com to print them, or something along those lines. You can download a free bookmaker from MyPublisher.com and order the books a little cheaper, but you do somewhat sacrifice on layout choices. Also, always search for discount codes online. They usually have some sort of promotion going on that can significantly help. Usually there's at least a buy one, get one. Get one for you, get one for your mom.

for smaller projects, i love qoop's mini-books. i've used them to document road trips, concerts, and special events, which i pass out to fellow participants. the smallest books start at just under $4 apiece, which is not bad for souvenir.

could you take some photos of other parts of it? the way the cover is treated, where do the apple logo appear on it, how big, how many times? do they still have the pages in there that look like that brushed steel texture?

i've thought about doing this for my graphic design portfolio once or twice. since i have all the pages designed for my large book, i figured out how i would do it for these. i was just going to make the files i have for each page into a picture and do it as a full bleed. then i don't have to succumb to their page layouts, since i took days and weeks to lay it out, and i can have other design elements as well.

so i never got around to that, but would still like some more details since i thought about doing a 1 year book for my wife and my 1 year anniversary.

Working on a PC and we've been using mypublisher books for the past 5 years (they function as baby books for our kids). I don't think the other online photo sites compare at all!

Is AT part of Apple's advertising scheme?

I've printed two books via iPhoto and they were great.

We did this with our wedding photos for our parents and they LOVED it.

Wow, thats.... awesome! Where was I when they started this?

I've had great photo book experiences at Shutterfly.com. I especially like the photo books with customizable covers. The photo books really bring your pictures to life, and the quality is amazing. I always make one after my vacation while it's still fresh in my mind. You can also share your book online with your friends.

i have used heritage makers for digital scrapbooking. while on the pricey side, i was beyond pleased with the final outcome.

I am a Mac user and have been for a long time and feel the iphoto books are cool, i have made some myself.....but......I found that blurb.com beats apple on price AND design options.
The quality of the prints are the same and you don't need a mac to do it.
But...if you have many photos in your iphoto collection, it is easier to create pages right there on the spot as opposed to uploading them to blurb.
Bottom line, look at blurb.com before hitching your star to the iphoto wagon.

This is a great way to create your portfolio especially if you are an interior designer or a graphic design artist! :)
Do you have to have a mac to do this, or can you do it on a PC?

iPhoto is great. Has anyone tried Photoworks.com? I used them once for a wedding I shot last year and thought it was pretty good quality and decently priced.

what is the cover like? softback? matte? gloss?

any pics would be awesome...

Kodakgallery.com does this as well. I want to say about the same price...

This is great to see the final results - I'm going to have to do this w/ the photos my parent's and I took in Europe this past summer for my parent's Xmas gifts...

Snapfish and KodakGallery do this for the same price. However the book I did on KodakGallery had TERRIBLE picture quality even though I use a 7MP camera. I don't recommend using them.

My boss just made a book with blurb.com. I'm going to use blurb to make a book for my moms Christmas presents. Its so much cheaper per page with blurb than with apple. I have seen the apple books though in person and they are a very nice quality.

The blurb ones are as well but if you are making the spreads and planning on saving them as .jpgs and uploading them (to bypass the layout restrictions) keep in mind that if you use a small typeface that has thin portions they aren't as crisp as just typing it in. We used Goudy and the text breaks apart on the thin parts. Other than that it looks great.

One of my travelling companions made an iPhoto book for each of the four people who were on our Italian get away last spring. He very innocently copied everybody's photos onto his laptop on the flight home and a week later surprised everybody with a hard bound keepsake of our trip. Seeing my photos bound and with full bleeds is an amazing experience. And having that book on my shelf makes showing my vacation pictures a much more palatable experience for all involved. Bravo Apple!

i thought this post sounded similar, then i found my post from last time above.

I ended up making the book with mypublisher. You sacrifice layout a little bit over some of iphoto's options. But it worked out fine. You can do great things with their layouts by manipulating sizes and just leaving some of the slots blank. Quality was good, and i got 2 for 1 (plus there was a small mistake in mine and they refunded half my money).

I like Apple, but I've also been thrilled with the quality of the photo books I've gotten from Shutterfly. And once you sign up for their e-mails, they frequently offer really good discounts.

I've always used Shutterfly for my photobooks. They have so many options for covers, page designs, layouts, captions, fonts, etc. that it really can't be beat.

I have two of the classics with a suede cover, and I've helped my mother with a red leather covered photobook as well. They're really quite beautiful.

Creative Memories also does this. I think I prefer them. I'm not so into Apple.

I'm not into apple either but this does look great

Apple whitelabels the software and printing from Photobook. So if you are a PC user you can just download their software and get the exact same product.

Sorry, My Publisher, not Photobook. www.mypublisher.com

aww, thanks guys!

I've been meaning to do this with last year's wedding photos since, well, last year. We promised books to our closest family and...have slacked. These look gorgeous, though. I might be motivated to tackle this during the winter!

I did this with blurb and was beyond astounded by the result. I might look into shutterfly for swankier options though.

I've used iphoto to make a few photobooks and while I think they're wonderful, if you want to proof your book before you buy, you can't. Especially with the super tiny little booklet, you really don't have a sense of how tiny it is until it shows up in your mailbox. And from tiny almost flip book the next size up is 8x6 -- a nice 4x6 book would be a nice medium. (sorry for the pun). Do these other companies allow one to proof the book -- actually preview it -- before buying?

Great Christmas present idea!

My Publisher is great quality too! I have used it many times.

yes yes yes! awesome awesome awesome!

if you have the rights to print your images, this can be a great idea.

but don't forget- YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

Your photographer should be able to offer you a PROFESSIONAL book. " Digitally printed photo books" can also be really high-end.

Differences to consider: weight and the feel of the paper, how the image looks when you tilt it in different angles in the light (image prep, ink, page coating), binding strength, archival qualities, templates vs. custom designs,

I just received my calender from apple (made in iPhoto also). It's FANTASTIC. Great quality, great value. Fast, too.

I give my parents a calendar of my own photos every christmas. This is my first Christmas as a mac user, and boy, am I glad to be done with Walmart photo centre!

I would love to make one of these photobooks. However, I do not have an apple computer, I have an hp with microsoft office, but if I did have an apple computer, I would most deffinitly make one of these every once and a while.