Pixum Does Photobooks

Finally, a great offering from a local printer within the U.K. I’ve just been playing around with the new Pixum Photobook Creation Software. Having a couple of weeks ago, ordered a Shutterfly photobook from the U.S. for my promotional scrap for others album, I still await it’s delivery two weeks after Shutterfly inform me it’s been dispatched. Not looking good, and an expensive option (sitting on my unpaid credit card, lol).

Now Pixum have come out with a great range of photobooks, heavily customisable and reasonably priced for U.K. scrapbookers.

Unlike Shutterfly who have a 20 page minimum, Pixum’s offerings start at a minimum of 26 pages and you can add all the way up to 96 pages. Pixum have three different cover options also - hardcover (and you can provide individual designs for both front and back cover), linen cover (with one photo on the front) and softcover - again this can be individually designed for cover images. The Hardcover and linen covered photobooks are available for 8 1/2 x 11 inch an 8 x 8 inch square formats. A 5 x 5.5 inch mini book is also available in the softcover range. The Hardcover price for an 8x8 inch album with 26 pages is £16.70 for the print and shipping. It also already includes the VAT tax.

In comparison, my recent Shutterfly order cost me $30 for the actual production plus another $20-$25 on shipping, making that approximately £26 on the one album production at today’s exchange rates. 

Pixum appears to provide an great service, cheaper for U.K. locals, however that’s without trying to work out the template requirements on Pixum’s offerings. Also, Pixum doesn’t do 12 x 12’s so that’s a bit of a bind. The Square format is not quite 8x8 inch either (which they state quite clearly - and Shutterfly is truly sixed at 7.95 inch square as a comparison also).  When using the one image (a scrapbook layout) on one page in the Pixum album, I’ve found it best to use it as a background - however I still need to play a lot with the layout formation itself as some text and elements on the page appear to be cut off on the sides. Perhaps resizing to 7.95 will help.

As Pixum operates with a downloaded executable which allows you to create and save all your albums on your own hard-drive, then it’s an easy matter of playing around to get the correct look on these photobooks, and I intend to create some templates for myself with guides towards where my important details should appear on the image. I’ve used Pixum previously for printing out 12x12 inch layouts - back when everything was in Dutch and someone on UK Scrappers had to provide me with a language conversion to help me through the software. The quality on individual layout prints was very good, and I look forward to testing their photobook options out in the near future. Pixum also is currently providing a promotion discount for previous customers - it comes through as a newsletter. And they provide a small discount percentage on bulk orders.

Lastly, I sound like some kind of affiliate here, but I’m not. Although it might be a good idea to use Pixum for my Scrap for Other’s business as an affiliation also. I just feel thrilled to find what looks to me like a good local printer for my own photobook requirements. I am sure that there are more and more to come.  

Link : Pixum Photobooks.

For a different offering, MyPhotobook.co.uk also does photobooks bound in different sizes. Hardcovers (with images), softcovers, linen covers, and the alternative of spiral bound. Whilst Pixum does all kinds of different prints such as calendars and cards, MyPhotobook also offers canvas prints.

Comments

[Juliana]

I'm glad you found a good alternative to the State-based companies. I hope it works out well for you.

[janmary]

Thanks for this - off to check it out. Great to have a reasonable UK available resource. Got any more to share? Thanks