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Mixbook is one of the largest photo design tools on the market today. It is an online service based in Palo Alto, California. The company’s initial focus was to help students create their own yearbooks, but in 2009 it launched its photo book editor tool as well.
In 2012 and 2013 Mixbook launched two more product lines: Mosaic and Montage. The first one is a mobile app that helps you make photo books in just a few minutes, using the images stored on your smartphone. Montage is a photo book service created as an alternative to Mixbook. The difference is the amount of time needed for creating your photo book. While Mixbook is more complex and may require hours of work, with Montage you can build a photo book in only 10 to 15 minutes.
Mixbook offers a wide range of products and services: photo books, photo cards, calendars, yearbooks, volume sales, etc.
When it comes to photo books, as advertised on its website, Mixbooks helps you create “a book for any occasion”.
The photo book service offers hundreds of predesigned themes: family, wedding, travel, birthdays, everyday themes and many others. If you are not pleased with any of the ready-to-go themes provided by Mixbook, you can create your own custom photo book from scratch. The online editor lets you choose between different backgrounds, layouts and stickers. You can also add text or upload your own logos or other elements. You can also edit the photos: rotate them, adjust the brightness, saturation, contrast, change the shadow, hue, angle, opacity and add effects using the dropdown menu.
Mixbook lets you choose between different formats: square, portrait or landscape. They have 7 available sizes ranging from 8 X 6 inch to 11 X 14.
You can also choose between lay flat pages or regular pages and different covers: hardcover, softcover, matte or leather.
There are more than 300 themes available, over 200 layouts, more than 50 fonts and over 190 backgrounds to choose from.
Photo books can have a minimum of 20 pages and a max. of 399 (lay flat 99 pages). The paper used is 100 lb. archival quality silk, semi-gloss, acid and lignin free. Although the quality is good, some customers complain that this publisher doesn’t offer more paper choices.
Mixbook has an online editor so you don’t have to download any software in order to create and edit your photo book. The editor is compatible with both Mac and PC and you can work at your photo book from anywhere, as long as you have an Internet connection.
A very useful thing is the fact that you can import your photos not only from your hard drive but from many online photo sharing sites: Instagram, Facebook, PhotoBucket, Flickr, SmugMug and Picasa.
If you are in a hurry, there is also an AutoMix feature, which automatically uploads your photos and places them in a random order. If you don’t like the way it mixed them at the first try, you can just hit the button again and use different variations. You should pay attention though, because the feature can’t be undone. That’s why when you first want to use the function, a message will appear that will explain to you how ‘AutoMix will overwrite all the pages and cannot be undone. You will lose all work made to this book. Check the I Understand checkbox if you wish to continue’.
Although they guarantee 100% happiness, should you not be pleased with your final product, Mixbook lets you return your item at any time and your refund will be processed in 3 to 7 business days. You will just have to pay the shipping cost.
Processing time and shipping methods
Mixbook has local or international shipping. Photo books take one or two days to be processed and printed.
There are shipping estimates published on their website for each destination (US, Canada, Australia, worldwide, UK, most European countries). The delivery time depends on the product itself, the type of service you choose: budget, standard, priority or express and can vary from 3 to 16 business days. The production time is included in the estimates. The delivery time in US ranges between 6 - 11 Business days (Budget) and 3 Business days (Express).
Except for the Budget option, all the other ones are trackable.
Find out more about pricing and shipping options here:
Square photo books start at $19.99, landscape photo books from $15.77 and portrait photo books from $21.04.
Mixbook offers customer support via email and live chat.
Live chat: Monday-Friday, from 6 am to 10 pm PST
Saturday – Sunday, from 8 am to 4:30 PM
Email: [email protected]
Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mixbook
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mixbook
There is no phone support but there is an extensive FAQ section and an user forum. There are a lot of FAQs on technical issues, design assistance and videos.
Our editorial staff evaluates products and services independently, but Best Review Guide may earn money when you click on links. Read our advertising disclosure.