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PROS:
CONS:
Photobook America is a good choice in terms of printing quality and available types, sizes, materials, covers and so on. However, they are a bit pricey, especially considering some of their limitations and issues. The online editor could be more user-friendly and intuitive, customer support leaves room for improvement and they could also work some more on their mobile app.
Photobook America is a printing services company based in Malaysia. The company is actually Photobook Worldwide and it has 4 other divisions: Photobook Canada, Photobook Malaysia, Photobook Australia.
They are in business since 2005 and in addition to photobooks, their printing services include cards, calendars, photo gifts, canvas prints, metal prints, photo pillows and others.
In terms of photo books, this service has its pros and cons. The quality and turnaround time are pretty impressive, while the online photo book software is not the easiest to work with and has its limitations. This company doesn’t have the best ratings from customers. They’ve had their share of complaints over the years, especially related to their website and customer service.
Photobook America offers 100% quality guarantee and is willing to replace any item with defects due to their negligence, if you request so within 30 days from receiving your product. However, it doesn’t provide refunds, only replacements.
The company also offers 7-day guaranteed shipping. If you don’t get your order within a week, they will credit you your shipping fee.
Photobook America lets you choose between different types of occasions: holiday, travel, family fun, wedding, baby and kids, romance, everyday photo books, etc.
Photo books can be with a softcover, lay flat, imagewrap, debossed or part of their pro series. Pro Series are individually handcrafted using their finest materials (leather, cambric, buckram) and feature custom cover stamping. They initially have either 40 or 80 pages, but you can add more, up to 200. Pro Series photo books can come in various sizes, from square 12X12, to portrait (12X14), landscape (16X12) and XL landscape (17.5 X 12).
Regular photo books also come in several available sizes and layouts: square, portrait, landscape, with sizes varying from mini 6X6 to XL (17,5 X 12). You can also make them 8X6, 8X8, 11X8,5, 11X11 and other. Do have in mind though, that not all the sizes are available for all cover types.
See all their available options here: http://www.photobookamerica.com/photobooks/readybooks/
With Photobook America, you can either download their software or use their online editor in order to make your photo book from scratch or by using one of their templates (with the “readybooks” option).
There is also a mobile app, compatible with both Android and iOS, but it tends to crash quite often.
One other disadvantage is the fact that they don’t have as many available templates as most competitors. There are around 130 in total, but when you start selecting your size, type and so on, the number drops. Readybooks are mostly suitable for smaller images (up to 5MB, 300 DPI).
The online editor is not the most user-friendly we’ve tested. And we are not alone in thinking that…It is a bit slow and annoying. You have to repeatedly enter your name and password, there are a lot of updates and some other minor but frustrating issues. Other than that, you will pretty much find all the necessary features. If you start a blank photo book, you can add up to 150 pictures (1-4 per page). You can drag and drop, edit photos (zoom, crop, adjust, rotate, change contrast, brightness, sepia, etc.), change backgrounds, add text. You can also change your book’s size and cover after you start working on it. You won’t find any alignment lines, so you can’t be sure that your photos are lining well. What you do have is an autofill feature, which lets you upload your photos from Facebook, Flickr or your own computer.
In terms of shipping, Photobook is not the best we’ve tested. They lack some shipping options: there’s no international shipping available, you can’t pick up your order directly from the store and there is no overnight delivery.
You can choose between standard shipping (12-20 days), express (5 to 7 days) and priority (4 to 6 days). Despite the seemingly small number of shipping options, we had no problem receiving our order relatively fast.
Check out the shipping prices here: http://www.photobookamerica.com/product/shipping-info/
Photobook America’s prices vary depending on the type of photo book you want, the cover, size and so on. They can start from $52,99 for a small landscape lay flat of 8X6, with maximum 24 pages and go as high as $194,99 for their PRO SERIES photo books, large, landscape pro lay flat, 16X12, with 42 to 150 pages. Extra pages are $4.
There are also lots of discounts available, up to 70% and free shipping for orders above $75, but overall, we think that Photobook is a bit expensive, compared to the competition.
Phone: (646) 918 5879
Monday – Friday: 9 am – 5 pm (EST)
E-mail: [email protected]
Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photobookww
Photobook America can be contacted via phone or email. While they do have an extensive FAQ section on their website, a blog and some useful online guides, they can only be reached by phone during business hours, and even then, they are sometimes hard to reach. They are not even available by phone on Saturday.
Our editorial staff evaluates products and services independently, but Best Review Guide may earn money when you click on links. Read our advertising disclosure.
By: Kelly | Last updated July 10, 2017 
