I want to make a little book about my family but it’s SO expensive

[nicdigby]

Some good ideas in here, thank you. Interesting that you mention that photos look poor in Word. I wonder how I can do this? 

You're most welcome, nicdigby.

You could print specific pages in your Word document and see how they look using your printer. They might look just fine for your purposes (meaning, perhaps the issue had more to do with my printer).

Here is something I haven't tried, but you could try it and see how it works. You could convert your Word document (containing photos, etc.) to a .pdf and print out just a few pages of the .pdf to see how they look: for example, a page with a map, another page with a photo, a page with text, etc.

If you are printing and assembling the book at home, and just using a print shop to bind it, then you don't have to print all the pages at once. You could print the text on regular printer paper in black and white, and then you could print the pages with images on slightly nicer paper in colour, and you could insert the colour pages in the right places. (Think of older, more expensive books with tip-ins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped-in_page.)

You'd need to use some kind of photo program for the photos and graphics, if you are doing them separately. I use a Mac at home and the program that comes with the Mac works well. I hate the program that comes with most PCs. You could also try using the less expensive version of Photoshop (Photoshop Elements) to edit and print your photos and graphics (if you don't already have a copy of the full Photoshop).

Another option would be to have a print shop only print out your photos, maps, etc., which you would then put into the right spots within your book before having it bound/cerloxed/whatever. You could load the image files onto a memory stick and the print shop could print them, or you could bring in hard copies of images that they could photocopy in colour.

Regards,
Josephine

Some more excellent advice here, thanks. I have a Mac. When you mention the photo program that comes with Mac being excellent, can you tell me the exact name of the program you mean please? I am new to Mac and still learning it after thirty years using windows.

[Josephine]

Some more excellent advice here, thanks. I have a Mac. When you mention the photo program that comes with Mac being excellent, can you tell me the exact name of the program you mean please? I am new to Mac and still learning it after thirty years using windows.

I'm happy to help (or try to help, at any rate).

It's called Preview. Here is a link to some info about it: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/preview/welcome/mac

Regards,
Josephine

[mckha489]

If you end up using eg Blurb, (which is what I use) wait for the discount! Don’t pay full price.  They regularly have 40%.  And recently had 50%. Once you have registered on the site they send you emails advising of the discount. Same with Snapfish who I used for my first couple.

Still expensive though.  I give them as Christmas presents.

Also on Blurb, there is the opportunity for an Ebook version, and once one has been paid for, the rest are free.

Unfortunately I don’t recommend the paperbacks I tried once and the binding was not strong enough.  The Hardbacks do look nice on the shelf. 

[Lisajb]

If you decide to print at home, try a heavier paper weight. It will look and feel nicer.

Standard printer paper is 80gsm, try 100gsm

[Josephine]

I've just remembered something my husband told me about why the images that I've copied into a Word document look terrible when I print the Word document: it has to do with Word compressing the images, which reduces the quality of the images.

Any compression reduces the quality of an image. For example, my husband only shoots digital photos in .RAW format, because the .jpg format automatically includes compression (it's done by the program inside the camera), which causes a loss in quality. However, .jpg or similar formats are usually just fine for most of us -- but if they get compressed even further after being inserted into a Word document, although they might display nicely on your computer screen, the printed result might be disappointing (at least, it was for me).

Regards,
Josephine

[nicdigby]

If you end up using eg Blurb, (which is what I use) wait for the discount! Don’t pay full price.  They regularly have 40%.  And recently had 50%. Once you have registered on the site they send you emails advising of the discount. Same with Snapfish who I used for my first couple.

Still expensive though.  I give them as Christmas presents.

Also on Blurb, there is the opportunity for an Ebook version, and once one has been paid for, the rest are free.

Unfortunately I don’t recommend the paperbacks I tried once and the binding was not strong enough.  The Hardbacks do look nice on the shelf. 

Thank you for this, I suspected the hardback would look a lot nicer than the paperback.

[nicdigby]

I've just remembered something my husband told me about why the images that I've copied into a Word document look terrible when I print the Word document: it has to do with Word compressing the images, which reduces the quality of the images.

Any compression reduces the quality of an image. For example, my husband only shoots digital photos in .RAW format, because the .jpg format automatically includes compression (it's done by the program inside the camera), which causes a loss in quality. However, .jpg or similar formats are usually just fine for most of us -- but if they get compressed even further after being inserted into a Word document, although they might display nicely on your computer screen, the printed result might be disappointing (at least, it was for me).

Regards,
Josephine

That makes perfect sense, thanks for taking the time to explain it to me.

[Josephine]

That makes perfect sense, thanks for taking the time to explain it to me.

My pleasure. Please let us know how you get on. By the time you're done, I bet you'll have some good tips for the rest of us.

Regards,
Josephine

[Kiltpin]

I know professional people who use this company - 

https://www.lulu.com/ 

1 or 100 copies and drop-shipped too, I believe. 

Regards 

Chas