I recommend reading at least some of his findings in detail (and looking at the video the author posted for each book), but go here if you'd like to see a wrap-up of his conclusions.

The results of his experiences correspond with what I've read elsewhere and observed on my own from looking at others' photo books.

I've used Shutterfly and Snapfish as well as some others. I have always used a coupon code.. a few years ago it was pretty easy to find a coupon code for a free book.

One of the important things for me is to not have to download the software... I don't think any of the companies I've used made me do that. My favorite company is Mixbook because I like to use a lot of different backgrounds and embellishments and they let you do that... even changing themes throughout the book. I like my books to look more like a scrapbook, if you are just using plain backgrounds then that wouldn't matter.

I think photo books make great gifts! Have fun making them! I must warn you.. they are more time consuming than you might think. :)

I'm thinking about making him one of assorted photos since he was 4. That's when marital split happened, and after that I have them all stored on my computer.

Now if I can figure out how to print them. They are all stored in Photobucket.

I've stuck to Shutterfly for a few books I've done (trips).
Too bad that the guy who wrote the comparative analysis didn't include the version made for Apple computers (tho I understand why--not everybody has an Apple). But it's the simplest one I've ever tried. At the time, tho, there were very few layouts to choose from. I saw a friend's Apple book and it looked really nice.

Some of the book-publishing software is easier to understand than others. Beyond Apple, Shutterfly is pretty simple, but I found MyPublisher (and I think Blurb, too) to be much more difficult to master (without investing too many hours!).

I'm going to mess around with the Inkubook publishing site next to see what that looks like. It got some good marks from this guy's tests.

If I were making a book just for myself, which nobody else needed to have input on, I'd try Apple again. As it is, the travel books I've worked on have been for my sister in another state, so she's needed to be able to look at the pages in progress and make whatever tweaks she wants using her non-Apple computer. So far I haven't found a way for her computer to communicate with mine on that.

I'll take a look at Adoramapix, too. Will have to see if there's a limit on the number of pages.

I know it's important to edit down the number of photos in a book -- for impact (and to not have to squish 4 or 5 tiny photos onto one page!). But my sister likes more, more more!