1st printed photobook

Hi there… I am here to blog about my 1st printed photobook from Riot Photobooks here in UAE. Yes!!! Here in Dubai, UAE. Thanks to a very good friend’s resourcefulness. Lol!

Monday, April 11, this very good friend was searching the net for a photobook printing company. She’s been searching long enough since she also wanted to print her photobooks. She finally came across this forum where Riot Photbooks’ link was shared. Then she found out that it’s a Dubai-based company plus they accept payment through Paypal. Woot2x… When she shared it to me, without doubt, I downloaded their software and started laying out my photobook when I got home from work. Got to try… Got to try!!! I didn’t sleep until I was finished with the ordering and uploading to their server. They, the Riot Photobooks, kept me updated through emails about the status of my order. They emailed me when they received my order, when my photobooks was on its way to me, and even the updates of the shipping/delivery.

Thursday, April 14, I received my photobook very early than I expected. With excitement I opened it with my 2 good friends (bffs) around, excited as well. Hahaha… Here are some of the photos:

Before opening the box from Riot Photobooks.

The layouts I made for my photobook were sized 8x8 inches and their photobook sized 7.9x7.9 inches (21 x 21 cm). Inside the box was a cardboard as backing and my photobook wrapped in plastic. After unwrapping it, my photobook was plastic-wrapped as well. It’s nice because it will keep your photobook secure.

Here’s my photobook… It’s just thin; barely half the minimum pages from their regular square hard cover (matt laminated cover) which is 40 pages. Anyways, it’s fine with me since I was eager to really see the outcome of my photobook.

Front cover

Back cover

I just have a couple of concerns though…

First, the edges of my photobook covers are almost cut… good thing it was not cut (oh well, the flower was cut or on the folding side already). Note to self: next time, when making the layout for the covers, make sure to have an invisible borderline around and position your layout inside that borderline enough that it won’t be cut off when printed.

Same thing for the inside pages, I measured the inside pages and it’s not 21cm x 21cm, didn’t even reached 20cm. As well as the cover page, the width was 20.50cm and the height was 21cm.

Second, the binding looks like done in a hurry (I guess). I can see the binding glue and the lines as to where I think the edges of the inside pages should end. It was not stitched like the other hard bound books I’ve seen. But maybe it’s also because I already have a few pages. Perhaps they would stitched it if I reached their minimum number of pages.

But in general, I am happy for the result. I’ve already posted about this on my Facebook and as I’ve said, there’s room for improvement. Rating it from 1 – 10, I am rating it 7. Can’t even wait to order my next photobooks and I am hoping to rate it 9 or 10 perhaps. Hehehe…

To Riot Photobooks, thanks for printing my photobook and delivering it early. Hehehe…

Thank you. ♥