In-depth information about our photo books: sizing, pricing and features.
Ordering information
No software or registration needed
Send us a CD with your payment
Call us on 020 8960 4567 with any questions, or use our contact form to send us an email.
photo book phact
We use 100% cotton headbands chosen to match book's colour palette - see pic, the headband is the bit at the top of the spine. Headbands are essential to preserving the binding of the book, protecting the spine when a book is pulled by a finger from the shelf. They are very decorative also!
Read more facts about our photo books.
Full product info
These are hardcover deluxe coffee-table style
books printed on high grade 160 gsm silk paper and have our special Oyster
Satin book cloth cover finish with your pictures on the front and back.
Our photo books are unique because we make by hand and best of all print
your images on the cover. Other producers make by machine and cannot personalise
the cover - nor do they have human artworkers taking care of layouts and
red eye problems.
Contrado's photo book is the classic way to present photos making a unique
gift. Handmade with a personalised Satin hard bound cover in three different
sizes A5, A4, and A3.
Each photo book is especially planned by our photo layout artists with your
photos printed on the pages. The results are stunning - your very own one
of a kind hard backed book. We offer FREE red eye reduction but we can't
offer blemish reduction or date stamp removal as standard on these books
due to the number of images involved. We advise you to select images carefully
and if you can, address, blemish reduction or date stamp removal yourself.
Alternatively contact us for a retouching quotation.
Each photo book is especially planned by our photo layout artists with your
photos printed on the pages. The results are stunning - your very own one
of a kind hard backed book. We offer FREE red eye reduction but we can't
offer blemish reduction or date stamp removal as standard on these books
due to the number of images involved. We advise you to select images carefully
and if you can, address, blemish reduction or date stamp removal yourself.
Alternatively contact us for a retouching quotation.
Ordering with CD
You can place your order online and elect to post your CD or simply fill
out the order form, then post CD of your images to us and we will do the
rest. Print out your order form now.
Artworking
We do not include red eye reduction, blemish or datestamp removal for Picture
Books. Nor do we provide a scanning service from prints. However you can
accomplish these things yourself and send a CD of the finished selection.
How to submit your images
You can either send your images to us by uploading at the end of the order
process, or on a CD by post.
-- By post
In essence we need your CD containing sequenced files. Title the cover photo
'Front', then number your image files with page number 1,2,3,4 and so on.
Page 1 is a right-hand page. If you have very large images (EG over 10mb
each), this may save a lot of time waiting for things to upload!
-- Online
After you have made a secure transaction, you have the option to upload
your images. You will be presented with thumbnails so that you can make
sure you have all the pages in the correct order, and a facility for you
to include artworking guidance for each image if the re are any areas of
concern.
Tip: When you are deciding on which photos to use, make a New Folder
on your desktop and copy all the images you are considering for your book
into that new folder. Call this folder 'Your Name Picture Book A4' (or A3,
A5 if chosen). Then view all the images one by one and look for problems
e.g.. A row of people all with a datestamp across them! Do you really want
that picture in the book? [Note we offer red eye reduction, but not datestamp
removal on picture books, so we encourage you to address or exclude images
that have problems]. Once you have examined and are happy with your selection,
you need to put them in order. A simple way to look at a sequence is to
click Views in your toolbar and then click Thumbnails. You can now see them
all as thumbnails. Then you can drag and drop the images into sequence.
The first image will be the COVER. The next image will be the first opening
right hand page - page 1. The next image will be the page two or first left
hand page. The next image will be the following right hand page and so on.
Once you have the confirmed sequence in front of you, you MUST number them
1, 2, 3 etc. by renaming them (right click 'rename'). beautiful reproduction
of our photo booksFinally, for peace of mind and clarity add the word COVER
to the cover file name. Add 'front' and back if necessary You do this by
right clicking, Rename and type Front. Any questions please call.
Tip: Landscape photos work best, but portrait can work well. We will
rotate all portrait photos to fit the page (head to spine) or print them
with white space around. All our picture books are landscape opening with
spine on the left hand side (on the short edge) - except our new A4 portrait
one
Please understand that we will print what is given to us with no adjustments
except at our discretion to help achieve best results.
Tip: Don't overcrowd the book with similar shots! Choose the best
shots and think about the page sequence.
Tip: If you are considering Text on the front or back cover please
make sure it is planned at 18pt size and is not too fine.
Tip: Double page spreads are fine for scenic panoramas but are not
advised where there are key features like text or faces that need to meet
perfectly in the middle. Our books do not open completely flat and the hand
bound process means we need to have some of the image deep in the central
bind so no white edges show.
Scanning conventional photos
We may be able to offer scanning service for photo books depending on how
busy we are. If available that the time we will charge £1 per image scanned.
We strongly advise you to scan and prepare your photos as much as possible
in advance.
For a truly stylish presentation or gift ... To provide an extra effect
why not buy your A5 or A4 photo book in one of our superb hinged silver
coloured tins. They set off the photo book in fine style (sorry tins not
available in A3 size). We also have handmade presentation boxes for all
books, starting at £29.
