Photo books created by Lulu are professionally printed and come in a variety of different sizes, such as square, landscape and compact. Expect to upload your images to their website and utilize Lulu's online tools to design your photo book. This process is pretty easy. The pricing can be reasonable, starting at around $10 a book, as of 2010, though if you add too many photos the book price can quickly escalate to $50 or higher.
Lulu can be useful for personal photo books, but because of the higher prices, it may not be profitable, depending on the size, to create photo books for images you would like to resell with Lulu. The important thing to consider also for Lulu's photo books is that they are not printed on long-lasting archival paper.
CreateSpace has a photo book program designed more for people who want to resell a photo book to a wide audience. CreateSpace is not as simple as uploading your photos and choosing an album design, because it is aimed at the self-publishing artist, photographer or author. While some templates are available on CreateSpace, it is expected that you will upload a professionally designed PDF (from a graphic designer you have hired) to create your book.
The benefit of using CreateSpace for your photo book is that you can resell your photo book on Amazon.com and through a wide variety of other book sellers or distributors available on the site. CreateSpace's books are of professional publishing quality, are designed for high retail sales and are well suited to the self-publishing photographer or author, but they probably are not what you would want to use for your wedding photos.
Inkubook is an online photo book program designed for someone creating a personal photo album. Because Inkubook prints their books on silk, archival-quality photo paper, you can expect these books to be long lasting. Uploading your baby and wedding photos to their book-making program is easy, according to the site. Personal photos can look professionally laid out, and the final book's quality is worthy of your coffee table. Inkubook is probably not for the self-publishing photographer, artist or author, but for the person who wants to create long-lasting memories in photo album books.
Flickr is another online program for making photo books. Flickr's website is easily navigable, which makes it appealing for even beginners to make a photo book. Photo books are just one aspect of their business, however. Flickr also offers calendars, cards, posters and prints and some archival options as well.
Blurb's photo book program is aimed at the self publishing photographer, artist or author. Pricing starts around $13 and up, as of 2010, depending on the size. You have to download a special book-creating software program to your computer to use their service, so this program might be better suited for more technically minded people.
Blurb has options for self-publishing and marketing photo books for sale. The printing quality is aimed at retailers and is standard for photo books you would buy in a store, though it is not archival.