There are so many products on the market – however you don’t see too many photo albums for digital printers.
A site which specialises in albums for you to print yourself is www.opusalbums.com.
They have several designs – and have promised more to come.
If, like me, you know what you want then I would recommend the OPUS album. This uses Innova’s paper. There offer three different papers according to your taste. There is a natural white soft textured art paper – nice feel, but it needs careful treatment and if you are printing a lot scuff might be a problem. The alternative is a high white rag paper – very smooth and with really good results. This is more of a photographic paper. These are both double sided. Then there is Innova’s flagship Fiba gloss – which professionals – especially those in monochrome seem to rave about.
To get the best you need to use a semi-professional printer. I have just invested in an Epson R1800 and this is fine. The R800 had feeding problems – it does not really like the heavy grades 250gsm plus.
I would also recommend that you use the Epson archival matte settings rather than an ICC profile. There could be exceptions, but the one I downloaded from Innova was a bit disappointing.
I have also tried the Print & Bind. This is good for the home amateur. It uses a good cast coated photo glossy paper – and you can use the standard paper settings.
For more information
Print & Bind High quality photo glossy paper £9.95
Print & Bind Album
Photo Art - archival, giclée paper £27.50
OPUS Photo Art album
Also
Fotoslate 4 - album design software
Photoslate 4 Digital Design Studio
OPUSalbums offers ACDSee’s FotoSlate 4 to layout the album. It is an intuitive programme and a doddle to use. A really good presentation album – with foreground and background photos can be produced in half an hour.
It’s worth a try!
Daniel Photo4
photo4@incartek.com
