Official Luthiers Forum!

Filippo,
I've done that for a few of my builds and everyone seems to appreciate it. The ones I've done were hand made books and really quite a lot of work. May I ask where you got your from?
Great tea box by the way.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Those books through iPhoto are pretty darn nice and not too pricey for onesy-twosies.
I've also used a program called Galerie that works much like iPhoto's Export... to Web Page in the File menu. It creates web pages with thumbnails which I burn to a CD. Here's an example.

http://www.patfosterguitars.com/harvest2/index.html

It's very quick and very easy to use, plus it's free. There are a lot of templates on their web site.

The two people I've done that for were very appreciative.

There is something personal about that little iPhoto book, though...

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Photo books are a huge perk I would imagine to any nice guitar. I have made a couple (not for guitars, but for other trips and such)

There are a couple places to make them, (they seem to be the latest rage so there are online companies popping up like mad)

Blurb.com - I have used this with great success. They seem to have the highest quality printing and materials and very reasonable prices - I paid about $35 for an 80 page, full cover, hard cover with dust cover which was beautiful. It is what I would call "professionally made" and they have a huge host of options - about $9 a book up to $100+

Apple (http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/printproducts/) - never used this one, but I can imagine Apple would put out a pretty good book.
MyPublisher (http://www.mypublisher.com/) - never used this one
Kodak Gallery (http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoBookOverview.jsp) I've seen one of their printed books and wasn't super impressed with binding quality.
Lulu - (http://www.shutterfly.com/shop/Photo_Bo ... uct_c18000) - I've seen one of these and they seem to be an ok, but lower end self-published book.

You can definitely spend A LOT of time on these if you want to, but I'd say you could put together a nice "build book" with around 10 hrs of work or less if you have the digital photos on hand.

If anyone makes a build book, I would be interested to see the online "Preview" of the book if that is an option offered by the publisher.
good luck

I send out a photo book with every guitar I build. I take digital photos during the building process. I then use PhotoShop to crop, make adjustments and add a caption to each photo. I print them out on my laser printer (inkjet will work as well or better) on regular copy paper, and then slide them into a little photo album that has 24 plastic sleeves. I make the images 4 X 6 and the book fits neatly under the headstock of the guitar. The photo books cost less than $3 and the paper and printing are minimal. It does take time but I think the total cost of production is under $5.

My clients really appreciate the extra effort. They enjoy being able to see the insides of the guitar and many of them are surprised to see just how "hand made" my guitars.

Mark

I drop photos to each customer periodically via email during the build process staring with
a few of the raw woods before they're ever worked at all and ending with some portrait style
shots of the completed instrument.

I then put all of those photos onto a disc and include it in the case when the guitar is shipped.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars