ArtsCow

ArtsCow is becoming well known for inexpensive books that allow you to order books with more than 80 pages for a very reasonable price.

If you like a book in the ArtsCow gallery there is a function to "Create a book like this". This is limited to frames, backgrounds and elements. If you have created your own scrap pages, other members are not able to copy that book, but will go to a blank book when they press the button.

Also offered are Scrapbook Kits. Called "Create your own designer kit", there are almost 400 scrapbook pages to choose from. Some are free and others can be purchased.

In order to upload and use their photo book software, you will also need to download a program from Microsoft called Silverlight 2.0. It is a small download and doesn't take long.

ArtsCow boasts a multi-file uploader, which means you don't have to upload pictures one at a time. The uploader is easy to use and does upload the pictures faster. At the end of the upload, your main option is to purchase prints of the entire album. It is not real easy to find the navigation if you would rather work on a project you have already started or wish to start a book.

When we first reviewed their site, they received a C+ rating. The second site review gave them an A- due to the additional number of background themes and variety of layouts. You can also now use a picture as a background and they've added a full page text with many caption options.

Although ArtsCow now receives a good score in our feature set review, in my opinion the navigation is not very user friendly. Every page of the book is viewable on the design page and you have to scroll up and down on the page to go between the different pages. This is different than most other photo book printers where you can scroll easily from page to page. It makes for a more organized workspace.

Other difficulties I encountered were:

Layouts and backgrounds need to be loaded each time you use them. If you load one theme it would need to be reloaded again if you navigated away to add a page layout. This would need to be done continually since the average user would choose a background and layout each time they went to a new page. This adds a lot of time to the design process.

Having one image on the cover is problematic if you want to resize it. If the photo is resized it is no longer centered on the page. There is an option to center the picture within a photo frame, but not to move the photo frame layout so the picture is centered on the page.

The cover layout lets you put text on the spine of the book which is starting to become the norm for custom cover books. You can also pay a rather high fee to remove the ArtsCow logo from the book if you choose to do so ($5 for the 12x12 book and $2 for the 8x8 book).

Shipping fees range from $7.99 each for an 8x8 (20-30 pages) to $11.99 each for an 8x8 (39-100 pages) and as high as $19.95 each for the larger 12x12 books. Shipping time is about 8-14 business days.

Updated: December 17, 2009

Artscow Photo Book Review

Comparative Photo Book Software Review

Background Themes	31 different themes
Layout Variety	Too many to count
JPG as a Background	Yes
Digi-Scrapbooking Friendly	Yes
In-book Editing	Minimal
Text - variety and Full Page	Full page text and many caption options
Embellishments and Corners	Limited
Full-Page Bleed	Yes
Final Grade	A-

For an explanation of the Feature Set Review

Photo Book Sizes

Additional pages are available for an extra charge. The price given is the lowest price for that size category.

Hardcover
7x5 - 20 pages	4.99
8x8 - 20 pages	9.99
12x12 - 20 pages	24.99

For a more detailed pricing, please visit Photo Book Covers and Sizes

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