Viovio Photo Book Review

Viovio has released Book Designer 2.0, and release that still leaves a lot to be desired. This software allows the average person to make a simple, plain photo book. The biggest "benefit" seems to be that there is more premium layouts that are provided for a fee. The software only comes with a few layouts. In the past the quality of the layouts you could buy was fairly low. Now they are just expensive to use.

One of the first things I noticed was how hard it was for people to figure out the pricing. Pricing is usually given as $x.xx for a 20 page book, but a combination of a base charge and a page charge -- and the number of copies is somehow included in the calculation. I saw several comments on the site by users who were confused.

The Book Designer software is very easy to use and is great if you just want a book with a few pictures per page and some captions. Adding pictures to the layouts was easy. It was truly drag and drop. Once the pictures were in place, they were automatically resized to fit the picture's size.

Software Isn't Easy to Use

Here are some comments from Another Frustrated Customer on Viovio's own wiki: "I agree with the other posts. I have found this site difficult to use (especially having used other more user-friendly sites). You had great ratings in terms of quality, but despite that I WON'T be making any books here as I have just gotten too frustrated trying to get even a single page to look like I want it too...

So all in all, I have gotten too frustrated to try any further. SORRY - but I was just after a simple program to make a basic book of high quality." The customer service answer was basically to use another program.

If I needed to make a book, I would not choose the photo book printer Viovio because they don't have many options for a book maker like me - someone who does not have extra software to do the design work. However, there are a lot of good things about Viovio:

They have a great interface for people who make their book in another software.

A great selection of photo book sizes

Lower pricing if you are making books with many pages or want several copies of the same book.

You want to create a book for sale.

But, in my opinion, they aren't a good choice for the average user.

Update: October 15, 2009

Viovio Photo Book Review

What is the Quality of the Photo Books?

The review on this page only reviews the software that you use to make your photo book. In order to review the quality of the photo book you receive or the quality of any help please go to Photo Book Experiences. Here you will find what other people have said about this printer/publisher.

The quality of these comments are only helpful if Make Your Own Photo Books site visitors take the time to leave comments about their experiences. Please pay it forward to other site visitors by taking the time to leave a comment (good or bad)if you have made a photo book.

Comparative Photo Book Software Review

Background Themes	No themes or backgrounds offered.
Layout Variety	You can either use the very bland limited layouts they provide, purchase layouts, or make a layout of your own.
JPG as a Background	No with Book Designer
Digi-Scrapbooking Friendly	No
In-book Editing	No
Text - variety and Full Page	Not with the limited layouts offered.
Embellishments and Corners	None
Full-Page Bleed	Yes
Final Grade	D-

For an explanation of the Feature Set Review

Photo Book Sizes

The prices given are based on a 20 page book with printing on both sides of the pages unless otherwise noted. Additional pages are available for an extra charge. The price given is the lowest price for that size category.
Hard Cover
9x7	20.79
12.5x10 (wire-o binding)	31.99
11x8.5	22.99
8.5x8.5 (24 pages)	22.19
10x10 (24 pages)	23.59
12x12	29.99
8.5x11 (24 pages)	22.19
Soft Cover
3.75x2.5 (min of 4 books)	$14.99/4
5.25x3.5 (min of 3 books)	14.99/3
7x5 (min of 2 books)	14.99/2
14x11 Wire-O Binding	17.49
3.5x3.5 (min of 3 books)	14.99/3
5x5 (min of 2 books)	14.99/2
6x9	9.99
Comic Portrait - 24 pages	10.99
A4 Portrait	9.99