Shutterfly photo book review: glitchy, dated software makes for messy photo book building
Shutter Photo Book Review
Shutterfly’s photo album service seems pretty standard. It offers a clean selection of templates and attractive cover and page type options. However, when you delve deeper into the editing process, things shift. What seemed like a simple, customizable beast at first glance eventually reared its head, revealing its messy, clunky tendencies.
Readers, I have a confession to make, I had a hard time taming Shutterfly’s software in order to create our standardized TechRadar albums. But allow me to be more specific. After selecting my album size (12 x 12 inches) and page/cover type, I selected manual mode and was immediately met with what can only be described as a rather basic, outdated editing page.
There’s an “Advanced Editing” switch in the upper right corner that you need to tap to do… basically anything. On the left side of the page, there is also a ribbon with four options: Layout (includes templates for individual pages); Background (allows you to change the background/background color); Decoration (enables you to insert stickers, ribbons or frames ); and ideas pages (which include a few different individual page layouts).
Now, this isn’t inherently a bad thing, but the actual options in these menus are poor. For example, you can’t use a hex code to select a specific background color, or even choose from a list of colors. Instead, you have to enter the desired hue and scroll until you find a background color that looks as close as possible to what you want. It’s quite outdated and you don’t have to put up with it when using some features Best photo book service.
Likewise, adding embellishments like shapes and ribbons is very clunky. I’m trying to add a salmon-colored rectangle to one of my photos, but I’m running into two key problems. First, I couldn’t change the color of the shape – again I had to settle for the closest color available in a manual search.
Secondly, once I find a rectangle that’s relatively close to the shadow I need, I can’t change the shape of the rectangle. Sure, I can make it bigger or smaller, but I can’t adjust its width or height independently. These rigid and simplistic design choices make the editing process frustrating, to say the least.
But some might say that all of this is only a problem if you’re making a more detailed photo album. So what about the basics of adding a photo? I also found it to be a complicated experience. First of all, the upload process is very simple. You can drag and drop images (JPG, JPEG, PNG and BMP file formats) from your computer and they will populate a section at the bottom of the editor that includes all your photos. You can then easily move the photo around the page, adjusting its size (length and width are shown in inches) and position. Alternatively, you can add a photo area block and assign images to that designated area.
However, it’s not all plain sailing. I am completely unable to invert the image, which you would think would be given using a tool like this. There was also an annoying glitch where I would place an image and then, after moving it to a different part of the album, later find that such image had moved or changed size without my input. This meant that I had to constantly check that the photo’s placement matched my intent, resulting in a lengthy editing process.
I also couldn’t add the TechRadar logo to the album’s spine – even after resizing it and dragging it to the correct area. But perhaps weirdest of all, the editing screen would sometimes flash white, indicating that my page was completely blank, even if I added text or photos. My designs often reappeared after refreshing the page, but I still wasn’t happy with the software causing unnecessary stress by losing progress.
Indeed, the sheer number of glitches like this is simply too high. I wasn’t expecting this, especially considering that albums usually cost just over $130 (around £100/AU$200). However, it’s worth noting that due to saving money, we only paid $98.84 for our photo book, with no shipping charges. Ultimately, that’s quite a lot of money for a 12×12-inch, 27-page book, so I expected a more seamless user experience.
However, it’s worth noting that the price isn’t particularly high relative to the competition. A rough price estimate using envelope numbers puts it at just over $145 with Printique and $133 with Mixbook.
So, if you are keen on using Shutterfly, your best option is to use templates. There are still some user issues, such as you can’t use manual text size (only a list of options) and fonts are limited. but it will Let you overcome some annoying photo editing problems. However, if you don’t want to use an overarching template, you can take a middle ground. Simply using the aforementioned Layout options on the left side of the screen, you can automatically add photos to designated areas – this works well, and I didn’t experience items around the screen glitching or changing shape while using it.
Finally, let’s take a look at the actual product. Did it meet my expectations? Actually, overall it looks pretty good. I compared it side-by-side with our Mixbook Photo Album and found that the Shutterfly alternative delivered brighter, more vivid colors and solid overall sharpness. On one page in the Mixbook album, the man’s face is barely discernible, while in the Shutterfly album, the added brightness makes his features clearly visible.
Colors like pinks and greens in Shutterfly albums are more saturated, resulting in greater clarity and contrast. Unfortunately, there is some color unevenness. On one page, a pink line is missing from one of the rectangles, and there are some inconsistencies in the football image. These aren’t terrible mistakes, but for over $100/£100 you might expect better.
Finally, would I recommend Shutterfly for creating photo albums? I don’t think so. If you prefer using built-in templates and just want a quick, easy solution, there is definitely a path to a great user experience. But if you want a more personalized layout, this site isn’t the most user-friendly. Unfortunately, due to frequent glitches and limited editing options, the Shutterfly can’t compare to similarly priced competitors, despite solid overall print quality. Therefore, I recommend building photo albums using a service like Printique, which provides a smoother user experience – see the “Also Consider” section below for more information.
Should I buy the Shutterfly photo book?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Shutterfly Photo Book Review: Also Consider
How I test the Shutterfly photo album
- Create a photo album using TechRadar templates
- Compare with photo albums from other sites
I used the Shutterfly website to create a photo album and tested its various templates. At TechRadar, we’ve chosen a standardized set of photos to use across all photo album services to allow for a fair comparison of the platforms. We also use the same layout in the album design to ensure we can discover which service is truly superior.
In addition to comparing software features, I also ordered a Shutterfly photo album to evaluate print quality, color fidelity, and whether the finished product had any wear or scratches. For reference, the finished photo book I created measures 12 x 12 inches, has a matte finish, a hard photo cover, and uses standard page types. Any photo album I compare to Shutterfly is as similar in design as possible to this one.
- First review: December 2024
- Read more about How we test
