Has anyone else gotten one of these? I am blown away! Ive found a mid range album! Am I the only one very happy with these for a cheaper alternative than flush albums?

I almost ordered one with the hinged pages last week but decided not to. I would love to see some photos of it if you could post them. I'm excited about it as a option to the flushmounts too. It still seems like the gutter is going to be pretty noticeable though.

Yes, please post some pics!

Hinged pages? Like....literally hinges?

So glad you posted this as I was just getting ready to suggest it to someone who can't afford a flush mount.



http://www.whcc.com/pricing/WHCC_2008_PressPrintedBooks.pdf

Lay-flat pages

Here are a few pics! I must say that I am very happy. For my general purpose of these albums... they are great! I love the thickness of the pages and love the UV coating. They feel very professional and durable. The printing and the paper appears to be the same as the UV coated cards WHCC offers. Their is a very noticeable gutter and I did find out that some of the image will be lost... so no pano shots unfortunately!

All in all they are great imo...

Here are a few pics that I tried to do the book justice...

Nice pics, Matt!

I checked these out at WPPI and was very impressed with the quality. Seemed to me that WHCC is improving on the print process, as well as the press-printed books. Really a well-made, high quality book for that category.

But I wouldn't consider it a "mid-range" wedding album by any means, but I suppose that's a matter of taste and market. It would make a great engagement, parent, baby, etc. book. In fact, I might consider the new Forbeyon Linear press-printed books with the mounted pages suitable for a mid-range wedding book. They are definitely a must-see also. And I believe you can get them with their awesome leather covers like a regular flushmount.

But yes, WHCC is producing some great new books!

i have ordered two books already; and I agree with Matt, these books are impresive.

Melissa

Some are not going to like them as a mid-album replacement... and for good reason! If you are in a wealthy market and charge 5k for a wedding and show up with this it might not be a good thing. But if you are in a less expensive market... you could probably market these towared lower end parent albums or engagment or bridal albums. To each his own.... I like them for what they cost! Much cheaper than that "other" book company...

Thanks for the close-up on the binding. That's the part that I was curious about and I can see now how they've "hinged" the pages. This would be a good addition to my flushmount engagement books for lower-end as I'm really, really trying to phase out the oh-so-ever-popular "coffee table" style books. Everyone still wants them here *sigh*I'll have to order a sample as an engagement book and see it in person. Thanks so much for posting these photos - - soooo very helpful!Thanks for the link to the Forbeyon Linear book. My concern is the "cover" of this book. From the photos on the web page they look really, very cheap. You said that you saw these in person? What impression did the cover give?*sorry for the thread jack*

They do look really good, I'm excited about them. They printed one of ours as a sample for WPPI and I just saw it for the first time a couple days ago. They look great and I think we're going to add them to our senior options.

Edited: Also, there is a gap in the gutter, but we printed some in the book as full bleed spreads and it looks pretty good. If I head over to the studio today I'll take some pics.

Sara- I would love to see photos of the spreads you did. I feel like, even though there is a gutter, you can still get away with having one photo span the spread...

Also, based on Matt's images (thanks for posting them!), I see that the pages are pretty thick. I read that they are very similar to the UV coated cards WHCC offers. My question is - are the pages the thickness of two UV coated sheets glued together, or just one UV sheet printed on both sides?

They actually have a hard cover option as well on this book which is the way to go. And the prices are very reasonable.

the pages are about the thickness of one press printed card... not two. As far as the gutter goes I would say you lose about 1/4 - 1/2" in the hinge... so it is pretty obvious if there are any full pano spreads.

Are these photographic paper? If so, what about emmolsification? That is always my biggest concern-
I have seen so many albums with that dreaded pink line down the center.

Im not sure what you are talking about... these pages in the book I ordered are identical to the print quality and the paper that you get when you order their cards. The pink line I think you are referring too is like where the page folds...

if so... the way the pages are hinged there is no actual fold visible... it is hard to explain but very neat! The only downsided is there is a large gutter loss.

does this make any sense?

Yes, makes perfect sense, especially coupled with your very good photographs.

Regarding the Forbeyon books, the covers are suitable, just as WHCC covers are suitable. But I believe with the Forbeyon you can upgrade to flushmount style covers (leather) which make them a great option. I prsonally don't care for anyone's hard covers (WHCC, Forbeyon, etc.) except for engagement, guest, proof and other non-wedding books.

But do be more specific, JaNae, I was as satisfied with Forbeyon's hard cover as I am with WHCC. Hope that helps.

Thanks MAtt- I was actually asking about the Forbeyon albums. ( I think it was JT that I had quoted- maybe not). The pink line I am talking about is from photographic paper being folded over and over again as seen in many flush style albums. I see it where the pages meet and fold.

Tawnya, best I can remember, the Forbeyon books did not have the discoloration in the creases. I was especially impressed with this in the Finao albums. Not only is there no discoloration, but the creases are much more refined. Hard to explain unless you see it, but they didn't look like folded and creased pieces of photo paper ... much nicer.

So, there was one other album company at WPPI with the same refined crease, and I'm almost sure it was Forbeyon.

Keep in mind that with press-printed books not using photographic papers, you will not get discoloration. It's only when the photo papers are used, and Kodak papers are most prone to it.

Hope that helps!

I finally took some photos of the book that we have with 2-page spreads. It's obvious that there's a gap, but I don't think it's that distracting and it really adds to the book that we have.

We just got one yesterday and I'm super-impressed. We got one with UV-coated pages (very glossy) and a photo wrap-around cover. They're a bit less expensive than Asuka's EX line but more than their regular books. Free shipping, too, compared to Asuka's S&H of $17.50 or so. And much faster turnaround.

I didnt read all the posts, so forgive me if this was already discussed.

Would WHCC books work well as guestbooks? Can you write on the paper?

They might work without the uv coating, but definitely not with the coating.

What do you think about the coating as a signing book? will it work, or should I get it uncoated? is that even an option?

Thanks in advance.

ETA: LOL, looks like my question was asked and answered while I was doing other things. Thanks Lynn!

I'm excited about the improvements they're making, I was a little underwhelmed by their first press printed books, but it seems like the improvements are substantial.

~Bill

I actually called WHCC a couple of days ago and asked them this very question. They said the un-coated pages work great for a guestbook that will be signed. So, no UV coating and you'll be fine.

Is there a template you have to use to design the photocover?
Can you put text on the spine?

They have a photoshop template you can download to get the size right. Adam put text on the spine of our book.

So the custom photo cover is now actually printed on the cover itself? I know in the past they just included a cover slip to go with the book. I have an engagement book to create in the next week so I might give a shot to the hinged book as well.

They offer both.

One is a photo that is formed in to a dusk jacket that can slip off.

The photo cover is a photo that is the cover material of the book. Think photo instead of leather our fabric.

I use them for the engagement sign in book, without the coating, and they have been perfect. They lay flat so it is easy for people to sign them. The pages are thick enough that there is no bleed from the writing on the opposite side. I got the photo cover and it was perfect.

Sweet! Thanks so much for all the info. Just a few days ago I was on the WHCC site and saw they were offering these. I may have to order a sample.

Did you use the hinged page templates they have? I prefer to design in spreads, but I can't quite seem to make it work for WHCC. Any advice?
Thanks!

I feel like this question has been asked before....

I'm going to order the 8.5x11 book... does whcc offer templetes? Or am I just creating one page at a time? And, do I make each file 8.5x11 or 17x11?

Thank you so much, osp. You make my life easier.


EDIT--- duh. I found them.

VERY helpful information here and really liked to see the close ups of the gutter. Will the gap get bigger as the book is used more and more? just curious.

Be careful with spreads. We did ours that way and there is some stuff in the middle that gets cut off, since they are made to be done as individual sides. If you do spreads, you have to cut the spreads apart to order them. Don't put anything in the middle that you want to make sure is there.

This is an awesome thread and forum! Thanks for all the info here and the photos as well. Sara, I think your spreads look great!!! What size book is that you are using for seniors?

What are you'all's (English lacks a good 2nd person plural pronoun; I've adopted this from my wife's Okie roots) thoughts on the UV vs. non-UV paper for the hinged books?

I've ordered one with UV pages and it was good but didn't knock my socks off. I showed the books to others and reviews on the paper were mixed: some folks liked it, others didn't care for it as well. I haven't seen a book without the UV coated paper, some I'm just wondering if there's a consensus one way or the other. It seems that non-UV is the trend for guest books. Is there an overall trend, however, for "general use" books?

I've seen both but only ordered the non-UV. I still can't make up my mind about UV, the extra protection is great, but it's so glossy, not sure it doesn't sort of bring a little bit of a 'cheap' look to it. The non UV coated seem to be a safe bet....wish they offered sample discounts to show both.

We have been doing the glossy for Seniors and the non-coated for weddings.

How are they priced?

Forbeyon and WHCC