One thing I’ve been wondering lately is whether or not an artist still needs to maintain a print version of their portfolio or does digital suffice. I have no idea what the right answer to this is, but I decided it couldn’t hurt to have something in print. Rather than doing this photographically and inserting the prints into a a traditional (but boring) black portfolio case with plastic sleeves, I decided to make a digitally printed photo book.

I chose Snapfish because it came recommended by my friend Valerie Arntzen. She uses the service to print books on an annual basis to keep a record of the work she’s created over the course of each year.

Snapfish has a good variety of formats and sizes for their photo books. I chose the 5″ x 7″ Everyday Book, which costs $12.99 per copy and comes with a paper cover in your choice of colour. The book layout is created by using a browser-based interface, which takes a bit of experimenting with to get a feel for, but is fairly easy to use.

A big reason I chose Snapfish over other photo book services is because they have a Canadian website and reasonable prices for shipping to Canada. I had my books within a week of ordering, and the shipping cost $10. I’ve used Blurb Books in the past and their shipping costs were higher and the order took longer to arrive.

The print quality is excellent, and the work looks good and reads well despite the small size of the pages. I’m very happy with these little books and will definitely use Snapfish again to make more printed collections of my work.